We know a proposition to be true because we have the method of logic. The criterion problem spills over into logic as logic itself is in a similar cir...
A 100 years in the past mobile phones were nonsense. A 100 years in the future mobile phones will be, again, nonsense. We dress ourselves in the NOW a...
Nice corner. The paint is still fresh. How long has it been? A thousand years? I like the following version. Allegedly it is the most general formulat...
What is the correct concept of time. I read the wikipedia article and I have the following: There are two concepts of time: 1. Time is something real ...
But movies are made by people for people who need to relate to the story and everything in it, including representations of space and time. I just fin...
But without the property ''hot'' or ''cold'' or whatever we couldn't say that metal or any other thing exists. I do think you have a point but to talk...
How do you come to this conclusion? Boltzmann brain: 1. A brain is a low entropy state 2. Entropy always increases 3. It is NOT impossible for a syste...
I think you've the cart before the horse. Existence requires fulfilling of some criteria which can be summed up as tangible properties by which I mean...
It takes two hands to clap. Clapping is impossible when one hand's closed into a fist. Even if we achieve world peace we'd still need weapons just in ...
Nice! The will, it seems is a question of the ability to make choices and choosing or willing does seem to lead to infinity. But... If the infinite re...
I guess you're making the point ''existence is not a predicate''. I'm familiar with this idea only in the context of the ontological proof of God. In ...
Perhaps rational and irrational aren't the only two options we have. Perhaps it's a circle of sorts and at the extremes one blends into the other. Hav...
Interesting thought. What does it mean actually, to travel backwards in time? I think our sense of time is stuck to space, as we commonly understand i...
I don't see how having meta-thoughts lead to the self multiplying. Two mirrors parallel to each other have infinite images but there are still only tw...
How can we dream when we're awake? How can we be awake if we're dreaming? It doesn't make sense. All I'm willing to give to the idea of "lucid dreamin...
I see two types of existence 1. Existence through creation. Tolkien imagined middle earth and all the creatures in it. He, well, created the world of ...
Also, I think the whole notion of "lucid dreaming" is mistaken. Technically speaking, once you "wake up" then you're NOT dreaming. So, it doesn't make...
Never experienced that but the point is dreams seem so real and we have to wake up in the real world to realize we were dreaming. In other words we ca...
Aren't all your examples meaningful only through comparison - the unreal (meaningless) is grasped only when weighed against the real (meaningful). Plu...
I guess we're talking about scientific objectivity here. The first thing that comes to mind is instrumental observation. Instruments come with their o...
Good advice. Thanks. Living for a human is different from living for an animal. Humans desire a purpose over and above that of simply satisfying their...
A self-replicating system (like life) can arise without purpose. Organizing matter and energy (life), some say, is built into the laws of physics and ...
I think all science, in fact everyone in the knowledge business, looks for the theory that'll explain everything. The way knowledge has been synthesiz...
Well, that's why we have memory, learning and regret. When we behave instinctively we may commit errors. We look back at these errors and we (hopefull...
I think everything has its limits including this remark. Reason is good. It is the necessary pause before all thoughts and actions. Without it we woul...
Utilitarianism suffers from its inability to pin down consequences. You've chosen a specific point to stop the utilitarian argument - the cessation of...
I think Rosen is oversimplifying mathematics and science. Commensuribility isn't a mathematical or scientific principle unless the scientific quest fo...
What is this ''commensuribility''? The way you explained it it means finding a common factor that divides evenly into two measurements. If my understa...
The story of the elephant and the blind men comes to mind. One guy touches the trunk and says the elephant is rough and the other guy touches the tusk...
What is real science then? Non-quantitative analysis isn't objective enough. Take an object with mass 4 kg. I hold it in my hand it feels heavy but to...
By "justification" I mean sufficient reason to merit belief. As you already know this basic principle (must have reason to believe in something) leads...
Agreed. I too believe our senses can be deceived or that the picture of the world we create out of them isn't the actual state of affairs. It's like t...
Thank you. There are the following possibilities: J=logic is justified P=the predictions logic makes come true 1. J -> P 2. P -> J 3. J <-> P which is...
The fact that we humans, the most successful life-form, have free will or the illusion of it doesn't say anything about the process (evolution) that g...
Look at it another way... May be it isn't circular as it initially appears to be. Logic demands that we have reasons to support beliefs. What of our b...
Well. How does one argue (logically)? We start off with some agreed upon initial assumptions. ''Assumptions'' because we can't defend each and every p...
What are your views on the issue? Don't you think the search for purpose evolved in humans? There seems to be nothing about the world that speaks of p...
Really? You see no unifying principle at work? The trend (if I'm correct) seems to be to look for a unified theory that ''explains everything''. Do yo...
I have been troubled by this for a long time without making any real progress. 1. A while ago someone posted a thread on the difference between benign...
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