Dmitry Chernikov’s Blog

Cohen’s critique of Rawls and other “constructivists” consists in arguing that their reasoning is contaminated with concerns other than justice. Rawls, perhaps unbeknownst to himself, is interested not in justice per se but in what kind of society we want to live in, a question that he proposes to settle by means of deliberation in [...]

For condemnation it is violence or physical force. For rehabilitation it is temptation, the idea being that if a person overcomes these temptations, then he will improve spiritually. For deterrence it is deception, for if you were already stronger than the person being deterred, then you would need to do nothing special to deter him; [...]

Jesus is the only man who would merit heavenly bliss in every possible world in which he might find himself. We mere human beings must be content with merely actual salvation not a necessary one. On the other hand, God is under no necessity to acquiesce in the lesser of the two evil, when the [...]

As readers of this blog may have noticed, I have devoted a considerable amount of space on it recently to ethics and political philosophy. This is because of my desire to study philosophy more systematically, and I have come to view ethics as the beginning of all philosophy, and political philosophy + economics as a [...]

Here’s his thing: oughts that imply can obey the following conditional: if it were possible, it would have to be done. The “can’t” applies to the antecedent not to the consequent. Something remains by essence a duty despite the fact that reality by accident makes it impossible to carry it out. And then Cohen writes: [...]

Here is Part I. To reiterate, the hypothetical oughts are derived from the end to be achieved as means to that end; and in this way they are self-enforcing: “If I want to avoid doing the time, I ought to abstain from doing the crime.” The “ought” part is a means to the “is” part. [...]

Our author sympathizes with the slogan “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.” He acknowledges that its first part seems to call for enslavement of the talented. He fails to acknowledge that its second part envisions a world without scarcity. “The slogan divorces labor, the exercise of ability, from income…,” [...]

Freedom in general means absence of external restraints, that is, restraints that are outside of those imposed on one by one’s nature. In addition, freedom has a philosophical meaning, wherein it is predicated of a condition of an individual in society. Cohen’s notion of freedom is the legal right of every individual to a standard [...]

Suppose we start with D1, the situation of equality, wherein everyone’s standard of living is at 25 utils. What’s next? Perhaps Cohen would say: “OK, now let’s allow some inequalities, if those will be in the interest of the worst off.” So, a month passes, then a year, then ten years, and the standard of [...]

Cohen denies this, saying that “We should not speak of the ‘slavery of the talented’ just because, for the sake of some improvement to the common human lot, the talented are asked to accept a life that is more similar to that lot than the one they now enjoy.” (Rescuing Justice and Equality, 207) Now [...]

I think I may have misjudged the depth of Cohen’s depravity. The reason the talented would want to give the fruits of their labors to the poor is not to benefit the poor; rather it is to further the cause of equality, one the means to which is indeed increasing the wealth of the poor. [...]

It is written: Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. (Jn 18:37-38) What did he mean, [...]

In Christian understanding, was Pilate an evil man? On the one hand, he “he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.” (Mt 27:26) On the other, he repeatedly said that he found no fault in Jesus. Pilate “took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. ‘I am innocent of [...]

According to Keirsey, it’s knowledge and identity respectively. But I must make a correction to his theory. We must distinguish between proximate and ultimate goals. The NT proximate goal is technological usefulness or highly specialized know-how, while their ultimate goal is unity of knowledge, a system, a picture of how all things fit together which [...]

Cohen denies this but in vain. He makes two mistakes. First, he illegitimately cleaves legal duties from moral duties, saying that violence with which only the former are enforced does diminish individual freedom, while milder forms of enforcement of non-legal moral duties do not. But the division in this case is arbitrary. Whether you are [...]

Connected, as you might expect, to the four temperaments, etc. 1. Due to different outcomes of human actions, viz. some actions will be successful, and others will fail, and those who succeed will have more enjoyment than the losers. Note the irony here: Cohen is concerned with relational properties of human beings, namely that no [...]

God is normally uninterested in you. But it is within your power to make Him interested in you, such that He considers you a god in His own likeness, an equal to Himself, His child with whom He is well pleased; and speaks to you face to face as with a friend. But for this [...]

Cohen believes something quite odd, viz., that “selfishness, and, too, our equanimity about it, are precipitates of centuries of capitalist civilization. (First capitalism destroys community. Then its defenders say that material incentives are necessary because communal ones aren’t powerful enough.)” (Rescuing Justice and Equality, 178fn-ff) It’s hard to know how to prove to Cohen that [...]

One of the most potent though neglected arguments for individual liberty is one I’d like to call the Artisan argument. It starts by observing that freedom cannot in principle be fully erased from the heart of man. The desire to act so as to improve one’s lot in life is engraved in human nature. The [...]

The more I read Rescuing Justice and Equality, the clearer it becomes that the author has a diseased mind. I honestly can’t say when I last read anything equally preposterous. The proof is in my reviews below. OK, here is another example. Our author asks: “But why should the fact that it improves the lot [...]