6 Comments
User's avatar
Brandon Fishback's avatar

Benthams main problem isn’t his writing style or arguments. It’s that he is a caricature of philosophy. He takes a few simple axioms, turns them in an elaborate argument for something ridiculous and refuses to deviate from those axioms regardless of how insane the conclusion is. And because he has the arrogance of a guy studying philosophy in his early 20’s, he’s not open to criticism. He prioritizes turning ethics in to a math problem over reality. The map is more important than the territory.

Expand full comment
Bentham's Bulldog's avatar

Thanks. Though I like my version better.

Expand full comment
Joe James's avatar

So you're not going to engage? I'm just trying to elevate the discourse.

Expand full comment
Bentham's Bulldog's avatar

I will try to incorporate some of the writing suggestions--e.g. about adverbial clauses.

Expand full comment
Joe James's avatar

Yes, I would say that's the main problem. The adverbial one is how you lose people. And I totally respect your disagreement about not breaking it up. Fighting with an editor is often good thing. I will be posting a response to your post tomorrow and I appreciate you taking the time to read it.

Expand full comment
Bentham's Bulldog's avatar

I appreciate it! Your version deletes a lot that is in my article, so it's a bit hard to precisely haggle over which edits are worth it. I don't like breaking it up into two different pieces because I find readers are never interested in reading a two part series, and the article wasn't that long.

Expand full comment