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Posted at 4:06pm • Permalink  • Tags: general philosophy prohibition
Reblogged (Photo reblogged from kohenari)

 


Motorcycle helmets and the law - Opinions wanted!

Can anyone offer any arguments for or against the mandatory wearing of safety helmets?

This seems like a good case of the individual in question being the only one in danger, so why go beyond informing them of the risks? We could say that allowing idiocy might influence others to emulate it, or that the cost and upset of a death or injury affects many others, but such an approach would effectively mean the complete repudiation of the harm principle.

And, similarly, what of attempted suicide? Is that different because it may be (is?) the result of mental ill-health rather than some hypothetical free-will?

 
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Posted at 3:26pm • Permalink  • Tags: philosophy paternalism motorbikes prohibition

 


Cutangle: While I’m still confused and uncertain, it’s on a much higher plane, d’you see, and at least I know I’m bewildered about the really fundamental and important facts of the universe.
Treatle: I hadn’t looked at it like that, but you’re absolutely right. He’s really pushed back the boundaries of ignorance.
They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were only ignorant of ordinary things.
Terry Pratchett (Equal Rites)
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Posted at 8:47pm • Permalink  • Tags: quotes pratchett general philosophy science

 


The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.
I see your Reinhold Niebuhr and raise you a John Kenneth Galbraith
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Posted at 7:43pm • Permalink  • Tags: politics quotes philosophy

 


Listen to the questions asked by philosophers but don’t be distracted by their answers.
Christof Koch, The Quest for Consciousness
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Posted at 12:17am • Permalink  • Tags: general brains science philosophy quotes