Causal slippery slope arguments with moral conclusions are sometimes stronger than we think. Thei... more Causal slippery slope arguments with moral conclusions are sometimes stronger than we think. Their strength may be missed either by overlooking the problems of human nature which support the arguments or, upon seeing the problems, by underestimating their influence upon human behaviour. This article aims to correct the oversight and the misjudgement by looking in some detail at four interrelated problems of human nature which have a direct bearing upon moral causal slope arguments.
L'A. repond a John Lamont au sujet de la dedicace de Descartes dans ses Meditations. Lamont a... more L'A. repond a John Lamont au sujet de la dedicace de Descartes dans ses Meditations. Lamont a avance que Descartes se trompait en pensant le raisonnement qu'il avancait etait circulaire. Pour l'A., Descartes est bel et bien preoccupe par un raisonnement circulaire dans la mesure ou les deux arguments constituant la premisse les Saintes Ecritures enseignent l'existence de Dieu et la conclusion Dieu existe se repondent.
... Waterloo, Ontario THE FLEW-NIELSEN CHALLENGE: ... The general conclusion of Nielsen's bo... more ... Waterloo, Ontario THE FLEW-NIELSEN CHALLENGE: ... The general conclusion of Nielsen's book Contemporary Critiques of Religion3 may be stated as follows: although there have been many attempts to deal with Flew's challenge, none has so far been successful. ...
It has been argued that even if miracles such as those recorded in the Bible do occur, it does no... more It has been argued that even if miracles such as those recorded in the Bible do occur, it does not follow necessarily that God is the author of them. One alternative to the theistic interpretation, so the argument goes, is that a candidate miracle is really an undisclosed extension of natural law. If, on the other hand, it can be shown either that miracles cannot occur or that the evidence for them can never be strong enough to warrant their rational acceptance, then the question of God's authorship becomes superfluous. Here I shall not be concerned with the question of theistic interpretation but with the logically more fundamental question of whether or not miracles can have occurred. Hume and some of his philosophic children in our day have tried unsuccessfully to establish the impossibility of miracles on the sole basis of an appeal to the concepts of miracle and natural law. If my argument is correct, their failure illustrates graphically the pitfalls in trying to solve an ...
The charge of homophobia, indiscriminately made in a large part of our Western culture today, is ... more The charge of homophobia, indiscriminately made in a large part of our Western culture today, is ill conceived, illogical and false. This sweeping charge may be pictured as a triangle of informal logical fallacies. The more prominent side, the one which the general public encounters first, is what I shall call the fallacy of turning the tables: the rhetorical device of making the source of criticism the object of criticism. The other side of the charge is the fallacy of equivocation. The boundary of the term ‘homophobia’ is made so elastic that it can stretch around, not just phobias, but every kind of rational fear as well; and not just around every kind of fear, but also around every critical posture or idea that anyone may have about the practice of homosexuality. At the base of the charge, and undergirding the other two fallacies, is the fallacy of begging the question. A commitment to the complete acceptability of the practice of homosexuality enables its proponents to ‘know’ beforehand that all criticisms against it must originate in the defective psychology of the critic.
... Page 4. 290 Gary Colwell ... For it turns out that the victim's life (second instance) h... more ... Page 4. 290 Gary Colwell ... For it turns out that the victim's life (second instance) has not beenperman-ently taken, whereas the murderer's life (first instance) has been permanently taken in order to ensure that the victim's life has not been permanently taken. ...
Some have argued that because factually meaningful assertions must be falsifiable, putative theis... more Some have argued that because factually meaningful assertions must be falsifiable, putative theistic assertions such as “God loves us” are not meaningful because they are not falsifiable. It is further suggested that every attempt to make a factually significant theistic assertion founders on the same shoal of falsifiability.
Page 1. THE POLITICALTHOUGHTOF JS WOODSWORTH Allen Mills Page 2. Page 3. Fool for Christ The Poli... more Page 1. THE POLITICALTHOUGHTOF JS WOODSWORTH Allen Mills Page 2. Page 3. Fool for Christ The Political Thought of JS Woodsworth James Shaver Woodsworth (1874-1942) stands as one of the half-dozen most important ...
Causal slippery slope arguments with moral conclusions are sometimes stronger than we think. Thei... more Causal slippery slope arguments with moral conclusions are sometimes stronger than we think. Their strength may be missed either by overlooking the problems of human nature which support the arguments or, upon seeing the problems, by underestimating their influence upon human behaviour. This article aims to correct the oversight and the misjudgement by looking in some detail at four interrelated problems of human nature which have a direct bearing upon moral causal slope arguments.
L'A. repond a John Lamont au sujet de la dedicace de Descartes dans ses Meditations. Lamont a... more L'A. repond a John Lamont au sujet de la dedicace de Descartes dans ses Meditations. Lamont a avance que Descartes se trompait en pensant le raisonnement qu'il avancait etait circulaire. Pour l'A., Descartes est bel et bien preoccupe par un raisonnement circulaire dans la mesure ou les deux arguments constituant la premisse les Saintes Ecritures enseignent l'existence de Dieu et la conclusion Dieu existe se repondent.
... Waterloo, Ontario THE FLEW-NIELSEN CHALLENGE: ... The general conclusion of Nielsen's bo... more ... Waterloo, Ontario THE FLEW-NIELSEN CHALLENGE: ... The general conclusion of Nielsen's book Contemporary Critiques of Religion3 may be stated as follows: although there have been many attempts to deal with Flew's challenge, none has so far been successful. ...
It has been argued that even if miracles such as those recorded in the Bible do occur, it does no... more It has been argued that even if miracles such as those recorded in the Bible do occur, it does not follow necessarily that God is the author of them. One alternative to the theistic interpretation, so the argument goes, is that a candidate miracle is really an undisclosed extension of natural law. If, on the other hand, it can be shown either that miracles cannot occur or that the evidence for them can never be strong enough to warrant their rational acceptance, then the question of God's authorship becomes superfluous. Here I shall not be concerned with the question of theistic interpretation but with the logically more fundamental question of whether or not miracles can have occurred. Hume and some of his philosophic children in our day have tried unsuccessfully to establish the impossibility of miracles on the sole basis of an appeal to the concepts of miracle and natural law. If my argument is correct, their failure illustrates graphically the pitfalls in trying to solve an ...
The charge of homophobia, indiscriminately made in a large part of our Western culture today, is ... more The charge of homophobia, indiscriminately made in a large part of our Western culture today, is ill conceived, illogical and false. This sweeping charge may be pictured as a triangle of informal logical fallacies. The more prominent side, the one which the general public encounters first, is what I shall call the fallacy of turning the tables: the rhetorical device of making the source of criticism the object of criticism. The other side of the charge is the fallacy of equivocation. The boundary of the term ‘homophobia’ is made so elastic that it can stretch around, not just phobias, but every kind of rational fear as well; and not just around every kind of fear, but also around every critical posture or idea that anyone may have about the practice of homosexuality. At the base of the charge, and undergirding the other two fallacies, is the fallacy of begging the question. A commitment to the complete acceptability of the practice of homosexuality enables its proponents to ‘know’ beforehand that all criticisms against it must originate in the defective psychology of the critic.
... Page 4. 290 Gary Colwell ... For it turns out that the victim's life (second instance) h... more ... Page 4. 290 Gary Colwell ... For it turns out that the victim's life (second instance) has not beenperman-ently taken, whereas the murderer's life (first instance) has been permanently taken in order to ensure that the victim's life has not been permanently taken. ...
Some have argued that because factually meaningful assertions must be falsifiable, putative theis... more Some have argued that because factually meaningful assertions must be falsifiable, putative theistic assertions such as “God loves us” are not meaningful because they are not falsifiable. It is further suggested that every attempt to make a factually significant theistic assertion founders on the same shoal of falsifiability.
Page 1. THE POLITICALTHOUGHTOF JS WOODSWORTH Allen Mills Page 2. Page 3. Fool for Christ The Poli... more Page 1. THE POLITICALTHOUGHTOF JS WOODSWORTH Allen Mills Page 2. Page 3. Fool for Christ The Political Thought of JS Woodsworth James Shaver Woodsworth (1874-1942) stands as one of the half-dozen most important ...
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