Hoo

I wonder if it wouldn't be easier to talk to racists and sexists who at least admitted their racism and sexism. What's creepy about this group is that...

Status is always largely going to be earned. I think liberals value the rights/liberties of the individual. But what is this authority? Over whom? We ...

I suppose I was aiming at the nature of non-trivial explanations. I can agree that many are satisfied by an explanation of X in terms of a familiar bu...

I never mentioned induction. I'm basically saying that we postulate uniformity. Now the concepts are related. The caveman sees things go up and then c...

The thesis is that explanation of X is deduction of X from postulated necessity. Now this postulation is the creative act, the myth or element of rati...

Rejecting the ideal of the faceless everyman as an ideal looks like regress to me. If there is some "essence" in race or gender, then the racists and ...

I'm wondering if it's not just the formalization of expectation. We are future oriented beings, so we want to find relationships in the past and prese...

I couldn't help thinking that all this suffering did have a use and is worthy of praise as the cost of our presence. As to moral repugnance, I think t...

I didn't mean to imply that you were unhappy or anything like that. I was just reacting to "desperation." But I guess in a non-pejorative sense you ar...

I'm confused by the use of 'totality' as well as the scare-quoted definite article. Why not just 'obscurity?' I know it's been months, but... I think ...

I was going to ask: where do they find the time? But I spend lots of my free time here. So it's really a question of morbidity/resentment. Some of us ...

I feel like he's getting at something like the Being of beings. "There is a there there." Or (Parmenides) " is."

That's a good point. I haven't really addressed probability densities, etc. That was sort of under the hood in the "complex and indirect and torturous...

Could not one say that science has always been about the beyond in its reliance on invisible entities? Where is a point mass or a real number? It's as...

The LEM is a little problematic. It seems to assume that propositions aren't fuzzy/ambiguous. But what is a reason or a ground? In our worldly lives, ...

As I see it, concepts exist systematically. So the "soul" can only be an object among objects, deriving its nature from the system of objects as a who...

I didn't say I worshiped or followed Popper. I've just really enjoyed reading him. Here's something I find interesting: https://www.princeton.edu/~gro...

I think we have to talk about suicide. Because we do have an emergency exit, life is not as irrational as it would otherwise be. We transcend desperat...

I guess my theory was that there was a self-exaltation beneath the more conscious self-mutilation. It's not suave in the worldly sense. It's tortured ...

OK, but will there be assumed uniformity of nature in 5 minutes?

For me the realm of the spiritual is more or less the realm of feeling and the sensual. I can get behind something like "God is love." I suppose one c...

I think you are touching on profound issues. I can relate to everything you say. But if there is indeed a fundamental instrumentality of being (and th...

I've always loved the notion of the 4D universe. Is this not perfect closure? It's like Parmenides, sort of. I've heard metaphysics described as exact...

I can relate to all of this. By the instability of "constraints" I just meant the still-in-progress image we have of the possible. Sometimes we are su...

I can agree that we close off some perspectives as we embrace others. (I don't see how the world -apart-from-perspectives is useful, though, as we mov...

It's just hard to find any conceptual "meat" in this first principle. It seems to point beyond the rational/dialectical enterprise. This first princip...

Respectfully, I ask why we would we strive to be honest with ourselves? Just to be clear, I have intensely striven for self-honesty for many years, bu...

I like this. I don't see how we could know that we have the "actually naturally necessary," but I can see that we can and do act successfully as if. I...

Micro-aggressions remind me of sprites and goblins. Sure, they are sort of there, but, yeah, it's perfect for a conspiratorial outlook on the world. I...

This still seems like the postulation of necessity. Horsesmust be within specific constraints. Our postulates become more specific. But how does one a...

Something I've contemplated is whether or how God could "fit" in a human mind. A simpler analogy would be with a spiritual guru. We can't know the gur...

I can agree with all of that. That's more or less what I get from "all is vanity" in Ecclesiastes. "A futile chasing after the wind," etc.

Yes, I agree. I don't know if we can escape having some worldview, but I think it's useful to escape the worldview that there is a single, correct wor...

I'm very glad someone else sees what I'm getting at. (I fixed my typo, too.) One might say that the idea of non-fantasy is a fantasy, but the distinct...

So you are coming more from a philosophical defense of a radically simple God? That's a fascinating idea. I think it's a respectable position. I just ...

I like it. I'm a big fan of Popper, btw. Something I didn't mention in the OP was the postulation of unseen entities. That's very important. But I tho...

Great theme. I think people can be said to hide from one image of reality (or myth) in another image of reality (or myth). The unmediated "real" reali...

Respectfully, what is the use of prayer then? Why should God send his only son to die? If we take human-like motives away from God, I can't see how he...

Exactly. I see the same spirit on both sides. In my view the individual does well to transcend the temptation of this morbid solidarity. "Fear is the ...

First, I respect your position and appreciate your directness and politeness. I can understand the desirability of female leadership. But I can't get ...

I respect this approach. I think we are "seduced" by narratives and find "reasons" when we meet others seduced by other narratives. Or that's a narrat...

Thanks for the feedback. For the most part it seems that most theists want an anthropomorphic God. He should think and love, just as we think and love...

I relate to this, for what it's worth. We strive toward such a universal place, but the smallest unit of meaning is, in a sense, the unique personalit...

Actually that's a classic them in philosophy. Hegel comes to mind.

This is a side point, but it's my understanding that Einstein generalized Newton. Speeds were low enough and measurement was fuzzy enough so that Newt...

Thanks for the info. It's a great idea for a thread. I hope others participate.

This sort of feminism is so nakedly sexist that it cries out for satire if not condemnation. I'm embarrassed for the men who show up under such condit...

Good point. Perhaps the issues are mixed. The scientist derives authority from the great Cause. I like science, but it's a little creepy how science f...

Oh, then we're in a similar situation, since I have a fellowship. My only job is to show up and get good grades --and eventually pass some qualificati...

Exactly! Maybe it's good for their work, but maybe the awareness that one is being tricked messes with the data.