I'm not claiming evolution led to ethics in a direct causal fashion. I'm only saying it gave us (or will give us) intelligence and free will - the bas...
In my opinion having the ability to choose between what is beneficial and harmful, evidence of free will, is a survival advantage given, of course, th...
Well, if the neuroscience I've read is true then we (humans) are at the tip of the spear of brain evolution. What does that mean? Neocortex (logical t...
I thought it was and is. It isn't? How do you differentiated ''draw'' and ''preference''? By contrasting reason with preference I meant to expose the ...
You're right in a way but apply this idea to the very beginnings of every branch of philosophy and we realize that logic or reason (claimed bedrock of...
Brilliant point. The way I understand this is each level of what I call existence is separated from the other and awareness, as in knowledge of, may n...
But there is no one fact that we can all hang our philosophical coats on. Different points of view exist and are encouraged by philosophers. The probl...
May be I spoke too soon. But our ''failure'' can be attributed to poor choices we make. If everybody realizes the fact that we're harming the planet a...
Suicide is a reasoned act usually brought about through a severity in circumstances. In India farmers commit suicide when they're unable to pay their ...
Complete self-awareness would be knowing the position, function and state of every atom within our bodies and knowledge of our subconscious. In a way ...
Perhaps we've already achieved the greatest thing possible - duplicating rationality - with computers. What remains of our mind, its irrationality, se...
:up: So you think social existence contributes towards intelligence. I think so too but what about the ''fact'' that geniuses are usually depicted in ...
I mean there must be an x for which consciousness or whatever else is an illusion. Is this x real or also an illusion? Are you saying there is no such...
You're right in that the primary motivation seems to be truth rather than motivation. However, the fact is so many philosophical issues haven't been r...
I fail to see a contradiction in the idea of complete self-awareness. Think of hunger, thirst, pain and the senses etc. These sensations are a form of...
The social glue is made of sacrifices of the individual. Law and order, most important for society, consists of curbing the individual's basic instinc...
Death has clouded your thoughts on the matter. Forget the suicide and death link for thr moment and just focus on the truth that the suicidal person i...
All I'm saying is that consciousness or self-awareness isn't a deserving attribute of humans. We're NOT completely self-aware. So, are we more like co...
Software must need hardware right? Anyway I'm questioning the basic premise that humans are self-aware. I think that's not true, at least not to the e...
All the things you've listed can be automated. You don't need society, nobody does. All we need are slaves to do the dirty work while we spend our tim...
I mean you, we, are trying to find the ''golden mean'' between the individual and the group as interests of the two, despite the fact that the group i...
That's the million dollar question nobody knows the answer to. Speaking for myself, I think, like the example I gave you of matter changing states fro...
I thought of this paradox before and I don't recall any good replies. A suicidal person's reasoning: 1. Life is too painful. 2. If life is too painful...
I think two important aspects clash. 1. The self-that unique state of personal knowledge and the desires and actions that ensue in fulfilling the ego'...
What is consciousness? Three parts: 1. Self-awareness 2. Creativity 3. Logical thinking 3 is replicable. Computers do it. 2, if I understand correctly...
Well, to take the content of your question to its obvious end, I think extreme intelligence would appear stupid and insane (I'll telly you why in a wh...
Never say never or always. It's a known fact that nothing is applicable for all cases - there usually is an exception. For instance I find reason inap...
But isn't our ability to think of alternatives a very basic reason for our success, if we could call it that? I just wanted to hear what people made o...
To what do you correlate the success of humanity? Isn't it our ability to weigh alternatives and choose the best outcome? One could say that e.g. a sc...
I may be wrong but success in life, generally speaking, has been attributed to making the right choices. I do agree that other animals lack the cognit...
Who was it who said ''man can do what he wants but not not want what he wants''? I think of the mind as a network and information flows in all directi...
The way I see it ''practical'' reasoning is a slave to our nature. Reason applied to satisfy our desires. ''Practical'' reason is like money - a means...
If I understand you correctly, you seem to be asserting that axioms aren't arbitrary as I'm claiming. I agree with you to the degree that axioms need ...
I think ''adjacent possible'' is a very important idea. I can picture it slowly but surely eating its way through the walls of impossibility - that ev...
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