First, no one actually has that skill—if you steal, eventually you will be caught.
Not a valid argument against a hypothetical.
Second, the sort of person who goes around stealing is not the sort of person who can cultivate the social virtues and develop deep, lasting interpersonal relationships, which is an integral component of the good life for humans.
Smoking lesion problem? If developing the skill doesn’t actually cause other problems, and instead the predisposition to develop the skill is correlated to those problems, you should still develop the skill.
It’s not a valid argument against its truth, but it’s a valid argument against its relevance. A hypothetical is useless if its antecedent never obtains.
Smoking lesion problem?
Like I said, it’s an empirical question. For philosophers, that’s usually the end of the inquiry, though it’s very nice when someone goes out and does some experiments to figure out which way causality goes.
Not a valid argument against a hypothetical.
Smoking lesion problem? If developing the skill doesn’t actually cause other problems, and instead the predisposition to develop the skill is correlated to those problems, you should still develop the skill.
It’s not a valid argument against its truth, but it’s a valid argument against its relevance. A hypothetical is useless if its antecedent never obtains.
Like I said, it’s an empirical question. For philosophers, that’s usually the end of the inquiry, though it’s very nice when someone goes out and does some experiments to figure out which way causality goes.