frank

Eliminative materialism and methodological behaviorism? It's a kind of nihilism, isn't it?

It does sound that way to me. I take it you don't experience it that way.

That all sounds kind of cold and brutal.

Funny thing is: it doesn't make sense to call a world "external" unless you think there's an "internal" somewhere. :razz: :razz: :razz:

The people in that nation might be appalled that Americans let women with children languish in poverty, working multiple jobs trying to make ends meet...

What you're doing is using scientific theory to lay out what we mean by words like "existence." Wouldn't it be better to just look to how we actually ...

You, alone in the void. That's the beginning of one of Einstein's thought experiments. Did he make a mistake?

The real devil is a November wind who lifts the black arms of the sinner without craving or aversion. He'd join the mourners in celebration of the sla...

How does that work if you're in a void?

That sounds fascinating. Thanks!

I think it just depends on who looks the best on tv. The reason I'm keeping my eye on Haley is that she managed to be elected governor of SC, but at t...

Makes sense.

The first female president will be a Republican. People can't handle liberal and female at the same time. Think Margaret Thatcher.

We could get chat-gpt to tell us what he said.

:up:

Famous last words, though. If you're thinking that just because of racism, I think you might be mistaken. I don't think the average Republican is raci...

I guess my identity thread is a long way off then.

:up:

You're probably right. I'm not familiar with complexity science. Do you know of a good resource? One of the things I quickly noticed about this topic ...

It's the measurement problem. Looking at it changes it. If it was me, I'd say that I'm VERY aware of it and glare at you knowingly. I don't know what ...

But Ann Coulter is an idiot. I think Haley will appeal to swing voters because she seems to have a moral center. DeSantis comes across as a slug after...

Oh. I didn't realize that. Who are they backing?

Really? Why do you say that?

I don't think you're supposed to get in the trough. You just eat out of it.

Why?

Consciousness is neither physical nor nonphysical? Are you saying ontology doesn't apply to consciousness?

Oh, sorry. I misunderstood.

Cryptic. :chin:

Like what?

Right. There's a thing where a news broadcaster asks if you know where your children are. The point is to suggest you might not. So if the issue of kn...

I don't think it's that we observe physical laws. We use physics to explain what we observe. Do we really observe acts of volition? Or is volition a t...

We would start with chemistry and bridge up to the biological function as a category of processes required for the endurance of the system. All chemis...

If you're talking about the Hadron collider, I kind of lean in that direction as well. That was a lot of money spent, for what exactly?

Mitochondria have a number of functions, including producing ATP. Obviously this is a cherrypicked example because we know mitochondria were originall...

I think we can just rely on cultural norms here. If common sense says I was justified, I was. I'm justified in believing there are satellites orbiting...

I don't know the answer to your question. Could it be it's as if you're asking a person from 50 CE: "how does one get to the moon?" "One day" is the a...

In the assorted incidents category, if you're curious how much it would cost to get Obamacare, there are numerous scams that head the Google search wh...

If he lived in a universe where cars never move once you park them, he'd be justified in his belief. In this universe, a person would be a fool to ima...

True. Carnap says that all sciences have these in common: the same kind of observer, the same kinds of observation, and the same world being observed ...

"Nagel describes his model as follows: "A reduction is effected when the experimental laws of the secondary science (and if it has an adequate theory,...

:razz:

Very true. You read Marx. I'm reading The Sensible Guide to Forex by Cliff Wachtel. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. :grin:

I haven't read anything by Shrodinger :razz: Even trying to understand the debate about chemistry reducing to physics goes straight over my head prett...

Most broadly speaking, reduction is not about ontology. You could be an idealist reductionist (like Berkeley). Nagel's approach is about the reduction...

Paul was actually Elmo: https://youtu.be/EHK5fBm1YWk

If I ask Allen if he knows where his car is, he might say yes. If I nod menacingly at him, he may realize he doesn't. He's lacking justification, so J...

I'd agree that the argument from rationality has this weakness: that rationality pretty much just comes down to fashion. In the 18th Century it was ra...

:up: Could you explain what's meant by "transcendentalism"? So let me ask: do you think biology can't be reduced (in the Nagelian sense) to physics? O...

That's such a good answer, it's challenging me to come up with a response that wouldn't be a soft pitch. :grimace: Thanks! I'd emphasize that I said t...

I don't get why we would say he's justified in saying he knows where the car is. He thinks he knows? I don't see where there's a paradox. We use the w...