Words are easy. That basic phrase has formed one of the foundations of my personal philosophy for many years. In those years I have shared this theme with a number of people, and I have heard many interpretations. Here I am going to explore a couple of the variations that I have imaged thus far. Words and Action Originally the phrase “words are easy” came to me after I learned that a girlfriend had been lying to me about a number of issues (the primary one being fidelity). At th...

Recently someone on JoeUser asked me to explain how I adopted my personal belief system. That is not a tale I wish to tell, primarily because religious debate bores the hell out of me. I don’t like trying to change other people’s beliefs, and I appreciate the same respect. I especially resent such attempts by people who came to their beliefs through inertia rather than consideration. That being said, let me tell you that I am a mechanist, a type of atheist. That’s not an easy thing...

There's an interesting test on morality here . Here's how I stacked up... Moral Attitude Results: Your values are neither extremely traditional nor particularly progressive. When it comes to social morals, you feel that society's current laws need to be more liberal and flexibile across the board. You believe that the government's current positions are generally balanced and fair, but disagree with a few of its practices. Personal Survey Results: You enjoy having novel e...

So here's an interesting site that lets you answer questions and matches your responses to the ethics ideals of famous philosophers. Link: http://selectsmart.com/PHILOSOPHY My top 5: 1. Jean-Paul Sartre (100%) 2. Kant (91%) - I rather suspected this result 3. Ayn Rand (77%) 4. Stoics (77%) 5. David Hume (76%) The site offers a brief synopsis of the philosophers, as well as amazon.com links to their works.

I find the work of Immanuel Kant very interesting. In his Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals he discusses the moral value of actions. In the first two sections of that work he proposes some ethical propositions that have often returned to my mind in the twelve years since I first read them. The first of these propositions differentiates praiseworthy behavior from moral action. “To be beneficent when we can is a duty; and besides this, there are many minds to sympatheti...