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.
Descartes' bible argument and circularity: A reply to John Lamont
Sophia, 1999
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.
The Flew–Nielsen Challenge: A Critical Exposition of its Methodology
Religious Studies, 1981
... 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.
Capital Punishment, Restoration and Moral Rightness
Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2002
... 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.
This paper uses a short dialogue between a determinist and a free-will advocate as a basis for ex... more This paper uses a short dialogue between a determinist and a free-will advocate as a basis for exploring some of the elements of circular reasoning which have for centuries kept alive one of the classical debates of philosophy, the freedom-versus-determinism debate. The chronic circularity which infests both sides of the debate arises from a procedural asymmetry in the argument, which in turn is produced by the different metaphysical commitments of the debaters.
In this article I shall aim at showing that there exists beneath the surface of many why-question... more In this article I shall aim at showing that there exists beneath the surface of many why-questions about human behaviour a nest of deterministic assumptions which can preclude their ever being truly answered. A symptom of the presence of these underlying assumptions can be observed in an explanation-seeking dialogue in which the questioner persistently tries to discover 'why' a certain human behaviour occurred. He repeats his why-question until he gets the type of answer he wants, but in the process he effectively reasons in a circle. If the repeated questioning with its implied circular reasoning becomes chronic, then the questioner will beg the question with regards to the answer he desires and consequently run the risk of missing the truth.
Fool for Christ: The Political Thought of J. S. Woodsworth
The American Historical Review, 1992
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.
Descartes' bible argument and circularity: A reply to John Lamont
Sophia, 1999
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.
The Flew–Nielsen Challenge: A Critical Exposition of its Methodology
Religious Studies, 1981
... 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.
Capital Punishment, Restoration and Moral Rightness
Journal of Applied Philosophy, 2002
... 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.
This paper uses a short dialogue between a determinist and a free-will advocate as a basis for ex... more This paper uses a short dialogue between a determinist and a free-will advocate as a basis for exploring some of the elements of circular reasoning which have for centuries kept alive one of the classical debates of philosophy, the freedom-versus-determinism debate. The chronic circularity which infests both sides of the debate arises from a procedural asymmetry in the argument, which in turn is produced by the different metaphysical commitments of the debaters.
In this article I shall aim at showing that there exists beneath the surface of many why-question... more In this article I shall aim at showing that there exists beneath the surface of many why-questions about human behaviour a nest of deterministic assumptions which can preclude their ever being truly answered. A symptom of the presence of these underlying assumptions can be observed in an explanation-seeking dialogue in which the questioner persistently tries to discover 'why' a certain human behaviour occurred. He repeats his why-question until he gets the type of answer he wants, but in the process he effectively reasons in a circle. If the repeated questioning with its implied circular reasoning becomes chronic, then the questioner will beg the question with regards to the answer he desires and consequently run the risk of missing the truth.
Fool for Christ: The Political Thought of J. S. Woodsworth
The American Historical Review, 1992
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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