The ever charming Edward Feser is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Pasadena City College. Feser is also a regular contributor to the blog "What's Wrong With the World", a collection of unhinged far-right radicals (self-described "crusaders") who regularly provide, by their own shining example, a perfect demonstration of exactly what is wrong with the world.Feser is an extreme right-wing Catholic who defends a range of repugnant views via appeal to classical natural law theory. For instance, Feser is a vicious critic of homosexuality, saying of same-sex marriage that "the very idea is a metaphysical absurdity and a moral abomination". Indeed, Feser views any sexual act that is "contrary" to the purpose of procreation as an abomination, relying on tired appeals to the "natural function" of sexual organs. Feser is curiously obsessed with where semen winds up; in short, any time one ejaculates anywhere other than inside a vagina, one is guilty of a serious moral sin (discussed here and here).
One of Feser's finest moments occurred in the immediate wake of abortion doctor George Tiller's assassination. Just a couple of days after Tiller's death, Feser blogged about the incident, referring to Tiller as a "monster" and a servant of the demon Moloch. Feser argued at length that Tiller was in every relevant way morally worse than Jeffrey Dahmer - a man who killed and/or ate 17 others and had "forfeited his right to life". Nonetheless, Feser really wants you to know that doesn't make him an apologist for Tiller's murder, because according to (his interpretation of) natural law theory, vigilantism is always wrong (discussed here, here, and here).
One might wonder whether Feser would similarly condemn vigilantism against the actual Jeffrey Dahmer (assuming we lived in a society with positive laws that permitted his actions). Given his recent defense of the claim that it is always wrong to lie, even in Nazi "murderer at the door" scenarios, it seems perhaps he actually would. Things are muddled though by his claim we are apparently morally permitted to kill the murderer at the door; we just can't lie to him (how this squares with his claim that it's NOT ok to kill a supposed mass-murderer like Tiller remains a mystery). In short, killing in self-defense = ok; lying in self-defense = no way. If you find such nonsense extremely counter-intuitive, don't worry. As Feser assures us, we shouldn't trust our moral intuitions; we just need to pay heed to (Feser's interpretation of) classic natural law.
Diagnosis: A completely unhinged and deeply insensitive loon who demonstrates just how much blind adherence to a dogma can warp one's moral sensibilities. Gives a bad name to serious academic philosophers everywhere; thankfully, his influence is probably mostly limited to the small contingent of like-minded loons who read his blogs.
The Nazi at the door question when you are hiding someone is always a good indication of whether or not someone is enamoured with philosophical absurdities. Of Kant is notorious for his defence of the NEVER, NEVER lie even to a murderer at the door. I am also aware of Certain Christian Philosophers / Theologians of the middle ages and later who argued for similar moral nonsense. A characteristic of this type of arguement is ignorining / downplaying that by telling the trth you are complicit in at least attempted murder and likely murder. And what I love is faced with someones death as a consequence of not lying all sorts of just so senarios also pop into their minds along with crap about maybe it is the time for X to die etc.
ReplyDeleteI also just love the implicit arguement that lying is a worst sin than murder.
I remeber this discussion... more then 100 comments on the Chaospet Webcomic discussion thing.
ReplyDeleteHere's Ed Feser weighing in on the Catholics vs. contraception kerfuffle.
ReplyDeleteFeser does lie. He made a point of telling me he wouldn't boot me off his site. He made this point after some leftist (in his eyes) banned a critic. Feser pretended he was above that sort of censorship. However he did ban me from his site when I pointed out one of his natural law papers supported totalitarianism. Then his totalitarian anger became uncontrollable and he banned me. So Feser does lie when his reputation is at stake. We should know how much more important it is that his reputation be saved than a person merely hiding from Nazis.
ReplyDeleteDon Jindra, you're a hack and Feser only blocked you because other commenters complained. Ironic how loons flock to this page... about loons. Engage Feser directly, Loon-Encyclopedist. Don't just chum the waters for haters.
ReplyDeleteCodgitator,
ReplyDeleteIt would surprise me if Feser's groupies didn't complain to him. They complained to me. They didn't like being shown the weakness of their arguments. But this doesn't change the fact he lied. He claimed he was open to debate. He named me directly and said I was safe on his site. But he wasn't telling the truth. He's allowed to make all sorts of bizarre assertions about his opponents and their motives. But are others allowed the same privilege? No. You ask us to engage him directly. He won't do that as he proved with me. He hides-out on friendly sites and insists people like me tie a hand behind our backs on his own site. He's basically an intellectual coward. If he was an interesting philosopher he might be able to get away with his antics. But he's no philosopher. He's in the recycling business.