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TheMadFool

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QM doesn't do anything that weird, does it? You're probably referring to the concept of superposition in QM. Frankly, the idea seems not to hold up to...
May 11, 2020 at 02:26
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/William_of_Ockham.png
May 11, 2020 at 00:15
Well, we have Mendel's laws of inheritance which is a bona fide biological law. I would put my money on the existence of biological laws rather than t...
May 10, 2020 at 23:35
Considering the fact, as it appears to me, that countless old problems are yet not solved to the satisfaction of all parties involved, I would say the...
May 10, 2020 at 22:37
Objective truths are truths whose truth-status is in no way affected by personal peculiarities (emotions, imagination, perception). Ergo, objective tr...
May 10, 2020 at 21:33
I see why you brought up the matter of self-love vis-a-vis the golden rule; after all, one projects one's own fears and hopes onto others when employi...
May 10, 2020 at 19:55
Indiscernibility of identicals: AxAy = for all x and for all y if x is identical to y then, x has property F if and only if y has property F Identity ...
May 10, 2020 at 19:17
:smile: I'll try
May 10, 2020 at 18:36
A very simple conception of the principle of the identity of indiscernibles is the following: 1. x = y identical to y] if and only if x and y are indi...
May 10, 2020 at 18:34
Can one do otherwise when faced with the truth of meaninglessness? Existential nihilism is the stuff of horror stories - like a malicious spirit it'll...
May 10, 2020 at 17:23
I'm just surprised to discover that antinatalism grows out of our dislike for pain and recommends nonexistence as a remedy when the fact of the matter...
May 10, 2020 at 13:49
The idea of obligation either to perform or not perform a morally significant act flies against the principle of freedom of will in re moral responsib...
May 10, 2020 at 07:57
In an odd way. Firstly I'm not referring to existentialism or absurdism by "existential threat". I simply mean that pain is ultimately about death - p...
May 10, 2020 at 06:08
:ok: :up:
May 09, 2020 at 16:53
:up: :ok: Food for thought: Pain means injury (mental and/or physical) and injury means death. All pain is unpleasant, ergo undesirable, for the simpl...
May 09, 2020 at 16:53
Well spoken. Hit the bullseye. It seems we dislike pain much more than we like pleasure. So here's Ms.Pain and Ms. Pleasure. No one would be willing t...
May 09, 2020 at 15:23
Yes, agreed. The question is what's the difference between a suicidal person and us? The easy answer is the degree of pain - the suicidal chap's pain ...
May 09, 2020 at 12:03
Firstly, I somehow sympathize with Benatar's view absence of pain being good whether or not a living thing capable of experiencing pain exists or not....
May 09, 2020 at 10:29
Of course, of course. I guess Benatar was referring to gratuitious pain - the kind that ain't necessary to keep us safe. Benatar's asymmetry, as far a...
May 09, 2020 at 07:38
Interesting! That perhaps can be explained with greed. Money talks, you know. Even musicians must eat.
May 09, 2020 at 04:46
:chin: I said pain maybe necessary for survival. That's about all I can say.
May 09, 2020 at 04:42
Aristotle's Golden Mean. Buddha's Middle Path
May 09, 2020 at 02:09
I don't think I said negative reinforcement is the only way survival can be ensured.
May 09, 2020 at 01:12
I would disagree with the implications of Benatar's thought experiment. Consider an exquisitely beautiful landscape you have the good fortune of behol...
May 08, 2020 at 15:37
This feature of Benatar's argument is what's wrong with it. 3. The absence of pain is good implies that the absence of pain is good "even though" (des...
May 08, 2020 at 14:26
Methinks, rate and/or volume are the culprits. The problem isn't fossil fuel based machines per se but the rate at which they're used (rate) and how m...
May 08, 2020 at 13:59
Benatar: 1. Presence of pleasure is good 2. Presence of pain is bad 3. Absence of pleasure is not bad 4. Absence of pain is good I finally got what's ...
May 08, 2020 at 10:25
It seems there's this (widely held) belief that the things we do maybe interrupted in its course and then resumed from the point of interruption with ...
May 08, 2020 at 07:00
Let's review Benatar's claims: 3 and 4 are the meat of Benatar's argument. In 3, Benatar claims nonexistent (unborn) people are the beneficiaries of a...
May 07, 2020 at 15:54
Then I must defer to your better judgement. Just curious. What have your discoveries been so far?
May 07, 2020 at 12:42
Potential to experience pleasure is as equally important as the potential to experience pain. When I deny existence to a person, by, say, not having a...
May 07, 2020 at 12:40
I don't see how bringing about pleasure does NOT apply to potential life. Can I not plan for my child to have a pleasurable experience on earth, while...
May 07, 2020 at 12:30
This is very important! I'll get back to you when I recall my argument why this is the case.
May 07, 2020 at 11:24
Ok. Benatar's asymmetry depends on one single claim: the absence of pleasure is NOT BAD. Prima facie this is very believable. However, Benatar also ma...
May 07, 2020 at 11:19
You're right you know but something's wrong with Benatar's asymmetry. Let's go through it again: 1. Presence of pleasure is good 2. Presence of pain i...
May 07, 2020 at 09:29
If apples are good for you (presence of pleasure is good) then I would be doing something bad by withholding apples from you (deprivation of pleasure ...
May 07, 2020 at 09:11
This scenario assumes that life is suffering. Indeed if the life is going to be a one-sided experience of only pain then, nonexistence is preferable. ...
May 07, 2020 at 08:41
How are we to reduce the suffering for those who're not alive?
May 07, 2020 at 07:28
I just "realized" something. I've always wondered about the difference between "understanding" and "realization". My opinion on the matter is that the...
May 07, 2020 at 07:26
The whole idea behind reducing suffering is to make life worth living. To then think that causing a mass extinction follows from it is a egregrious er...
May 07, 2020 at 06:49
1. We are suffering....my claim 2. We are in heaven....your claim 3. If we are in heaven then it's not the case that we are suffering...premise 4. we ...
May 07, 2020 at 06:26
Perhaps in line with your thoughts, the pause isn't part of the music you were listening to and so, you listened to a version of the music you created...
May 07, 2020 at 06:11
Yeah but you get the picture. It doesn't bother me at all.
May 07, 2020 at 05:36
I was being honest. What about you? Are you a mystic yourself? Not to be offensive but you too are making some very bold assertions.
May 07, 2020 at 05:29
What else has mysticism achieved?
May 07, 2020 at 05:26
What does thinking involve? I think we should start from there. Words?
May 06, 2020 at 16:19
There is clearly nothing abstract in your scenario. If any part of the brain is involved it isn't the neocortex and I believe the neocortex is exactly...
May 06, 2020 at 14:58
Yes, but in my humble opinion, I wanted to keep things as general as possible. A knife's credibility, taking into account its purpose, is all about th...
May 06, 2020 at 14:55
Haven't you noticed? I'm not in support of mysticism. I think mysticism is nothing more than a bunch of people who've failed to understand something, ...
May 06, 2020 at 14:46
As I see it there are two kinds of insight then. One kind, something Pythagoras might've experienced, can be expressed in words - clear propositions -...
May 06, 2020 at 11:25