TheMadFool

Well, if you want to talk about potential then may I remind you that, according to biology, we humans evolved into our current form from ape-ancestors...

But I speak from the bane of philosophy, the skeptic's point of view, someone who merely with three words, "are you sure?" casts everything we think w...

It's ok. Thank you.

Do you think a person should corroborate what he's perceiving by checking how many other people also perceive the same thing? Initially I thought this...

I'm particularly concerned about how, for example, when we perceive, let's say see, something odd, we look at our companion, if there's one, and ask, ...

Mass media projects itself as a source of accurate, impartial, and relevant information. These three qualities underpin the function of mass media. Th...

The move towards lifting the lockdown, even partially, proves, beyond doubt, that money is more important than life. Perhaps people would rather die w...

What could be more novel to a theist than atheism?

:rofl: So, had I said, "if two objects strike each other and then the one, identified as p, having a mass m moves at an acceleration a" then the force...

Imagination, in my opinion, is our minds tapping into both the worlds of the actual and the possible. We sometimes imagine actual objects (objects/peo...

I thought he was being sarcastic - scoffing at people who are under the impression that they have common sense when in fact they do not. Anyway :up:

Descartes' quote which you posted a couple of rows above suggests Descartes had a very high opinion of common sense which leads me to believe he equat...

When you word it that way, people's attention will be immediately drawn to the difference - people vs cows - which will most likely bring out our prej...

Sorry. My apologies. Well, firstly my take on "common sense" is that it's a nebulous concept. What exactly does it mean? Is common sense just another ...

I did mention frustration; also I'm not saying novelty is always opposite but I am saying opposites are the most novel.

The two of you concur in your outlook but don't you think it's equally a fault to think that some people lack common sense as it is for us to think we...

:chin: You're as fickle as the weather, Mr. Meteorologist.

:up: :ok: Clearly, he was not entirely correct. Some of us think they have more common sense than others.

I see the so-called march of human "progress", which hopefully for this discussion includes inventions, as simply an expanding list of the number of w...

Not common enough to matter but common enough to mind.

My initial reaction was "logic" is the answer - look at the arguments and decide which position has the best ones. However, if we look at it closely, ...

People talk to each other - this is a pattern. However they maybe talking gibberish - this is chaos. I can't explain this any better. You'll have to r...

Buddha was a true radical. In what is a conspicuous departure from other theological traditions that lure us with the promise of eternal life, the Bud...

What could be more novel for a slave than freedom? What could be more interesting than the exact opposite of that which bores you?

Question: In which state does the Mississippi river flow? Answer: Liquid state :chin:

This is a perfect example of the mistake of inferring something that is supposed to be universally practised to be good is bad because it leads to an ...

Thought experiments can't get simpler than the one I came up with in this thread. I know I'm not right, at least not completely right; if it were this...

I agree completely with you that chaos is the absence/lack of patterns. We'll begin from there. Let's take an example of our universe: look at the phy...

1. Why is something a moral obligation?

Thanks for the link. How's the weather? :smile: :wink:

Definition: one: 1. denoting a particular item of a pair or number of items 2. the lowest cardinal number; half of two; 1

Moral/Ethical Theories :chin:

Compare the following three: 1. Universe with no laws. There would be absolutely no pattern. This is the chaos you're talking about. I agree with you ...

Agreed. Agreed but the pattern is not sufficient to prevent chaos or more accurately the pattern is not sufficient to generate the order necessary for...

Once upon a time, to think humans could fly was delusional. Imagination, which you seem to have a dim view of, is what has made heavier-than-air fligh...

Let's unpack, for the sake of clarity, what you mean by "Yes. Because moral obligation is not a physical necessity. To begin with, there's no point in...

What's wrong with imagined scenarios? They're legit philosophical devices, no? Isolate the key variable and do something to it and see what follows an...

A simple question: Can one be obligated to do something AND free to not do it? The answer to this question will settle our difference.

Remember that I had to find an explanation for why the laws of the universe are mathematical. Thus the necessity for a scenario with two different uni...

Indeed, each of us is beset by our own clouded judgments but that is a minor issue compared to what the real problem is - obligatory moral codes rob u...

How would the p-zombie argument be inappropriate to the hard problem based on p-zombies not feeling pain? That's exactly what the p-zombie thought exp...

Well, my contention is that a nonmathematical law leads to chaos but a mathematical law leads to order. Your comment reveals a not unexpected bias eng...

Another way of looking at this would be to look at where exactly free will matters. To begin with, the postulates of moral theory are supposed to be s...

You seem to be saying: 1. Duty is an obligation 2. There's a freedom of choice that comes into play before duty i.e. we're free to decide what our dut...

I misspoke in my previous post. The golden rule seems to be an overarching principle of conduct and should apply to the law and its punitive system as...

Order¹: the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method. Order²: A...

I use Google. Doesn't always take me to the best resources but is still quite helpful.

Yes, math is a burden, burdened. A burden to learn and burdened with the task of explaining the universe.

It seems Max Black's argument is more nuanced than I thought. Nothing unusual here - I always think simple. Will get back to you after I read the dial...

In my eyes, yes. There's a high probability that at least one of your expectations will not be met.