Does your side usually win in forum threads?

[Agathon]

He's got you by the balls there I'm afraid... though I'd actually be tempted to say the Weimar Republic in Germany... but that's a self defeating example.

I wouldn't say so. I can't think of any successful society that has been run on strict Libertarian principles. The problem is that too many people need the government to tell them what to do.

If I were a fascist dictator I'd lock up the Libertarians for the sheer fun of it. Then I'd give away all their property to the least deserving bums I knew and make a public bonfire of the rest.

Now that would be a good day.

[Whaleboy]

Yeh... it's why I still think the Mill Limit holds but falls apart under human nature (different context). A consistent philosophy's only logical conclusion is the mass-suicide of the human race. Not a particularly bad thing I might add.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Tingkai


Own goal.

Edit: Background so that other people can understand: Creative Technology recently reported quarterly results. Sales were up 30%, profits fell 84%.

Asher response: "That's what they get for having high quality players for low prices. Still a profitable company, sales are up. It's all good."

That's not the point -- you said they were selling their products at a loss.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out you would not make a profit if you sold your products at a loss.

You disagreed.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Yeh... it's why I still think the Mill Limit holds but falls apart under human nature (different context). A consistent philosophy's only logical conclusion is the mass-suicide of the human race. Not a particularly bad thing I might add.

All philosophies, when followed to their logical conclusion, advocate the extinction of the human race? How did you determine that this is true?

[Whaleboy]

All philosophies, if they are consistent, lead to mine, which leads to the extinction of the human race

I mean really, ask a silly question...

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
A true debator is one who can deconstruct another's view, point out the fallacies or defeat it using the superiority of his own position, given the same assumptions, and most people here never get beyond that point. Half of the time people can't even agree on the most basic of definitions... everything has to be on everyones own terms... rarely can anyone play devils advocate and so the debate can be red-herringed by some onto pedantic issues that favour them.

Lesser minds

I disagree that someone who hasn't the habit of deconstructing the opponent's reasoning is a élesser mind". It takes a specific education to refute arguments, instead of simply opposing them. To believe that refutation is the only way to debate properly is, as you'd put it, pedantic

[Whaleboy]

Refutation is fine as long as you actually address the arguments and not go off on a red herring or argue about extents and real-world universalisable examples of the premises of the definitions!!!

I should think that education is somewhat crucial, though of course the art of reasoning is a dying one. Burn the ignorant

[Spiffor]

Please don't bur me. I've drank for the past 4 hours, and as such, I'm very inflammable right now

[Whaleboy]

Awww but Spiffor!!! It's bonfire night soon and I need effigies!!

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
All philosophies, if they are consistent, lead to mine, which leads to the extinction of the human race

I mean really, ask a silly question...

It's not a silly question. I wanted more details. For starters define your philosophy. The philosophy which all other philosophies logically distill into.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Whaleboy
Awww but Spiffor!!! It's bonfire night soon and I need effigies!!

My gorlfriend will disagree with me being burnt at the stake. Sorry, but I can't help you

Ask Drogue: he's your friend, maybe he'll accept to be burnt if it can please you

[Agathon]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out you would not make a profit if you sold your products at a loss.

If they have investments, it is possible for the company to make a profit while still selling its products at a loss.

Refuted.

[Whaleboy]

Ask Drogue: he's your friend, maybe he'll accept to be burnt if it can please you

Unfortunately I must face reality and realise that I don't have sufficient power over people to make them willingly jump onto raging bonfires at my whim .

What's a gorlfriend? A jewish golfing partner?

[Whaleboy]

It's not a silly question. I wanted more details. For starters define your philosophy. The philosophy which all other philosophies logically distill into.

It's late, it's too complex, no-one would understand it, I'm in no state to articulate it, or put the effort into it. I'll get back to you when I'm a great philosopher, and thus have riches and fame beyond my wildest expectations, such that getting your computer confiscated is less effort than actually answering your question . In case that doesn't scratch your pedantic itch, I'm half joking re my conceptual omnipotence.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Whaleboy


It's late, it's too complex, no-one would understand it, I'm in no state to articulate it, or put the effort into it. I'll get back to you when I'm a great philosopher, and thus have riches and fame beyond my wildest expectations, such that getting your computer confiscated is less effort than actually answering your question . In case that doesn't scratch your pedantic itch, I'm half joking re my conceptual omnipotence.

Now If I were to go on rambling about how consistently adhering to any number of philosophies does not require as a consequence any advocation of the extinction of the human race would this constitute any sort of "win" on my part in poly terms? I've noticed in the past that often times when one polytubbie simply grows weary with participating in an uninteresting debate the other side likes to immediately claim 'victory' on the grounds that the bored and now absent side of the debate has somehow conceded the debate by going off to do something productive or interesting. Maybe this thread would be a good place for us to recognize that you don't 'win' a debate as a result of such an outcome.