Under Construction
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2008 Material |
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Ethical Theory (pdf)
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From the Spring 2008 semester course on ethical theories. This file contains the four essays covering important topics of meta-ethical analysis. Theories studied ranged from non-cognitivism, cognitivism, to alternative theories of objectivity to pluralism of moral values. The essays contianed focus on questions of What is metaethics? Does non-cognitivism only concern itself with the semantics of moral statements? Do moral prescriptions obtain from a moral realist's phenomenological thesis? Does ethical pluralism improve metaethics or not? |
The Socratic Fallacy w/Appendix: Inductive Essentialism (pdf)
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It is common agreement that if one knows the form of some predicate, then it is sufficient to know that some object obtains that form. The Socratic Fallacy, proposed by Peter Geach, is the subscription to the converse conditional clause. Furthermore, Geach is certain that Socrates believes that to know the form of some predicate is necessary to say that some object obtains that form. Gregory Vlastos challenges Geach's position, but does not appreciate a central idea that Geach offers. This paper shows what conditions are required to make this clause a fallacy, and that Socrates did, in fact, subscribe to it. An appendix is added to further the analysis on the fallacious nature of the clause, and what it means for some predicate to have the form it obtains. Namely, essentialism becomes a major issue, and the rejection or acceptance of induction as a possible method of analysis becomes the crux of the fallacy. |
Pre-2008 Material |
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Archived Blogs 2007 (pdf)
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The end of the second iteration of my Xanga blog comes to a close with this compilation. These articles focused on issues I encountered in debate that needed their own clarification such as the nature of objectivity and evaluation, induction and reasoning and others. The unfinished approach to an ethical criticism of lying is included; also, a diverse look at some economic concepts are addressed in relation to Mankiw's blog and protectionism, drawing on a number of sources for consideration. |
John Stuart Mill, Poverty and International Political Economy (pdf) |
John Stuart Mill's unique utilitarian philosophy provided a broad base, yet consistent, analysis of social philosophy. Poverty easily translates into a condition of harm in this utilitarian view, coinciding with welfare notions of modern economists such as Amartya Sen. Under this basis, poverty is viewed as "opportunity deprivation" that impedes the individual flourishing. The mismanagement of globalization as evaluated by political economists such as J. Stiglitz and H-J Chang provide a backdrop for how the international system inflicts this kind of harm upon individuals. The analysis proceeds by investigating the power relations involved in these international affairs, how they cause poverty, beyond merely economical terms and money, and concludes with how utilitarianism might suggest to resolve these problematic relations. International political economy with a Millian philosophical base provides the normative direction for individuals to directly, and indirectly, establish their flourishing in light of international impediments to it. |
John Stuart Mill, the Stationary State and Growth Theories (pdf) |
A central tenet of logic is consistency of thought. It is inconsistent to be redundant or provide circular reasoning, i.e., beg the question. Modern growth theories, e.g., The Solow Model, often provide normative claims that fall into this question begging due to a philosophical trap they put themselves into by assuming the goal of development is sought in the means to evaluate it, i.e., by using monetary measures. Using J. S. Mill's Utilitarian philosophy and his exposition on the stationary state provide an economic philosophy that can be utilized to prevent this problem. Under a synthesis of utilitarian philosophy, growth theories and the extracted goals, the stationary state becomes a mental heuristic for political economic thought bridging the art of economics with the science of economics, resolving the philosophical trap and allowing a more holistic approach to political economy to be readily adopted. When economic expansion cease how we wish to shape economy comes to the fore. J. S. Mill's conception of the stationary state is a basis for deriving societal goals beyond monetary evaluations, considering non-economic factors and establishing a broader picture on human and social development. |
The Rise of European Socialism (pdf)
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Socialism often conjures negative attitudes due to its contemporary history of failings in the Soviet East, or Cuban West, etc. The initial causes that led to socialist thought, particularly that in Europe, in the 19th century are marked by certain common threads that echo today. The goal of this paper is to examine, in a general context, the sources of socialist thought, what socialism means abstractly and how that translates into the various ideologies of the 19th century. Taking samples from Owen, Simon, Fourier, Marx and Mill, the conclusion is that the fundamental principles of socialism, as explained, remains consistent as the principle meaning between these perspectives, providing a better outlook on socialism and socialist thought today. |
Character, Commodity and Convenience (pdf)
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This essay attempts to draw an inconsistency found when people consider consent to be the primary metric of ethical permission. Using a relational theory of ethics, the approach is to compare the relational structure of consenting activities between sex and slavery. Taken directly as a revision of an article under the same title on my Xanga blog (2007), the prime motivation was to challenge the notion often heard that as long as two adults are consenting they can do whatever they want. This kind of moral apathy and intellectual consideration may work in a realists approach, but fails to live up to a consistent basis for ethical discourse. Furthermore, when compared to something intuitively considered morally wrong today, i.e., slavery, we can see a distinct inconsistency in that kind of sloppy thinking. Lastly, this was submitted to the Fall 2007 Department of Philosophy essay contest; I did not win. |
History of Ethics (pdf)
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From the Spring 2007 semester History of Ethics course, these are my essays to various questions. Was Hume right about his take on the moral sentiments? What does the history of ethics offer contemporary perspectives? Was Aristotle circular in his reasoning? Did Plato have a grasp on an ethical metric? Was Kant applicable to reality, and does it follow consistently? If any of my answers come as short it is because there were strict word caps (1000 more or less). It did, however, make me concise. |
Pre-2007 Material |
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Archived Blogs 2006 (pdf) |
This collection of posts from my second interation of my Xanga blog carry over into the beginnings of 2007 before I was crammed with school work that most of my blogs turned into my essays. A number of these posts extend from the subjects at the time like Public Schools and Vouchers which analyzes the economics taken from my microecon class. Some ethics topics begin to emerge. My sometimes often referenced Logical vs Physical comparison expresses the nature of abstractions in discourse and reason. My physics review dismantles a number of Christian's claims about how physics supposes God is required by giving a lesson on the topic itself. |
Archived Blogs 2004 (pdf) |
This collection comes from what I kept of the first iteration of my Xanga blog. I deleted all these after a long haitus (2005) to start fresh with the 2006 material that led to what currently stands at my blog today (Fall 2007). These posts represent a number of politico-economic topics centered around my beginning understandings of political economy, economics and socialism. Topped off was a post I made about linguistics when challenged by someone on the topic. Nothing like a hefty night of cramming new information into one's brain and blowing them out of the water! |
Nostalgia (pdf) |
A collection of (approximately pre-2004 stuff, as far as I can recall) essays, stories and poetry. Not well written, and undeveloped concepts which have, for the most part, been improved in later writings. Read at your own risk! Kept here for Nostalgia only. |