Testing Episode IV: A New Lament

[Phantasee]

Continue

[thejester]

what has prompted this spurt of moderation phant

[Agent Bert Macklin]

lol. I left one of my car windows down and it stormed heavily during the night. Also, my engine is making a weird clicking sound.

[Dude]

lol. I left one of my car windows down and it stormed heavily during the night. Also, my engine is making a weird clicking sound.

Is it a ford? And does it happen all the time or just for the first few minutes after starting?

[Oxymoron]

Yeah, i got a 2011 ford Ka, and it tends to do a faint little rythmic clicking sound when idling or in low regime.

Nothing worrying at all, but it's there.

[Agent Bert Macklin]

lol. I left one of my car windows down and it stormed heavily during the night. Also, my engine is making a weird clicking sound.

Is it a ford? And does it happen all the time or just for the first few minutes after starting?

It's a 2009 Corolla. I never really noticed it until one of my roommates mentioned it. It sounds like it's coming from the area whe3re the belts are. I'll let my other roommate take a look when he gets home.

[joviwan]

I hate how facebook makes me aware of uncomfortable things about people I grew up respecting

like how my godfather things being gay is a choice, and thus gay people have no right to ask others to accept them as being gay.

[Ralin]

what has prompted this spurt of moderation phant

Haha!

Spurt.

[Stofsk]

Mang I just want to whinge for a bit.

SO the last couple of weeks I've been struggling to write an essay for a philosophy class on ethics, happiness and the good life (more or less what it says on the tin). And by struggling I mean I can't even get started. I've asked for extensions, and special consideration in light of my struggling with depression impacting my performance, etc. I've got all of that. I don't even care about the grade either, I never have. I'm chuffed when I get a high distinction, but like I won't neck myself if I don't get an HD or w/e.

I feel more responsive to appraising and critiquing utilitarianism esp. in regards to how it can justify sacrificing the innocent if there's greater unity to be had from it. Something which I especially feel I could write 2000 words about if someone put a gun to my head and told me to fucking write this goddamn thing. Maybe that's what I'm missing

EDIT To put some perspective on this I've basically been up all night and every night for the last week or so doing anything BUT write this essay.

[evilsoup]

what kind of a sodding noob uses MP3 for the audio on a video file
I mean just come on, jesus

[Ralin]

I feel more responsive to appraising and critiquing utilitarianism esp. in regards to how it can justify sacrificing the innocent if there's greater unity to be had from it.

I've come to feel that this is an overrated criticism of utilitarianism. Theoretically it's true but in practice I don't see situations where, say, enslaving a small group of people and working them to death the sake of the majority is a viable option or where Jack Bauer just has to torture the terrorist's children to find out where the bomb is coming up all that often.

[Stofsk]

Fair point. I don't want to bash utilitarianism unjustly, and there's a reason why it's the (arguably) dominant ethical system in the west at least. Philosophy is replete with improbable scenarios to test this system of ethics or that. But the bigger problem which scapegoating the innocent implies is that utilitarianism, like all consequentialist ethics, regards the outcome of an act as the single arbiter of whether that act is moral or not. But in a way you don't know whether you're doing the right thing until after the consequences are known. Sure, there are rules that you could follow which might in general engender good consequences (like a rule against killing or a rule against lying to authorities), but I dunno, something about this system just rubs me the wrong way. EDIT Just because some of the examples are a bit extreme doesn't mean that we don't ever see scapegoating of the innocent in contempoary times. Having thought about this since posting I realised that asylum seekers are put into offshore detention in my country ostensibly for their 'own good' or to prevent deaths at seas by producing a harsh deterrent against people smuggling. So yeah, the whole 'Jack Bauer' thing is just a strawman, there are actual real examples of scapegoating the innocent right here and now.

Rule utilitarians would respond to moral scapegoating of the innocent by basically saying it's NOT in utility to convict an innocent person of something, so there is that.

Honestly though I think I'm a bit more of a virtue ethicist than either a utilitarian or duty-based ethicist. But I do see value in them.

[Ralin]

But the bigger problem which scapegoating the innocent implies is that utilitarianism, like all consequentialist ethics, regards the outcome of an act as the single arbiter of whether that act is moral or not.

I think the problem here comes from us associating an act being moral with connotations of guilt and being a bad person stemming from doing immoral things. This may be necessary for social and psychological reasons to motivate us to do the right thing once we've figured out what that is, but maybe it shouldn't be something we consider when talking about ethics. In the much the same way that, say, it's better for someone to realize he's been doing creepy things that make women uncomfortable and stop even if he never loses a moment's peace of mind over it than for him to feel appropriately contrite and receive appropriate punishment for it.

[Dude]

Why the fuck is it so hard to find reloading components in this country? Especially as we're right next door to one of the largest arms producing countries in the world?

[Agent Bert Macklin]

Why the fuck is it so hard to find reloading components in this country? Especially as we're right next door to one of the largest arms producing countries in the world?

Are there stringent laws on the sale of them?

[Dude]

Not really. You can even buy them without a license.

Not enough people reload here is my guess.

[Oxymoron]

How much would importing from US onlinestores cost you?

[Dude]

It's illegal, or I'd just do that.

[Oxymoron]

Even if it goes through custom?

Strange. How does that even work for importing weapons?

[The Spartan]

If it's anything like in the States you have to have a license.

[Dude]

You've got to go through an importer.

[Oxymoron]

Well if that doesn't drives up the costs...

[zhaktronz]

Stofsk I'd love to hear your perspective about why utilitarianism is the dominant ethical system in the west

[Ralin]

Stofsk I'd love to hear your perspective about why utilitarianism is the dominant ethical system in the west

It is?

[Dude]

Well if that doesn't drives up the costs...

Well I found what I wanted, mind you if I wasn't loading for 30-30 I'd have more options. The most limiting factor now is powder, because I don't have a civic address my only shipping option is Canada Post. And they won't ship "explosives" so I have to ferret around locally. I still have two pounds left so that's not urgent yet. Unless I want to reload for my other guns.