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

TheMadFool

Comments

My bad, I wasn't clear enough. Even if one, somehow, experienced what in Eastern religions is referred to as an Awakening, one would never really be c...
April 26, 2021 at 07:03
I never said that we couldn't have an illusion within an illusion à la The Truman Show. Jim Carrey's acting was superb.
April 26, 2021 at 06:58
Indeed! But here's something to think about. Take Christianity, a religion, in which Divine Mercy figures prominently in the relationship between sinn...
April 26, 2021 at 06:50
The irony! :rofl: :ok: :up: I suspected as much but it's comforting to know there are others who think the same way. You mean forgive but don't forget...
April 26, 2021 at 05:52
Of course, perspectives - many - are available but you were asking whether biology could be reduced to physics/chemistry and it can be. That's the poi...
April 26, 2021 at 04:03
Sad but true. It's quite possible that I don't fully grasp the issue though. I mean I have some idea of people demanding an eye for an eye justice - t...
April 26, 2021 at 03:45
That's what you think but, like it or not, we can tell the story of a flower or anything else for that matter in terms of the physics of something. I ...
April 26, 2021 at 03:33
:ok:
April 25, 2021 at 19:59
I'm not saying there's no altruism. I'm just contemplating the possibility that it, as a trait, maybe on its way out from the gene pool. To confirm/di...
April 25, 2021 at 19:47
I still can't get past the obvious inconsistency therein. If you feel appalled by someone's hand getting chopped off for having done the same thing to...
April 25, 2021 at 19:40
A question that's been bothering many great minds for centuries I presume. All I can say is biology is chemistry (organic chemistry) and this has been...
April 25, 2021 at 19:37
What I don't understand is this: In the modern world, the ancient form of justice, an eye for an eye is viewed as barbaric and, more to the point, a m...
April 25, 2021 at 19:29
You lead, I'll follow.
April 25, 2021 at 18:18
This is what Wittgenstein aptly described as being bewitched by language. Altruism is the concern for the welfare of others and covers, includes, what...
April 25, 2021 at 18:17
Questions are like molds. We make them (molds/questions) and we fill 'em up (with molten metal/answers) The casting is only as good as the mold, the a...
April 25, 2021 at 18:10
My hunch is banding together, social living to be precise, altruism therefore, is the expected response of the weak against stronger competitors. Ther...
April 25, 2021 at 16:50
Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's not that I'm aiming for some perfect ideal state where everybody is altruistic - you seem to have missed the part ...
April 25, 2021 at 14:55
Why not? Evolution is the best theory around and at the very least, it should be able to give us a satisfactory answer to questions about human issues...
April 25, 2021 at 09:59
Noted! However, if it (altruism), as you say, has "...huge survival advantages..." why are there only a handful of altruists around ? Furthermore, why...
April 25, 2021 at 09:55
Touché sir! Touché but the alternative to an honest discussion about such a sensitive issue amounts to burying one's head in the sand. Tough choices, ...
April 25, 2021 at 08:55
I don't want to downplay the real and extreme suffering involved whether its trans kids or any other demographic. Neither do I want to come off as an ...
April 25, 2021 at 08:25
Someone must've mentioned this already but just in case no one has, I'll say it. The possibility that reality could be an illusion is predicated on ou...
April 25, 2021 at 06:42
:chin:
April 25, 2021 at 06:34
Good question. I was just mulling over this about half an hour ago and what I concluded is that impatience, despite being maligned as a vice, is actua...
April 25, 2021 at 06:19
Giordano Bruno :up: :clap: RIP "bro" Thanks for putting the issue I raised into (the right) perspective. The timeline of science, though at times a ra...
April 25, 2021 at 05:58
To my knowledge, everything that can be said to happen - those things (phenomena/processes/procedures) that constitue the setting in which the concept...
April 24, 2021 at 19:33
Everything seems to turn on that single, 11-lettered, 5-syllabled, word. The death penalty presents itself as an option of punishment when innocent li...
April 24, 2021 at 17:45
:rofl: Before you can do the right thing, you must know what the right thing to do is. The former, for certain, isn't a walk in the park but the latte...
April 24, 2021 at 17:26
Off the top of my head, death loves "real" men but the feeling may not be mutual. Disclaimer: Idiosyncracy warning!
April 24, 2021 at 17:23
It definitely does but it's got to be in a bullet, the bullet in the firing chamber of a gun, the gun's muzzle pressed against the temple (right/left,...
April 24, 2021 at 17:01
I'm not as informed as I'd like to be on string theory. What exactly is string theory? I only recall that it, employing higher dimensions, succeeds in...
April 24, 2021 at 16:52
https://youtu.be/CW1Lpa23mOw Google definition of "fact": a thing that is known or proved to be true. I guess to err is human... By the way, I conside...
April 24, 2021 at 11:46
That's a fine point. I suppose scientism is just a wolf (atheism) in sheep's (science's) clothing. On a different note, your little exchange with @"18...
April 24, 2021 at 11:31
That a connection exists maybe true but a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and the theory of evolution is, as creationists insist, "just an...
April 24, 2021 at 11:20
Interesting! Do you realize though that such an interpretation is rather parochial? "Geocentric" is the right word I suppose.
April 24, 2021 at 04:21
Scientists have to realize this simple truth. They can't deny it for the simple reason that a better "theory" will immediately and with minimal to no ...
April 24, 2021 at 04:17
:rofl:
April 24, 2021 at 04:10
I thought Alexander the "great" returned home or at least tried to quite soon after only reaching the borders of the then Indian civilization. He neve...
April 24, 2021 at 02:53
In my humble opinion Buddhism along with Jainism of course bears the unmistakable signature of "expansive inclusivism" on steroids so to speak. By thi...
April 23, 2021 at 17:54
The paradox of capital punishment is this: to my reckoning, mind you this isn't an indepth analysis, the most heinous crimes, crimes that seem to fit ...
April 23, 2021 at 15:19
To be honest, I'd like nothing more than for there to have been some kind of two-way knowledge/ideas transfer between Greek and Indian thinkers. It wo...
April 23, 2021 at 14:41
I'm surprised that I have to explain it more than I already have. If it doesn't make sense then I guess it doesn't. Insofar as I'm concerned, it's a w...
April 23, 2021 at 10:00
J = There are good justifications M = The Münchhausen trilemma is a good justification Argument A 1. IF J THEN M 2. IF M THEN ~J 3. J 4. M 5. ~J QED Y...
April 23, 2021 at 09:01
The war was inevitable of course but we realized that only retrospectively; hindsight, as they say, is 20/20. The last battle was fought in fort Xasa....
April 23, 2021 at 07:10
Moral relativism claims that good and bad are culturally or historically defined concepts but that's not an open and shut case as far as I'm concerned...
April 23, 2021 at 03:21
:lol: If you say so but I'm pretty sure you're confusing moral relativism with something else. :up: or something like that
April 23, 2021 at 01:29
What do you mean by "it's all relative"? Fake humility? Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I know you're on the right track - I can feel it - b...
April 22, 2021 at 17:02
I seem to have overlooked that side of the issue - universal claims can't be verified. However, if it were up to me, I'd prefer to forfeit the right t...
April 22, 2021 at 16:38
A drive-by of the Wikipedia article on logical positivism informs me that it's a epistemological position that only observationally verifiable claims/...
April 22, 2021 at 12:16