pudge's Journal: Philosophy of Liberty

http://www.philosophyofliberty.blogspot.com/ is a neat little movie that discusses liberty.

Feel free to ignore the music.

Foundation of ethics

[jdavidb]

I've been advertising this little presentation far and wide for many years now. I first saw it as a screensaver. Never knew it had its own blog. :)

I consider the principles expressed here to be fundamental morality that all can and must agree on.

it's just preaching to the choir

[Bill Dog]

You can't make someone accept your values, they either do or don't. Some say the virtue is in how you get somewhere, others say it's only in being there.

Re:

[pudge]

You can't make someone accept your values, they either do or don't.

Isn't that the message of the video?

Re:

[Bill Dog]

In a way, but not how I meant. The video says things like liberty is based on x, and achieving a free society requires y. The assumption is that the viewer already subscribes to "liberty" and "a free society" as being good and desirable things. But many do not. Or at least not as good and desirable as, say, having national healthcare, or stopping Global Warming, or other values/"morals"-based priorities that would subordinate liberty.

Re:

[pudge]

In a way, but not how I meant.

I plead guilty to knowing that. :-)

The video says things like liberty is based on x, and achieving a free society requires y. The assumption is that the viewer already subscribes to "liberty" and "a free society" as being good and desirable things. But many do not.

Almost everyone does. But most do not understand where these concepts come from and what they necessarily mean, if they are to have any true meaning.

Sure, this won't convince people who don't care about true liberty, or who want something from government and don't want to think about thoughts that might convince them it's a bad thing. Which is a lot of people.

But this video does three things, by teaching people what many of us think and believe. First, it helps give t