50
votes
Does the no true Scotsman fallacy apply to anti Stalinist etc. communism?
Marx, socialism and communism
Neither Marx nor Engels provided a blueprint for the socialist state. There could in their view be no such thing as a communist state since under communism, with no ...
- 35.4k
34
votes
Is it ethical to convince someone to get vaccinated?
You approach the problem from the position that everyone knows and agrees on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. But people don't refuse it because they wish to declare that they are selfish and ...
- 20.5k
30
votes
Is it ethical to convince someone to get vaccinated?
When something has a label on it, it will influence how we think about it, even if the thing isn't what the label says. So I think it's important to define the terms in depth.
Suppose a pharmaceutical ...
- 529
18
votes
Does the no true Scotsman fallacy apply to anti Stalinist etc. communism?
A criticized exception to the rule that falls short of the rule makes for valid negation of criticism
OK, that headline requires changing direction of the train of thought at least three times, so let ...
- 5,036
18
votes
Does the no true Scotsman fallacy apply to anti Stalinist etc. communism?
"No True Scotsman" is one of those categories of fallacies that is rather subjective. If Person A says that X is not Y because it lacks Z, and Person B says that this is a No True Scotsman fallacy, ...
- 941
14
votes
Is religion fundamentally problematic for logical decision making in society?
As a devout Catholic, I agree that basing decision making on credulity and group think is a bad idea.
I cannot speak for all religious people, but at least in my own religious tradition, the ...
- 5,929
10
votes
Is it ethical to convince someone to get vaccinated?
John Rawls discusses this subject, albeit briefly, in A Theory of Justice. The context is the issue of public goods, for example in light of the free-rider problem. The section is #42 (pg. 237 of the ...
- 12.3k
9
votes
Accepted
What are reasonable basic obligations of citizens in democratic societies?
The question is how much well-informed citizens need to be to exercise their democratic rights. The answer depends on theories of democracy. The duty of citizens to be well-informed can be very ...
- 3,657
6
votes
Philosophers answering "what happens to a society that does not believe in free wıll?"
The only thing I'm well-familiar with in this connection is Kant's claim that we act "under the idea of freedom" no matter what. Unfortunately (or not?), this makes the belief in free will (...
- 12.3k
6
votes
Two ways of thinking about social reality (progressive/fluid vs conservative/structure)
One of the interpretations for this difference across the political spectrum is 'tolerance of ambiguity'. There's also interesting work on politics and attachment-style, see Attachment Style and ...
- 20.5k
5
votes
Are citizens in a democratic society morally obligated to vote?
I'd first question your use of the term "moral" in this context. Most modern concepts of "morality" entail universality. They attempt to transcend the historical and conditional. The "nation-state," ...
- 13.3k
5
votes
What would Marx say about liberal identity politics?
For me it helps to frame the topic from the central objective of his philosophy, which one might put as: the liberation of humanity from the enchainment of exploitative modes of production.
If we ...
- 876
5
votes
What would Marx say about liberal identity politics?
Marx’s Communist Manifesto mentions something called “Conservative or Bourgeois Socialism” and states:
“A part of the bourgeoisie is desirous of redressing social grievances in order to secure the ...
5
votes
Accepted
What sorts of questions do philosophers of science think about?
You are asking several questions here. Firstly, what kind of questions is philosophy of science concerned with? Here are some of the most important:
How does scientific knowledge advance? Is there a ...
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5
votes
Does a transgender person become a different person after transitioning?
Philosophy makes a distinction between the identity of material objects* (and immaterial objects if those are thought to exist) and what is called "personal identity." From the Stanford ...
- 2,841
5
votes
Accepted
How can we prove something ethical?
There's a couple of facets that make this a complex question.
First, there's a question about how brain or mind works in categorizing things as good or bad (right or wrong, good or evil if you prefer)...
- 24.6k
5
votes
Is it ethical to convince someone to get vaccinated?
Two points...
First, there is nothing immoral about trying to convince someone of some point. Political society in Liberal democratic nations depends of the ability of different people within the ...
- 18.5k
5
votes
To what extent can philosophical discipline permeate into normal life, e.g. the abortion debate?
You are right in saying that most public discourse is characterised by an abundance of red herrings, non-sequiturs, unconscious bias and so on.
There are times when I want to throw my television out ...
- 13.1k
5
votes
Accepted
Reference request for philosophical texts on race
Of course there is. Biology, social analysis, politics and realpolitik, legal theory and rights discourse, and philosophy intersect. The industrialised genocide of the Holocaust, provides particular ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
Arguments for/against tolerance against intolerance?
The "tolerance of intolerance paradox" is a highly misleading logical fallacy that conflates an attitude of acceptance of intolerant ideas with acceptance of harmful actions.
It's basically used as ...
- 41
4
votes
What are the reasons for taboos in a society?
The traditional role of a taboo is prohibition of an action, not of discussion, but the two are often mixed when the term is used loosely, see e.g. Gao's study of English "taboo" words. ...
- 42.5k
4
votes
For a political ruler is it better to be loved or feared?
The question was made famous by Machiavelli's Prince, where he also provided the answer:
"The answer is that one would like to be both one and the other; but because it is difficult to combine them,...
- 42.5k
4
votes
Accepted
What branch of philosophy studies 'clouds' of concepts that spread as intellectual templates?
The phenomenon is not specific to politics, the notion of cultural ideas "in the air" dates back to 1875, according to an etymology dictionary. A much more systematic development was given to it by ...
- 42.5k
4
votes
Pendulum Theory / Cyclical Theory in Philosophy?
The interest about (any) cycles in human society and/or history is deep and lasting: the wikipedia article Social cycle theory is a brief summary with some refs and links to some notable names.
...
- 3,684
4
votes
Accepted
What does Marx mean in the quote from the bible?
Marx is postulating the proletarian social revolution as the end of history. He does so because the proletariat is the first revolutionary class in history which lacks social property.
By ...
- 357
4
votes
Which philosopher first claimed that social impatience is ethically indefensible
The idea of obligations to future generations probably has no first originator in philosophy; it is likely to have emerged into focus from other ideas. But there is a clear sense of an obligation to ...
- 35.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Would Ayn Rand's Objectivism work in a society?
Rand's Objectivism is really Locke's 'State of Nature' argument (SoNa) on steroids. It imagines a world in which everyone is a rational, self-sufficient individual whose relationships to other people ...
- 18.5k
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