I think I can make sense of that. I've taken a vow not to be sucked into commenting on anything quantum. I'll only make an ass of myself. But I can't ...
Obviously. Consequently, we are inescapably part of the universe that we observe and interact with. There is an understanding of this that says that o...
The whole universe could, I guess, be regarded as a single body. For a universe that consists of a single body, there is no way to differentiate rest ...
Yes, there's a real problem about EPP. The root of the problem is the idea that something can exist before any predicates apply to it, or that somethi...
This reads to me as a specification of something that may well be possible. But without specific cases, one cannot assess what it really means. That s...
So what is more fundamental than that? Oh, I see. The criterion you are applying is simply "being in a relation with something that exists". I can mak...
I was very impressed by this post. It demonstrates things about language that most of us have to gesture at. At the same time, your post manages to ex...
It could. The question would be what impact would that have on how one thought about that process. I'm very suspicious of the idea that we, or the uni...
I think that may be common ground. The issue may be what the implications are. I think we have also agreed that our knowledge of how the world was bef...
A neat point. I'm not sure how convincing it would be for a true idealist. I think you might find that they might argue that since the cosmos was not ...
I think that one cannot name something by merely thinking, because the name has to be shared to be meaningful. Hence I focused on the speaking rather ...
It may well be special because it is observed. But observing something doesn’t normally cause it to exist. So even if it is special because it is obse...
Well, if a difficult philosophical point is not worth spending time on, what is? I could not persist unless you were prepared to persist with me - so ...
A tempting argument. But you beg the question, which is whether speaking of something affects it. An obvious question is, "In what way is it affected"...
Yes. This is very like the argument that Berkeley calls his Master Argument, because he says he will rely on that argument in favour of his idealism a...
In answer to the second question, the short answer is no. In order to count something as visible it is only necessary to demonstrate that it is capabl...
So, I went through your OP carefully. I’m afraid that I do not come away with a general criterion for mind-independence. So I won’t be able to meet yo...
You have noticed that I am cautious. That’s true (most of the time). So, with due caution, that looks like something I can accept. Apart from deleting...
That sounds like my cup of tea. But which article exactly. What if a thing is the cause of a sensation? I'm very glad to hear it. It all depends on wh...
I'm a bit confused. Are you saying that the methods by which we come to know what something is aren't methods at all? That seems odd. How did you come...
Quite so. No-one except Nietzsche seems to have spotted the distinction between compulsion and determinism. There's something we agree on. I'm offerin...
I'm sorry this has taken so long. I hope this is not a disappointment to you. All these quotations come from the original post for the thread "The Min...
Yes - "too compromised" means "not working as it should or normally does." If their mental state was normal, we would hold them responsible. Yet a det...
you can imagine that I'm not paticularly sympathetic - especially to the second sentence. However, I've read the first paragraph of your thread and wi...
Then I'm afraid I don't see what you are getting at. I'm afraid I'm lost again. This doesn't help me at all. I don't understand any of the above. A ge...
Are you also saying that there is no connection between those two facts? I don't see that things that don't exist are relevant here. Mind-independence...
It may be that I/we are stretching the language. There's not a lot of popular interest in the modes of existence - even, I suspect, among philosophers...
I think I understand that. So "unicorn" is not an irrelevant example. I like it just because it is not straightforward, but requires some thought. Tha...
It's an excellent topic. It might well. The variations will be very instructive. If I believe that the moon is exists independently of what I, or anyo...
I think it helps. I don't think there is much missing in the physical explanation of a rainbow. A rainbow, understood as we perceive it and conceive o...
Well, I guess that's an opening for me to chip in. I do have a problem, however, that I haven't got my head around what the criteria are for mind-inde...
I'm no expert, either. But somehow you are presenting the issues in a way I can get my head around. There are definitely strange things going on in ph...
I don't disagree with that. The problems with conscription are partly ethical and partly practical. So conscription even of adults is a step over the ...
I don't think conscription is OK. Period. Nobody likes it, not even the army. If you have to force someone to join the army (or navy, air force, whate...
Yes, indeed. I suspect that motive is very much present in this case. Yes. Getting those in power to vote for something that will make their lives mor...
Insofar as recognition of another ideology as disagreeing with oneself means recognizing (often at the same time as denying) that the other side are a...
Yes. I know. But I thought it was a theoretical discussion. I didn't suggest assuming anything. On the contrary, I suggested evaluating the informatio...
Do you mean that someone will have to write these tests of competence - with the issue that a miracle of dispassionate objectivity would be needed? Th...
If I've got it right, the prefrontal cortex doesn't stop developing until around 25. So that ship sailed long, long ago. Yes, it is true that younger ...
That's been the classic arguments against democracy since the Athenian expedition to Sicily 415-413 BCE. Plato builds a political philosophy around it...
This reminds me of the Aristotle's practical syllogism, which is supposed to give a structure that applies to all actions whatever. In a way, it does,...
You put the difference very neatly. Only, I didn't intend it as a criticism, but as an analysis. BTW, yes, I had thought of Ryle when Ramsey first cam...
That's a rather charitable interpretation of "forced". It's an interesting issue. On the one hand, it seems ideologically loaded and it is hard to bel...
Well, gambling was important in the development of probability theory from the beginning. So it's no surprise that it crops up here. More than that, i...
It's a good point. Yet arguments do fly back and forth between ideologies, even though in principle they do not recognize how radical the break is at ...
I think I may be a bit more sceptical than you. But I agree that you have outlined the context in which we need to think about this technique. The dis...
Help with consistency is always a good idea. Dropping induction, I fear, may be more difficult. Pavlovian conditioning works at levels beyond the reac...
OK. That makes sense. I'm trying to keep the enthusiasm for Bayes in proportion by anchoring our conversation in how we do things, or how we think we ...
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