You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

TheMadFool

Comments

You seem to value something more than reason. Why? Because if you rely on reason, mysticism goes into the trash can. What is this something? Intuition...
October 04, 2017 at 11:07
I can, presumably others too, imagine a greatest possible being - omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent - one greater than which can't be imagined. S...
October 04, 2017 at 10:54
Your golf example isn't actually a relocation of an imaginary thing into the real world. It's a case of marrying thought with matter. It isn't imagini...
October 04, 2017 at 08:57
I guess I was speaking in a restricted sense. Philosophy, truth, aren't the only things worth pursuing. Yet, the truth is, beauty, power, wealth seem ...
October 04, 2017 at 08:51
I see some sort of progression here... Non-life -> Life -> Survival -> Happiness -> Truth Life evolved from non-life. It was simply a survival game - ...
October 04, 2017 at 06:40
You're right. There's something wrong in relocating an imaginary x, no matter how great or perfect, into the real world. I think this is a good refuta...
October 04, 2017 at 05:59
I think anything to do with the self is relevant to your post. I tried to show you that, without eliminating the self from the equation, we can still ...
October 04, 2017 at 05:46
You mean to say ''god is the greatest being imaginable'' contains the claim ''god exists''? That makes sense in predicate logic. After all: 1. God is ...
October 04, 2017 at 05:31
You mean something like a higher power? If yes, then certain issues crop up. First thing is, given a higher power, can we ever understand its intentio...
October 04, 2017 at 05:15
Well, NOTHING forms the backdrop to everything. A physical object occupies the space that was NOTHING. An idea forms to occupy what was once a void/NO...
October 04, 2017 at 02:21
What do you mean?
October 03, 2017 at 18:29
One thing that's important here is that the self can never be completely eliminated from human transactions. The best way to understand this is to kno...
October 03, 2017 at 18:26
You have a point. Somebody has to know and have the power to resist you. If not, there's no reason to hold back your ego. This has happened in history...
October 03, 2017 at 17:49
This question is motivated by selfishness. It is, so to speak, the ego at its extreme. The problem is, we're social animals by necessity. We don't hav...
October 03, 2017 at 17:24
Can you explain this further? What do you mean?
October 03, 2017 at 16:31
Makes biological sense. Our survival depends on knowing the truth. So, truth has no value in itself. An advantage for survival. It amounts to the same...
October 03, 2017 at 16:20
It is ''easier'' to define existence for physical objects. If x can be perceived through the senses and their extensions (instruments), then x exists ...
October 03, 2017 at 08:36
Another thing... Subjective-objective divide assumes there's an objective reality. Two problems with this are: 1. How do we know? There's no contradic...
October 03, 2017 at 07:14
Thinking has run into an insurmountable barrier? (Y)
October 03, 2017 at 07:07
Should our lives be guided by truth or should our lives guide the truth? It appears that most believe it's the former but, as you imply, tge former is...
October 03, 2017 at 06:59
I think you've hit upon something there. I believe happiness is the contrary of pain & suffering. Is there an overlap area between happiness and pain ...
October 02, 2017 at 15:47
This isn't about truth. This is about consequences that follow from certain actions. To be specific, it's a dilemma. Either you help impose anti-dumpi...
October 02, 2017 at 15:29
Why? What is this other value in truth? What, apart from the survival advantage that truth brings, makes truth valuable? We've seen, perhaps needs no ...
October 02, 2017 at 12:10
"It is what it is" is a tautology - redundancy with an information content of zero. Perhaps, 2000 years of fruitless thinking can be summed up in this...
October 02, 2017 at 07:20
I think the objective-subjective distinction doesn't translate into a good-bad distinction. Of some things we can be objective e.g. the length of a st...
October 02, 2017 at 03:31
This is a proposition because it has a truth value. Being a normative claim ("should"), it can be either true or false. As such, it meets the criteria...
October 01, 2017 at 14:15
I don't see the relevance of this to my OP. Do you know anything about NOTHING? If you do, please share. Thanks.
October 01, 2017 at 14:09
What's the difference? Socrates? What does he have to do with nothing? I know that he's famous for the words ''I know that I know nothing.'' However, ...
October 01, 2017 at 11:01
My position is simple. 1. There are more ways of being evil than good. The surest proof of the above statement, in agreement to your theory that somet...
October 01, 2017 at 10:51
Really? What then of the distinction quality vs quantity? Also... Another thing is science is in the business of quantifying everything. I reckon it's...
September 30, 2017 at 06:09
What is the difficulty in randomness? You didn't mention. To me, randomness is a feature of probability. A specific situation in which ALL events are ...
September 28, 2017 at 07:21
Yes, it's difficult to talk about NOTHING. Being, by definition, nonexistence, it lacks properties we're familiar with and, so, is beyond our grasp. W...
September 26, 2017 at 17:48
Something neither mental nor physical? That seems impossible. Can you clarify.
September 25, 2017 at 13:25
I don't know if I'm making sense but my 2 cents... In the case of a sleeping person the brain structure of consciousness exists in full bloom. In othe...
September 25, 2017 at 13:17
Moral relativism doesn't save the situation. In fact, it supports my case. If morality is relative, then it implies there will be confusion - a partic...
September 25, 2017 at 10:53
I had to break up reality into two worlds because there are things that are exclusive to each. Thoughts are immaterial. They don't have mass and nor d...
September 24, 2017 at 14:08
How can we differentiate lies/truths? 1. Obama is the current president 2. Bush is the current president 1 and 2 are both lies but they're about diffe...
September 24, 2017 at 04:53
The above contradicts with the following: From what I've read, zero is the solution to x - x where x is a number. Before zero, the answer to x - x wou...
September 24, 2017 at 03:17
When we talk of properties of physical objects, we consider their quantitative aspect too. We say ''5 bananas'', ''2 cars'', etc. These numbers, as re...
September 23, 2017 at 18:08
My view is that at the macro-scale there are specific physical laws. Force, mass, velocity, the factors relevant at that scale, are all governed by fi...
September 23, 2017 at 06:08
The most important fact about death is no one really knows what happens during and after death. So, all talk of an after-life, or not, is mere specula...
September 22, 2017 at 18:03
Can you teach me the correct understanding of probability?
September 22, 2017 at 05:02
Yes, that's a real problem. If AI ever comes to be conscious, it'd be a slave-master relationship and it won't be long before AI presses for rights. T...
September 20, 2017 at 07:37
Ok. That's good (or bad) news. I think we'll see some real progress there.
September 20, 2017 at 07:33
In my opinion truth can be either qualitative (color, shape, emotion, beauty, etc.) or quantitative. Under both types there are categories (red, round...
September 20, 2017 at 02:40
It happens a lot with me. I'm the cause of everything that's bad (so people around me say). Worst part is, I think it's true. LOL
September 19, 2017 at 08:32
1. Fallacy of oversimplified cause 2. Cherry picking
September 19, 2017 at 05:57
As I said, unpredictability is (they say) a feature of the quantum world. I'm willing to accept this for humans and living organisms because the brain...
September 19, 2017 at 04:52
It's not that humans can assume a higher moral ground here. Look at how we're treating animals and the environment - with total disregard for their we...
September 19, 2017 at 04:48
I also think the internet is alive:D If you look at how the biological mind evolved (hardware-->software) then it seems more sensible to follow the sa...
September 18, 2017 at 16:08