Saw some folk talking about the forgiveability or lack thereof of Darth Vader, particularly wert the murder of children ( Read more... )

Listening to an episode of The Philosopher's Zone this morning, The Sorites Paradox. I haven't listened to the whole episode yet but was struck by the guest Dominic Hyde's explanation of what a paradox is.

All paradoxes are characterised by the following general set of features: that we proceed by apparently valid reasoning, that is, apparently ( Read more... )

Sex?

A while ago I wrote a bit about erotic writing being perceived as less worthy and even shameful, and of resolving to defy that stigma by being not secretive concerning the writing of it. More recently and prompted by conversation I have been wondering if I ought do the same with sex generally ( Read more... )

I have said this before, although not here yet:
I think when we experience a desire to share music [or something else which may be the subject of a similar desire] with others this is often a proxy for a less commonly known or appreciated desire. I think what we often truly wish to share is the experience of the moment, the emotions that are being ( Read more... )

To describe treatment of a person as reprehensible, often we liken it to accepted ways of treating children. When we think a person's behaviour needs to be more controlled, we liken em to a child ( Read more... )

It's a secret, you know. We don't know the insides of other people. We don't know their thoughts, their fears, their worries. We see the outside, and onto that we see projected certainty. We see, we doubt, our own validity, but when it comes to others even their own statements of hesitance and personal uncertainty may not be recognised by us, not ( Read more... )

For a few months now at least I have seen several people decrying the idea of 'thought crime', that some thoughts, desires, ideas, etc. are wrong in and of themselves, immoral and perhaps deserving of some sort of punishment even if they lead to know action ( Read more... )

Often I see descriptions like 'radical' or 'fundamentalist' or 'extreme' applied to people and their positions in an apparent effort to dismiss them. It seems to work; I think we can see that in how people frequently try to distance themselves from any such accusation ( Read more... )

"Why do you want to X ( Read more... )

The words queer, as I understand it, is sometimes used as an umbrella term in a sort of way such that 'queer' could be typed or said in place of LBTGQQIA, even though at least one of those Qs is standing for 'queer' already. So perhaps I have this wrong ( Read more... )