anonymous66

The reason I brought this up, is because Mortimer Adler is claiming that man and the animals are definitely NOT on a continuum. He insists that man IS...

I don't think it is about intelligence and the brain. I'm asking if animals are capable of abstract thought (can they think about things they've never...

The short answer is, "no, I don't believe that men are, on average, smarter than women." I understand that some have gone down that path, and the evid...

I just finished Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life, and will soon start his book The Inner Citadel. I'm also reading: Ten Philosophical Mistak...

I get the sense that Dennett is more of a New Atheist evangelist/apologist than a legitimate philosopher. I do like his thoughts on free-will. But, I ...

Is the Turing test a test for the subjective experience that (hopefully) we all agree determines and defines consciousness? Or is it a measure of whet...

Well said. Good point.

Right. Searle points out that there is a huge difference between simulating consciousness, and actually creating an artificial intelligence that is ac...

You can hear Christopher himself explain his reasoning here... He definitely doesn't claim "the reason I'm so smart is because I have a big head." But...

I think guilt can be a positive or a negative. Guilt can be an impetus for change. But, I've also come to understand that when people feel guilty, the...

Christopher Langan has a huge head. Even he speculates that his head/brain size has something to do with his high IQ.

@Jamesk Regarding a new form of dualism... I think you may have something there. I mentioned earlier that Searle accepts both physical and mental prop...

Well, regardless of the analogy used, yes, I think we can compensate for the fact we're using our brains to examine our brains. And I think we both ac...

@unenlightened I think we're on the same page, as I often speak of provisional knowledge and fallibility. but in my analogy, to stop the car would be ...

I do agree with Adler that we can reject both nominalism and Plato's forms. We humans do have the intellectual capacity to take particulars and group ...

It still seems to me that I can either conclude that we know virtually nothing of reality- so solipsism or radical skepticism, or that what mankind is...

Adler included Locke in his criticism of the empiricists, but says that Locke did acknowledge abstract thought, and that the other empiricists critici...

@unenlightened Which of the poll options do you suppose is closer to what is the case? I think Searle is closest.

I guess I only see a couple of options. I can accept naive realism, despite the fact I know there is no known standard way to view the world (all crea...

@unenlightened I get the sense you're saying that it's not possible to form an opinion about the nature of consciousness. What of evidence and scienti...

I'm not aware of any other way to view consciousness. The evidence suggests that when the physical brain is changed or damaged, then there are changes...

Thanks, darth, I hadn't encountered that concept before.

I just can't make panpsychism "work". The way Chalmers describes it, everything is conscious, even electrons. Those small conscious things combine to ...

Can you describe substance dualism in a way that doesn't include a soul? Descartes definitely had that belief, didn't he? I definitely see a distincti...

I believe that Descartes did believe in God and souls. So, his was basically a theological position, wasn't it? Although he did use a reasonable scien...

Searle does sound to me like he is promoting property dualism (or maybe even pluralism - maybe there are other properties beside physical and mental?)...

Hanover, are you suggesting that Searle is a property dualist, even though that position is one he specifically denies and argues against the idea?

I suppose I could change the wording slightly, but regardless, the question is about the nature of consciousness and whether or not any description or...

I think that is the point that Searle is making. We do know. If we know anything about consciousness, then we know that it is real. So "illusion" is a...

It seems to me that what many (including Dennett and Searle) may be trying to express is the reality that our consciousness is evidentially generated ...

duplicate post.

Dennett does use the word "illusion" when he describes consciousness. If illusion, then that is all you can say about consciousness. I think Greg Kouk...

Selected Shorts.

I wonder if the issues could be due to power outages. There have been some in some states due to recent storms.

There is a way to get some data from the site. Try this http://web.archive.org/web/20160314195451/http://forums.philosophyforums.com/general-philosoph...

Dang, I hope it comes back up at least once. I want the synopsis I made of Pierre Hadot's book.

It's like you believe that either there is no God, or that any God who does exist will punish people for not believing. Aren't there other possibiliti...

I've toyed with the idea of calling myself a Christian Atheist. My shortest answer to your dialogue is to suggest that if there does exist an intellig...

I'm also interested in Whitehead and his philosophy, but all I've done so far is read a couple of opinions about him and his work, so I can't answer y...

“It is the true believer’s ability to ‘shut his eyes and stop his ears’ to facts that do not deserve to be either seen or heard which is the source of...

The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a god or not. -- Eric Hoffer, T...

"The perceptions of dreamers and madmen, as perceptions, are just as good as those of others; the only objection to them is that, as their context is ...

"But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attacks from both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy." Bertrand Russell

hey guys, I've continued to hang out on The Philosophy Forum, but missed you guys, so I thought I'd stop in. anony