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Suppose President John McCain were to implement a policy of opt-out national service. We might reasonably object on the grounds that it would all too clearly communicate that individuals need reasons not to serve the state. If allowed to stand, such a policy could shape social expectations and individual preferences in a direction at odds [...]

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. —Thomas Jefferson I am a libertarian for two simple [...]

As with any other subject that people are passionate about, religion has its reactionaries who subconsciously categorize interlocutors into generalized positions. There are Christians who will infer from your lack of belief in Christianity as a whole that you think everything Christian is necessarily false, bad, or useless. This is, of course, a logical fallacy. [...]

Wikipedia notes a definition of qualia: …qualia are properties of sensory experiences by virtue of which there is something it is like to have them. Much of the debate over the existence of qualia lies in the definition of the term, so I’ll give my conception and subsequently refute it. Qualia are the things like [...]

There are two factors concerned with the morality of sex and sexual behavior: consent and maturity. Archaic definitions of sexual morality are unnecessarily restrictive, following the “fear the unknown” mantra, and fail to logically address the issue with anything more than circular arguments. There have been several court cases in the recent past involving two [...]

“Well, it works.” The pathetic proverb of contemporary capitalist dogma. Getting something done with minimal cost and maximal return is what it’s about. Cut corners. Get away with everything you can. Lie. Cheat. Deceive. Embezzle. So long as you’re making money doing it, you’re doing it the right way. American capitalism, like all other relatively [...]

Some books that I’ve read recently and recommend: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values Lila: An Inquiry into Morals Why I am Not a Christian Hackers and Painters Joel on Software: And on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and [...]

If one takes the physicalist perspective — everything that exists is ultimately physical — then determinism seems a lot more plausible. Previously in Determinism and Free Will, I was dealing with the classic definitions of free will and determinism. These conceptions assume a distinction between the two, placing them in opposition to one another. The [...]

Almost every adult in a Christian community is more or less diseased nervously as a result of the taboo on sex knowledge when he or she was young. And the sense of sin which is thus artificially implanted is one of the cases of cruelty, timidity, and stupidity in later life. There is no rational [...]

I joined the Philosophy Club at school this quarter. During one of the meetings we were talking about the roots of morality. The token Christian zealot declared that morality is ultimately objective and inherent, and is nothing more than what is good in the eyes of God. That’s obviously not a particularly lengthy or interesting [...]