Ludwig V

There's a lot here I can agree with. But pursuing all that would result in scattering of time and attention. So I've tried to identify what is at the ...

My summary was badly expressed, so my meaning was entirely obscured. There are the modes of being, so we need to understand, not only the three modes,...

I can see that. It seems to me that the difference between nihilism is that the nihilist is committed to not being committed and the existentialist is...

I think I understand the rest of what you say. But this suggests to me that applying any entity having the characteristics of Dasein will cause that e...

I grant you that the ancient people who thought that the sun was a god were unfettered by our culture and upbringing. It would seem that we have devel...

I'm clutching at straws here. At first sight, you may be saying that existence is the "is" in any predicate. Do you mean something like "existence is ...

Perhaps it is enough to understand the interactions. Not quite the intended meaning. Wittgenstein was saying that the ideal world seems more comprehen...

I'm not sure what you're getting at. But it's not about the commitment, thought there's plenty to say about that. It's about which of three/four possi...

I can see what you mean in what you write. "Prosaic" is a complex idea, and quite annoying for those in a poetic or transcendental state of mind. Thos...

Profuse apologies. I'm afraid I haven't understood properly how the software the works when one quotes a quotation. Of course you are right. But that ...

There is a great deal packed into this sentence. It does seem to me that the Humean separation of fact and value should really be considered more care...

Thank you for this. I need to think about how to reply.

I wouldn't claim to understand what a causal link is. Tracking back our exchanges here, I realize that we have both been indulging a favourite trope i...

Yes, that's the possibility I was getting at. In addition, I was hinting at the possibility that the "truth" or maybe just something deeper (whatever ...

Exactly. :smile:

Because it doesn't recognize the complexity and variety of the things that we do. Compare the Watsonian behaviourists who analyzed everything that we ...

I wouldn't know about that. The Wikipedia article doesn't mention Heidegger. But he does seem to have had some views that are vaguely reminiscent of h...

It's very odd. There seems to be a lot of activity around this topic now. You may be right that it was just something that was in the air at the time....

Thanks. But your subsequent comments opened up lines of thought that I have not explored before. Thank you also for that. I settled for the opening up...

I see two different representations of the issues at play in this. They are often confused. The context in which Witt. talked about silence in the Tra...

Yes, a new and exciting path forward was very much the theme at the time. I was aware of it in the late fifties and early sixties. Without realizing i...

Yes. It's an important idea, at least in Sartre. This is where the tricky ideas of bad faith and authenticity come in. (I don't know the others well e...

I wasn't sure whether to call the three numbered propositions you quoted hypotheses or axioms or what. I see that you call them possibilities, which i...

I didn't pay enough attention to "extremely unlikely" in this hypothesis/axiom/premiss. That can't be verified or falsified in any of the usual ways. ...

Philosophical discussions often start so many hares that I find myself trying to juggle several different lines of thought at the same time. Back to t...

I assume this quotation is from Hazel Barnes. It gives me a a starting-point to explain my attitude to existentialism. The quotation suggests that it ...

So I have to imagine myself as being a sim - and hence not a person - and not knowing it? So what was it intended to be a test for? (I assume you mean...

Yes. But how realistic is it to set out to think about all the edge cases and/or all the interactions between all the features?

Yes. But I find it very hard to state the point clearly. I think we have to distinguish them this way. When my heart fails to fulfil it purpose - what...

Quite so. But I notice that you don't disagree with what I say. My argument is that if one starts the Turing test by specifying that the subject is a ...

Yes. But they are all philosophers with a mission. Although, thinking about it, I'm not at all sure that the distinction really stands up. Yes. But th...

There's no doubt that there are important - and oft-neglected values here. They struggle to be seen or heard in the world as it is. That's right. The ...

I think that you are not talking about the same question as Relativist. (See below). You are positing that it is people who are "in" the sim - i.e. (I...

So how does this question differ from the brain in a vat, from Descartes' demon or from the supposed possibility that we are all dreaming? So how does...

I describe human beings, in contexts like this, as our paradigm of a person. That's not exactly a definition - I'm not aware of any definition that is...

They've got a point. From what I've read, Zen encourages effort, while at the same time suggesting that it is beside the point. Typical. I've seen dis...

The analysis of Descartes' argument is a bit off-topic here, so I'll resist commenting. But I can't resist saying that I agree with you. Yes. I did no...

Yes, that's right. I agree also that persons, as we understand them, can only exist in an environment. Whether one includes that environment as part o...

I notice that you are not arguing that my summary is wrong and I accept that there's much complication when you start considering things in more detai...

On further thought, although it is true that Western philosophy does not pay much attention to it, training is not treated as an important feature of ...

Yes. Christianity has a similar trope. So does Islam. My point is that in Bhuddhism the shift is not merely cognitive. It's very complicated.

I don't think this is Lewis Carroll's tortoise arguing with Achilles. Understanding this is heart of the problem. We need to be much more careful abou...

Yes, but there is also the idea that understanding requires training the mind - or maybe even reconstructing it. (I mean, by meditation, of course) Ch...

Yes. It's like the difference between parasitism and symbiosis. To put it this way, they are the same phenomenon, except that parasitism damages the h...

I am pretty confident that the first sentence is right. As to the second sentence, I find myself considering the possibility that the two concepts of ...

Thank you for telling me that. It helps a lot. I agree with you, though I would describe it as hand-waving. I agree also that sometimes it is best to ...

Quite so. Perhaps another time.

I'm not sure about whether or in what way the actual physics of the person/computer are relevant. Clearly, we know that human beings are persons witho...

It's one thing to retrieve the wisdom. It's quite another to one bring back the fool's gold. Effective panning is essential. And then I wonder whether...

Thank you very much. I didn't know that Wittgenstein articulated this thought.