TheMadFool

But does my analogy refute the problem of evil?

I don't think it's an excuse. I think I've given a valid reason why god allows evil to exist. Heck, I can continue on with my child-adult-god analogy ...

I think we don't agree on the meaning of the term ''consciousness''. You seem to think, and that is expected, that consciousness is a phenomenon that ...

How do you know this? As per scientific principles the only way to confirm the existence of something is by detecting its effects on instruments and o...

So, is the problem of evil solved?

Very good point. However just as adults conceal and defer some forms of knowledge from children, god must be doing the same - eventually for our own g...

I thought of that too but there's a problem in this. We can't distinguish between real consciousness and simulated consciousness (I suspect you want t...

Some would call it a futile endeavor because the question is unanswerable. However I hesitate to dismiss human ingenuity - may be someone in the futur...

If depression is an illness why isn't elation one?:-}

That sounds right. I wanted a distinction between ''awareness of environment'' and ''awareness of self''. I guess the two cannot be meaningfully separ...

The obvious question here is ''how do we know we're a simulation or not?" We can't.

The irony is that one has to first live before you can say ''life is an absolutely unnecessary abomination''

There are times when one isn't sure of who is taller e.g. when two people are very close in height. In such cases math lends the precision to validate...

That's quantification if ever I saw one.

The words I mentioned are the evidence. They make sense only in a quantified universe. ''I can't quantify blue''

I believe words of comparison like ''more'', ''most'', ''least'', ''greater'', ''braver'', etc. are indications of the need to quantify all aspects of...

Qualitative comparisons are subjective. Quantitative comaprisons are objective. I think there's a instinctive preference for the latter. With precise ...

Awareness, as indicated by behavior, is sign of consciousness

I think the words of comparison we use (better, more beautiful, most ugly, etc) betray an innate desire to quantify things. Quantification helps us ma...

What I think is mathematics brings precision into the matter and through this a finely nuanced apprehension of the situation. In your example of the h...

I mean consciousness is simply being aware of the enivornment we're in. A plant growing towards the sun is ''aware'' of the direction of sunlight. Rob...

The answer to the above question is below:

It's an interesting thought - this simulation theory. We cannot rule out the possibility of reality being a simulation. The key question is ''how can ...

Plants are aware of their surroundings: the branches grow towards the sunlight. Humans are also aware of their surroundings but one extra bit humans h...

Consciousness is awareness of the outside world and that is immanent in all living things. We have some idea as to how it works e.g. there's a great d...

Thanks for the replies. I'd just like to point out that math is central to everything there is. The simple reason is the ''ER'' and ''EST' words. Bett...

Nope. I just wanted to know if math had shortcomings of its own. Metaphysician Undercover said math cannot be used in morality.

I agree with you. Math is a useful tool. But we need to be careful where we apply it.

I'm sorry, I think I haven't been clear enough. Math is now a universally applicable tool, finding its way into almost every subject worth studying. I...

And I've explained that this is an illusion of choice. There's no way reason and logic can solve this conundrum. It has to be a random selection. Woul...

How effective do you think is your philosophy in practical terms? Does it work?

I don't like what I'm saying but it looks like I have no choice: sometimes lethal force is necessary. This I find interesting. I feel that sometimes t...

Here I see a problem. We're all going to die. Either the death penalty doesn't make sense or we've all committed a grave crime.

I explained in my previous posts that there being 2 stacks of grass is equivalent to there being no stack of grass, as far as logic is concerned. The ...

That's the bottomline. Indeed animals avoid pain. A very basic instinct - perhaps forming the foundations of morality as we know it. How about nature ...

Thanks. I understand now. I'm working on a particular instance of a more general problem. However my particular solution (if you agree) can be general...

There are two ways to see this: 1. Morality is an exclusively human construct. I don't know what percent of all life humans represent but I surmise it...

Yes I could've entirely missed the point of the paradox. However I focussed on how a rational being can be stumped by such a scenario - as per the par...

That's another story isn't it. Also my response to this is to observe how we behave. In a lifetime we face many situations that are similar to this. D...

The main issue in the paradox is the ass unable to make a rational choice between the two bales of grass. Reason/rationality fails. What I've shown is...

This is no longer a problem. In the paradox the ass has NO reason to make a choice. As I've explained the ass HAS a reason to make a choice. Either th...

In the original paradox the ass was paralyzed because it didn't have a reason to make a random choice between two identical stacks I have shown and yo...

I only want to say that the alleged random choice the ass has to make is based on rationality. There's no paradox.

Well, in my humble opinion, as I've shown above, choosing randomly IS the rational choice.

I understand what you mean. So you agree that I've demonstrated that the ass has to choose between the two stacks of grass. This wasn't part of the or...

Ok. The way I see it decision making processes involve maximizing positive outcomes for the decision maker. Is this too simplistic a conception for th...

In the original paradox there was no reason to make a choice (random or otherwise). I have shown you how, in fact, the ass must (has a reason) choose ...

The mechanism of rationality? What do you mean?

Hmmmm... I already explained above that 2 stacks of grass is the same as NO stack of grass. Therefore the choice at that level is an illusion. There i...

What I'm saying is: 1. The real options are life or death. NOT the two stacks (as explained above). 2. The random element of actually choosing one par...