In The Myth of Morality, Richard Joyce argues that moral discourse is hopelessly flawed. At the heart of ordinary moral judgements is a notion of moral inescapability, or practical authority, which, upon investigation, cannot be reasonably defended. Joyce argues that natural selection is to blame, in that it has provided us with a tendency to invest the world with values that it does not contain, and demands that it does not make. Should we therefore do away with morality, as we did away with other faulty notions such as witches? Possibly not. We may be able to carry on with morality as a 'useful fiction' - allowing it to have a regulative influence on our lives and decisions, perhaps even playing a central role - while not committing ourselves to believing or asserting falsehoods, and thus not being subject to accusations of 'error'.
It is widely believed that the Divine Command Theory is untenable due to the Euthyphro Dilemma. This article first examines the Platonic dialogue of that name, and shows that Socrates's reasoning is faulty. Second, the dilemma in the form in which many contemporary philosophers accept it is examined in detail, and this reasoning is also shown to be deficient. This is not to say, however, that the Divine Command Theory is truemerely that one popular argument for rejecting it is unsound. Finally some brief thoughts are presented concerning where the real problems lie for the theory.
Pests of arable crops tend to show a high degree of migratory activity. This is particularly so in northern Sudan where the variable rainfall produces habitats which are short‐lived and unpredictable in their frequency and location. Insects whose flight activity is adapted to enable them to move on the same wind‐system which produces the rains are frequently pests of the crops of these climates. Outbreaks of such pests are usually a function of the numbers which colonise the crops, and this in turn depends not only on the success of breeding in the source areas but also on increases in density which occur whilst they are airborne. The importance of the increases in airborne densities which occur within the inter‐tropical discontinuity and the cold‐air outflows ahead of convectional storms to pest outbreaks in the Sudan Gezira is described.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.