Art48

Yes. And I like the Fromm quote.

Tom, Most Christians say they believe God commands us to love our enemies and forgive seventy times seven. Yet when 9/11 happened, I don't recall any ...

Is there not a place for articles like this, and pop philosophy in general? Sure. Why not? You can find good ideas anywhere, even in a fortune cookie....

Yes. There is a similar religious view that we can experience God only in the present (for us, the past and the future exist only in our thoughts and ...

Perhaps the fundamental issue is the transitoriness of life, not death itself? Perhaps death merely forces us to confront the fact that life is transi...

“Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.” ? Susan Ertz :lol:

Our consciousness receives seven inputs: the five physical senses of touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound, emotions, and thoughts. But if all I can d...

Questions for Richard B If addition was invented, who invented it? Who invented the distributive law, i.e., that, for example 5*(3+7) always equals 5*...

A point of difference from monads is that Hoffman's conscious agents do interact to form a compound agents. Conscious agents are his model of reality,...

Yes, I believe you're correct.

Carrier is an atheist and a materialist. I felt similar to you at times. But, overall, I liked what he said and found it interesting.

Here's one way. There is a deeper non-material reality which we perceive as physical matter in spacetime. (Hoffman's headset metaphor). The deeper rea...

Jasonm, What do you mean by “mean”? It can signify various things. Under one definition, meaning is created when two people agree on the significance ...

Hoffman's icon and headset metaphors seem to contract the idea of an isomorphism. For example, moving the icon from top left to top right does nothing...

OK, fair enough. But surely it's natural, given science's prestige, to wonder how concepts discussed for millennia relate to science today.

Good point. Here's my two cents. , , , about how to navigate the world fairly smoothly. But does it follow our perceptions give us accurate informatio...

Try shaking harder. :) These questions were discussed long before science existed and are interesting in themselves. P.S. I like your chart of thing/p...

Do you have a response for people who do not take Wittgenstein's writings as gospel?

I don’t see how ideas can be equivalence classes because the elements of an equivalence class are logically prior to the class. For instance, the inte...

Many previous threads discuss idealism in general, rather than Hoffman's views. Nothing wrong with that but it leads to the following question: Do Hof...

The seven sensations and ideas exist. Ideas are not reducible to sensations, but sensations can communicate ideas. The Pythagoreans were shocked to di...

Accepted.

Agree. However, Hoffman is trying to model reality in terms of "conscious agents." So, while I don't think he specifically denies material reality, he...

Wayfarer, Thanks for your response. Perhaps we differ on the following fundamental point. In my view, chairs and tables and other “objects” of percept...

Is there a word you prefer instead of "exist"?

Do you believe ideas exist (or subsist or whatever word you wants to use). If no, then end of discussion. If yes, then do you believe an idea can ceas...

We should take the evidence seriously but not literally. When we play Grand Theft Auto, we see appearance not the reality of transistors, etc. But we ...

Manuel, Have you watched the video? I think it addresses your points.

In the metaphor, the icon represent the objects we see and the bits represent the deeper reality. So, the bits are not an icon but reality (or, at lea...

It is a big step and probably the cause of much discussion in this thread. That 2+2=4 is eternal is one thing. That the play Macbeth is eternal is qui...

And standing outside and looking at the sky is a strong argument that the Earth is flat and unmoving. Hoffman says natural selection also favors logic...

Yes. Well said.

When I say the mindscape is the place where ideas exist, "place" is a spatial metaphor, not to be take too literally. I'm asking how exactly does an i...

Good question. I've seen him address this, but I don't recall which YouTube clip. In my own understanding, it's as follows. Evolution has conditioned ...

A few posts seem to be quibbling over the word "exists". What word would you prefer instead? Subsist? Something else?

Ideas exist. Tell me if there's a sense of "exist" where you think the statement is true and maybe we can go from there.

I'm familiar with equivalences classes. The same idea can be expressed in different ways (for instance, in different languages). But I'd give logical ...

Yes, it happens. How is that relevant to the question of if correlation proves causation or not? In the mousetrap thought experiment, there is a perfe...

Yes, if you consider thoughts a process. On the other hand, the mindscape idea says thoughts are pre-existing and we encounter them, just as we encoun...

Wayfarer, You make interesting points. I perceive thoughts, ideas, and emotions directly in consciousness. I perceive the external world indirectly, v...

Do ideas exist or not? Would you rather the world "subsist"? Or some other word?

Reread. So, you're saying it's a working assumption that consciousness is a process, and that a working assumption has made whether consciousness is a...

Let's suppose I can't. Then what is your point? That lack of a full and complete explanation proves a hypothesis invalid? Careful. Can you solve the h...

Not entity as in a person (god, aliens) but entity as in substance, i.e., something which exists independently, in its own right. In contrast, a proce...

Darkneos, What do you think of this? Go to top of thread. https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/14113/solipsism-and-universal-mind

1. Normally, we consider processes and things as different. A whirlpool is a process of water spinning. The water is the thing that is spinning. But i...

Question for 180 Proof: Are you taking as axiomatic that consciousness is a process ? Isn't that the basis of the reification criticism? After all, if...

I’m not familiar with Joscha Bach but I’m looking at some web pages about him now. What I’ve read so far reminds me of Bernardo Kastrup’s theories. As...

Q1: I don't think it is possible Q2: Not that I know of.

They do. Religion tells enormous lies about God, like wiping out the entire world (minus Noah & Co) with a flood, or that God impregnated a woman who ...