Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Axiology

  • Richard Taylor on Goodness: Critical Remarks

    Richard Taylor, Good and Evil: A New Direction (Prometheus 1984),  p. 134: Goodness . . . is simply the satisfaction of needs and desires . . . the fulfillment of purposes. The greatest good for any individual can accordingly be nothing but the total satisfaction of his needs,whatever these may be. There seems to be a tension…

  • Can Federalism Save Us?

    I fear that we are coming apart as a nation.   We are disagreeing about things we ought not be disagreeing about, such as the need to secure the borders.  The rifts are deep and nasty.  Polarization and demonization of the opponent are the order of the day.   Do you want more of this?  Then give government…

  • Soteriology in Nietzsche and the Question of the Value of Life

    Giles Fraser in his provocative Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief (Routledge 2002) maintains that "Nietzsche is obsessed with the question of human salvation" and that his work is "primarily soteriology." (p. 2)  I don't disagree with this assessment, but there is a tension in Nietzsche that ought to be pointed out, one that Fraser, from…

  • Teleological and Axiological Aspects of Existential Meaning

    What do we mean by 'meaning' when we ask about the meaning of life? It is perhaps most natural to take the meaning of life or of a life to be its purpose, point, end, goal, or telos. Accordingly, (human) life is meaningful only if it has a central organizing purpose. Existential of life meaning…

  • A Bad Reason for Not Imposing One’s Values on Others

    The following argument is sometimes heard. "Because values are relative, it is wrong to impose one's values on others." But if values are relative, and among my values is the value of instructing others in the right way to live, then surely I am justified in imposing my values on others. What better justification could…