prothero

Well first of you are not the same from day to day, it is only memories and experiences that give you any sense of continuity (self). You are continuo...

"whatever will be will be, the future's not our's to see" Not a fan of fatalism or determinism.

I would rather live in Finland, Sweden or Norway than China as well. I think it is hard to characterize governments with one or two word labels. I vis...

Elements of the past are incorporated into the present. There are no permanent enduring “objects” there are only repetitive patterns of events “proces...

One might suggest it is not longer truly a communist country (since the means of production are no longer entirely owned by the state and the economy ...

The communist form of socialism (government ownership of the means of production, planned economy) has been repeatedly tried and failed. Utopian socia...

You seem to be on the path to Humean skepticism or even "solipsism". We are hopelessly separated from the "real world" through the "veil of perception...

This is where one's view about the most fundamental nature of reality comes into play. I have that view that all of nature is a process, a becoming (c...

Well I freely admit language is a problem and language is imprecise. Defining terms like mind, mentality, experience, consciousness are a major proble...

Try the evolution of color vision https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/The-evolution-of-color-vision-in-insects.-Briscoe-Chittka/195de55dbf4fa7449986...

But my goal is not to "disagree" with them but to "engage" in a discussion of ideas, an exchange of thoughts. One discussion rarely changes anyone's b...

Do you wish to say all these forms of "Consciousness" (experience, psych, mentality) are to the same form, degree and intensity? or just that they are...

I am perfectly happy to describe the “mental” as a process. The corollary to that concession is that IMHO the entire universe is a process “Process an...

So I am curious how you regard labor unions and universal health care for instance?

Well language is always a problem being imprecise and subject to interpretation, but I think the difference is more than that. You seem to imply the p...

Without engaging in a "idealist" or "solipsism" argument about we don't have any "knowledge" except through our "senses": Which do you trust more in a...

I am not sure where to go with that. One can simulate intelligent behavior with AI but I doubt there is the kind of "subjective or interior experience...

I suspect you rely more on instrumentation, measurement and science for your evidence i.e DNA vs eyewitness testimony. I'm not solipist or a skeptic j...

The limitations of our "senses" in combination with the fluidity of our "memory" make eyewitness testimony among the worst forms of "evidence".

As I stated when I started I do not want a dispute about the meaning of words as opposed to ideas. You and I have many areas of agreement but we disag...

"I came because I had to; I'm the one who saw. Jesus can't control it like he did before. And furthermore I know that Jesus thinks so too. Jesus would...

Actually nature is filled with self organizing and self sustaining systems in physics, chemistry and biology. One can view the entire planet as a self...

If you wish to explore "consciousness" as an information problem you might check out Tononi and this article from Scientific American would be a good ...

Actually drawing a bright line between the living and the non living and the experiential and the non experiential is not such an easy task as you imp...

I think one's metaphysical view of the nature of "reality" (worldview) is important. It profoundly affects the way that individual makes decisions and...

Time is an abstraction from the "continuous creative becoming" which is reality. Time itself does not exist, change (becoming) is the fundamental natu...

I think the realization that "consciousness" has evolved is fundamental to a philosophy of mind. "Human consciousness" did not just pop into existence...

I am afraid the current function of the mass media is entertainment. It is all about ratings and about making money. The news is mostly commentary and...

The traditional view is God is eternal and stands outside of time. God can view history from the begining (Alpha) to the end (Omega). Of course in the...

Rocks as simple aggregates would not be expected to have any unified experience. I think calling a rock "conscious" is part of what makes "panpsychism...

I'm not sure if your counting me as "one of these people". I merely think Biden has a responsiblity to put forward a coherent message of his vision fo...

Joe Biden as far as I can see is "missing in action" "without a message". I think Trump is bad for the country and bad for the world but Biden is sadl...

The second amendment was ratified in 1791. At that time the U.S. had a standing army of about 800 individuals so a "well regulated militia was necessa...

I am going to be late to the party as usual. Philosophy like politics has a wide variety of viewpoints and a number of different proposed solutions to...

It is not just a matter of clocks running at different speeds. It is also a matter of physical (and hence chemical and biologic processes) running at ...

It is hard to see the free speech value of "kill all the $$$ (pick you favorite minority or ethnic group). It is hard to see the free speech value of ...

There are limits to what science can explain. There are limits to what language can describe. We should explore what those limits might be but philoso...

Time, Change and Space I do not think one can separate these concepts in any meaningful way. In modern physics space is not a fixed, empty, void. Spac...

I too do not believe that god intercedes to alter the laws of nature of behalf of those who engage in petitionary prayer. "The rain falls on the just ...

I was looking at your essay, do not have time to read it in detail now but we would seem to have a lot of common ground, philosophically speaking. For...

Ok but that is a unique understanding of the term "physical". Most regard the physical as the empirical, the measurable that which science and not phi...

Whitehead used the term "occasions of experience" as the fundamental units of nature and thus occasions were temporal and had prehensions of the past ...

The Europeans have a decidedly different approach to "free speech", "libel" and "censorship". Use of hate symbols, incitement to violence or racial ep...

The problem of evil (as a religious problem) stems from the assumption that "God" is omnipotent, omniscient and omnibenevolent. I think we should ques...

I don't believe in time. Time is an illusion, an abstraction from the events, the change, the becoming of the world. I believe in change, in process, ...

Forced to choose between scientific determinism, divine omniscience and free will, I pick free will everytime. Scientific determinism is at a best a t...

Obviously there is no consensus agreement on a solution to the so called “hard problem of consciousness”. In fact there is little agreement even on a ...

There will be some degree of human activity induced climate change now no matter what we do. There have been irreversible changes to polar ice, permaf...

Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indee...

He is a really good lucid writer, I have a couple of his books. Lots of philosophy writing just seems dense and arcane to me, but his writing is fun t...