Summary: Question 1: [2:29] - “My partner promotes honesty as virtue yet continues to tell me little white lies. When I confront him about the lies, he tells me that he will stop and it won't happen again however continues to do so. He says he doesn't know why he can't stop. He tells me that he lies because he feels inadequate (which has a lot to do with his upbringing) and doesn't want to lose me. I myself have a fear of intimacy and have trouble letting my guard down. It makes me highly uncomfortable sharing my feelings and letting him know how much I care for him. I feel like it gives him "power" over me. I think this will only exacerbate his feelings of inadequacy and we will be stuck in this cycle. I know this is something I need to work on. Even though these are little white lies, should I be concerned? What should I think of him when he promotes honesty as a virtue yet continues to lie? I have been honest throughout our relationship and expect him to do the same. Am I looking too far into this, or is this a detrimental clash of values?”<br><br>Question 2: [56:04] - “Are 3 moral rules generally sufficient to define 'morality' and govern a free and just society? 1) don't steal (respect the fruit of labor - i.e. property), 2) don't lie (keep your word - i.e. contracts), 3) don't initiate aggression against others (don't murder, rape, assault, etc.), and does such morality only apply to conscious life?”<br><br>Question 3: [1:11:21] - “I just finished Stefan's book The Art of the Argument on Audible and I thoroughly enjoyed it and I appreciate such a much needed work for today's moral and ethical decay. In the book, Stefan expresses the importance of committing one's self to reason and evidence, which I cannot agree more. Sophistry is a disease that is rotting the foundation of society.”<br><br>“I see a dilemma in this crusade against sophistry: when communicating, people, in general, rarely connect purely on an intellectual, logical and rational level. In all my education, training, and book-reading in the 11 years of my adult life, I've learned that to truly connect with people, you do need to appeal not only to their Logos (logic), but also to their Pathos (emotions) and when necessary to their Ethos (ethics/values). If we ignore this advice, we run the risk of alienating our audience, an error Jimmy Carter made when running against Ronald Reagan.”<br><br>“I believe this may be a topic missed in the Art of the Argument. I would like to ask Stefan how he would propose to connect with people while giving a sound argument that is presented in a way that does not rub people the wrong way and alienate them. How could we modulate our Logos arguments on a Pathos and Ethos carrier signal (using signal communications terms) so that we may connect with people on the deepest levels and be more effective in expressing The Argument?”<br><br>Question 4: [1:16:15] - “At age 18 I started dating a 26-year-old man, and we've been together for the last 6 years. We have never lived together. Do not share finances. And do not see each other except a few days a week. I love this man and want the 6 years we've spent together to have been worth it, but he's told me that he has no interest in every being married and has changed his position from wanting 10 kids to never having kids. He identifies with the MGTOW movement and although he will acknowledge I am a good, loyal woman, he still thinks that NAWALT is a myth and that all women will eventually turn into a AWALT. He is the person who introduced me to Ayn Rand, FDR, and objectivism - so it breaks my heart that he sees no value in family or partnership. Living in a society where women use and abuse men through our current legal system has created the MGTOW movement. My life goal is marriage and children, but my partner see's these things as surrendering his freedom and property rights. How do I as a woman prove to my partner that NAWALT and that I would never "screw him over" or use the broken legal system against him. Women have far more power that we should, but that doesn’t mean my values will ever let me screw over a man. How do I prove my values and show that I am wife material?”<br><br>Question 5: [1:37:54] – “My wife divorced me because she fell in love with a mutual friend, and after almost two years, they are now moving in together and the man is increasingly involved in the lives of my two daughters. How can I bring myself to resolve my lingering, intense resentment and animosity towards a person whom I thought was my friend but played a part in breaking up my family?”<br><br>Question 6: [2:38:13] – “I am an engineering student and am required to take a class about social advocacy and ethics. My instructor has been pushing a lot of anti-capitalism sentiments and pro-Marxist arguments and I was wondering if you could help me understand these arguments as they don't make a lot of sense to me; since I study engineering I don't have much of a background in philosophy or economics. 1) The idea that capitalism operates under exploitation, such as how a wage earner must produce more than they are paid and the employer gets to keep the excess, thus the laborer is exploited. There's a sort of subservience, my instructor argues, that is inherent in wages which is part of this exploitative system. 2) There's this idea of a Repressive State Apparatus(RSA), that the state uses various institutions to reinforce the ideas of exploitation on its populace. This is accompanied by the idea that the population has to be compliant and subservient to the capitalist system that exploits them.”<br><br>Your support is essential to Freedomain Radio, which is 100% funded by viewers like you. Please support the show by making a one time donation or signing up for a monthly recurring donation at: http://www.freedomainradio.com/donate
