Paradox of hedonism

In the book “Philosophical Problems in the Law” by David Adams he discusses the ethcial theory of utilitarianism. In his book, Adams describes utilitarianism as the idea that, “the morally right act is that which will produce the best consequences for all affected” (Adams, page 8), in other words; the best thing for a person to do to be considered a moral person is to do what is best for the greater good. This theory has many supporters, but one famous supporter, who we talked about in class,…

discover and analyze the text could come to some form of conclusion whether or not Augustine ceased to pursuit of pleasure at the end of his conversion. With the context that was provided through the text along with the Piper’s article on Christian Hedonism, in my personal judgment, I came to the conclusion that Augustine did not cease his pursuit of pleasure after being converted, but would say that he began his journey as a Christian hedonist after his conversion. According to Piper and his…

This brings up the problem known as the Fermi Paradox. This basically states that if the likelihood of intelligent life existing is so high then how come we have yet to come in contact or find proof? This lack of contact is sometimes referred to as “The Great Silence.” Many have tried to come up with solutions to this paradox and some of them definitely seem plausible. One of the obvious ones is that the Drake Equation is completely wrong…

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…

What defines a liar? A person who tells lies repeatedly. Greg Mortenson is a liar. In Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson promotes the need for education, especially for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, but his fabricated stories, misuse of money, and continuous lies overshadow his positive efforts. Greg Mortenson is believed to be using his book to promote the need for education, especially for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Once you educate the boys, they tend to leave the villages and…

ponens, which says “if p, then q; p, therefore q” is applied many times consecutively in these arguments, to the point that we ultimately arrive at paradoxical conclusions. The use of the “degrees of truth” approach, however, is able to solve this paradox by ultimately suggesting the invalidity of modus ponens and therefore rejecting the reasoning of these arguments. While the rejection of modus ponens is undoubtedly a controversial decision to make, it is ultimately supported due to the idea…

Introduction The concept of a spooky action at a distance, which describe the how an object could be affected, moved, or changed without being physically affected by another object, has raised different arguments throughout history. Some believe that action at a distance would describe all the uncertainties of quantum physics and would help us understand the unknowns of quantum mechanics. There have been varies experiments that support the claims of action at a distance and those who disagree…

Does life exist elsewhere in the universe? — One of the most fascinating and compelling questions, whose answer has eluded us since the moment we learnt about the cosmos. It could in fact help us understand our own existence. There are several probabilistic arguments that not only try to show the existence of life, but also the existence of communicative civilisations. Frank Drake formulated the Drake equation one of the most famous one of these models. Rather than evaluate and quantify the…

In Fred Pearce article Tv as birth control, he introduces his argument by asking a simple question "what is U.S family sizes compared with those of india?. This question gives the audience a background introduction of the main idea of the article, which is the how TV helps reduce the fertility rate in under developed and developing countries. He talks about some difficulties india faces is having a lot of young women of childbearing age. Hence, Pearce purpose of this question is to state that…