Mitchell

Good point

Because when we value something we are viewing it in a certain way, as having certain features. This might help determine whether there is anything th...

Perhaps what we need to do is to tie intrinsic value to needs not wants.

Which brings us to a central question: "What is it to value something?"

I couldn't agree with you more, and in fact, I have argued so in print. . I think that there is a wider and a narrower sense of 'desire'. The wider se...

I'd put the first appearnce of an eternal realm separate from the physical world in Plato. Although he called the Forms "divine", they weren't in any ...

1. Regarding ‘Theism’ as short for “Classical Theism”. Let me stipulate that when I used the term ‘Theism’, I thought it would be understood as meanin...

Sort of, but not exactly. If the Christian (and Muslim) God does not exist, I don't see any reason for positing a different kind of deity. So the ques...

Since Western Philosophy occurs in a predominantly Christian culture, and other forms of theism are not prevelent, it is Classical Theism that has rec...

Perhaps, then, I need to be more specific. What I gave as a definition of Theism IS the way in which it has been used in Philosophy. Since this is a P...

Well then enlighten me. Having taught Philosophy of Religion for 25 years, I'd be very interested to learn what I have been doing wrong all those year...

How would you distinguish Pantheism, e.g. Spinoza or Hegel, from Panpsychism? BTW: Theism holds that God is separate from the world because God create...

I find 4 of Feser's arguments unconvincing because they rely so heavily on Thomistic metaphysics, which I find also unconvincing. His fifth argument, ...

Exactly. The only problem with this stategy is that both the Cosmological and the Teleological Arguments fail. (Despite the contortions of Edward Fese...

The Evidential Argument in effect asks "Which is more reasonable: (1) the amount and distribution of evil and suffering is all necessary (for God's pl...

Yes.

There are two "Arguments from Evil": a logical one and an evidential one. The Logical Argument from Evil in one form is invalid; in its valid form, it...

The distribution of suffering and evil. And I find the "Free Will Defense" particularly unconvincing. In fact, I think it creates more problems for Th...

'Theism' as it is used in Philosophy of Religion is the view that there is one supreme, perfect being who exists separately from the world, who is the...

Panpsychism is not a kind of Theism at all, and I'm not sure what route one would take to go from Panpsychism to Theism.

Just a FYI, so that if outside of this Forum you see the phrase "Socratic Paradox", you'll recognize what is at issue.

One of the questions that motivated Plato in his Republic is the question "How can one be mentally healthy in (mentally) sick society?" (Or so it seem...

Note that in the academic scholarship on both Socrates and Plato, Socrates' claim to know that he knows nothing is NOT referred to as "the Socratic Pa...

Plato had a theory of what might be called "psychic harmony", where all the elements of the psyche worked in harmony and did not interfere with each o...

Although someone named "Wisdom" quoting Ken Wilber makes me wonder.

The answer to the question "What Is Value?" needs to focus on Intrinsic Value. Utility is only extrinsic value. Something is useful only if it leads t...

Your Platonism might require you to change your identity, from "Mystic Monist" to "Mystic Dualist".

Does Husserl count? I have taken several graduate seminars just on Husserl and have used Cartesian Meditations in my own courses. But if he is arguing...

Ah, reminds me of Plato. So the immoral person is mentally ill?

Religious language must get its meaning from extending that of ordinary speech. In ordinary language, 'faith' means "trust", as "to have faith in the ...

Ah, but I existed before I joined this group, so your mind did not create me.

Nope.

According to Kant: 1. What can we know? 2. What ought we to do? 3. For what can we hope?

The voices in my head keep me from hearing the sound of silence.

Is my toaster, or automibile, or any other product of human activity, something that "is existentially contingent upon language"?

No argument from me there. My point was we ought not to take "the facts" as the starting point for our philosophy, when the prior question about the n...

Do geckos exist apart from language? Is "gecko" a universal?

Note Plato's criterion for universals/forms: "When two or more things are called by the same name, they have the same nature." In other words, "same n...

I think a transcendental approach is a good starting point. What must be the case in order for there to be perceptual knowedge, scientific knowledge, ...

Not just my "knowledge" of your mind, but my knowledge of my own consciousness would seem to be "non-falsifiable. What would count as evidence against...

Actually, I think that in today's academe, relativism has become a/the dogma.

Asks "What's the benefit?" Writing helps clarify thought.

Edward Feser, Five Proofs of the Existence of God. Reading "Proof Four" and am still not convinced.

Essential attributes and accidental attibutes are both properties, and properties are universals. (I think.)

From SEP article of Form and Matter "Aristotle does in fact use the expressions “prime matter” (prôtê hulê) and “primary underlying thing” (prôton hup...

Aristotle scholars call it "Prime Matter", not "Prime Substance". See, for example, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/form-matter/#PrimMatt (I don't ...

"at least God is supported by the evidence rather than contrary to the evidence." Whoa! Although this is a topic for a separate thread, I certainly wo...

I am not sure that Aristotle would accept a distinction between the way we say things are and the way they are. Any Aristotle scholars here?

"The Facts speak for themselves." Or maybe they don't.

Not much worse than their critics, or, especially, the target of their ridicule. I just wish they would stick to arguments and not reduce the discussi...