Liar paradox

In late August, the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute revealed that they had detected a strange signal that was 94 light years away from Earth. During the time of the signal’s discovery, senior astronomer for SETI, Seth Shostak, could only describe the signal as “interesting”. However, he rhetorically asks, “Could it be another society sending a signal our way?” Shostak, like many other scientists who had heard about the mysterious SETI signal, had hoped for signs of…

This includes the possibilities that Earth is a unique or rare instance, aliens lack the ability to communicate, and, somewhat darkly, intelligent life naturally destroys itself or others. Despite these explanations, the Fermi paradox not only casts doubt on the validity of the Drake equation, but the idea that the universe is biological, a concept closely related to cosmic evolution. If the equation is based on false premises, that there isn’t a natural progression from creation…

Is Happiness The Standard Of Value? The Kant and Mill debate regarding happiness being the standard of value, is very interesting. Kant deontological ethics focus not on the consequences of actions, but on the actions themselves. This is a little bit radical because it does not apply to every single situation. Sometimes you have to take action in order to find out the consequences of that action, otherwise you will never be able to explore new things if the action is never permissible. Some…

The search for the greatest way to reduce suffering and increase happiness has been a search that has confused and inspired philosophers all the way down to Aristotle and beyond. Each proposed a system that supposedly if implemented would create a utopia like world. One such implementation is utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is an efficient way that if implemented would accomplish its goal. However, it is brutal, enable the act of racism, and does not take into account the feelings of minorities.…

(Some) issues that arose from the full implementation of utilitarian principles to society were (many things) I couldn’t imagine to be real issues in our current society. The issue of very high suicide rates (58) was talked about but Gregory didn’t seem too concerned with this issue because the suicide rates, in other words, can benefit the society because the overall sum of happiness is greater. While I suppose this may be true, I wouldn’t think high suicide rates are a good thing just because…

Mill aims to show that happiness is the only thing that humans ever desire. He acknowledges, though, that humans desire virtue just as authentically as we desire happiness, although less frequently than we desire happiness. This appears to reveal a problem with the kind of utilitarianism that Mill is presenting. If humans desire virtue and if virtue is something other than happiness, then happiness is not the sole object of human desire. Mill attempts to solve this problem by considering virtue…

Act Utilitarianism, is the moral theory that is reflective of Dr. Brown’s actions and perceptions. John Stuart Mill, whom is the creator of the theory, states that this theory requires thinking about the consequences of any given action, the use of the Hedonic Calculus, which is a guide that helps to make moral decisions and perceives happiness as only the intrinsic value (Collier & Haliburton, 2015 p. 6). Dr. Brown uses utilitarian approach in this situation in variety of ways. The use the…

Someone once said, “Happiness is like chasing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. You will never find it if you look for it.” John Stuart Mill’s autobiography, “A Crisis in My Mental History: One Stage Onward” (1909) argues that in order to be happy, one must secure their mind on something other than their own happiness. Under the realization that one's happiness is only attained by not making it the direct end, Mill approaches this subject by first giving examples of what makes one happy and…

There are many things in this world worth waiting for. Love, surprises, and rare occasions are among these cherished things that we as humans wait for. Even though I believe Edie made the wrong decision in waiting for Mr. Watters’s letter, somehow by a twist of fate she found her true love while waiting for a false one. The list of things in this world that are worth waiting for is quite a lengthly one, but I have three main things that I feel are at the top of the list. Love is something…

The Meaning of Happiness Mills indicates that one is in fact happy when they are in absent of pain. He describes how in life you have two options when it comes to happiness; prolonged or temporary happiness. When he describes both, and uses the term “classes” because of that fact that one you will earn and one is just simply there to hold you over until the next time you want to get that temporary set of happiness. It is well known in today’s society, that we are all choosing the temporary…