Crimes and Misdemeanors
Terri Murray gets to the core of ethics with Socrates and Woody Allen
For me of course any attempt to demonstrate that there is in fact “the reality of goodness rather than its mere appearance”, comes down to a demonstration that an omniscient and omnipotent God does in fact exist. Otherwise, mere mortals contend with “good and evil” given the manner in which I encompass that in my signature threads.
So, Google “socrates and god’s existence” and you get this: google.com/search?source=hp … ent=psy-ab
Google “plato and god’s existence” and you get this: google.com/search?source=hp … HIQ4dUDCA0
You tell me.
If either or both of them believed in the modern equivalent of a God/the God/my God, then in the absence of definitive evidence that He does exist, I would bring their arguments here: ilovephilosophy.com/viewtop … 5&t=186929
As for the Sophists, how would they be differentiated from what today we would call sociopaths? Any argument that allows you to sustain that which is perceived to be in your own best interest is the right argument. And the sociopaths [and moral nihilists] have, in my view, always posed the biggest obstacle to the objectivists and the deontologists among us.
Here of course we encounter a frame of mind that is in the general vicinity of Satyr and his ilk. Memes may seem persuasive but, in the end, it all comes down to genes. Your behaviors are either more in sync with Nature or with whatever “social constructs” happen to be in vogue when you’re around.
Ah, but how do we pin down with any degree of certainty what Mother Nature intends for us? Here, the distinction is between “might makes right” and “right makes might”. Between those who read and understand Nietzsche and those who don’t. In other words, for the Übermensch among us, their own assessment of nature revolves around their vastly superior intellect. In regard to, among other things, race and gender and sexual preference, they, as “serious philosophers”, concoct these dense thickets of intellectual contraptions to explain all of that to us.
Here, for example: knowthyself.forumotion.net/f6-agora