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Oh yes we go way back actually. I will try to dance a merry jig.

I agree, which is why I'm glad I don't tend to do that.

Can you explain ? To be clear, I did rip that Feuerbach quote out of context. I was also thinking of this, which never fails to move me. https://www.g...

Oh I did notice the contradictions in that protagonist. Your guess is plausible. Even with the contradictions (because of them?), it's a powerful tale...

Note that I never offered the thesis 'meaning cannot be divorced from use.' I'm not saying it's a bad thesis. I'm saying a certain theory of meaning d...

It was a good analogy. :starstruck:

I believe I have offered various arguments, and I constantly allude to philosophers who are famous for making just that kind of case.

The analogy is meant to emphasize how initially reasonable Aristotle's assumption is. It's 'obvious.' It's also obvious there are 'more' rational numb...

Exactly ! and Heidegger took this all the way to primordial unity. That's why talking about the 'subject of experience' looks like a Cartesian distort...

I'm saying : that's not radical enough. The self you can talk about is an object. Yes. But the self you seem to want to talk about, as I see it, is no...

Thanks! I followed the link. I found some weird stuff ! The human mind is predisposed from early childhood to assume object permanence, to assume that...

:up: I think the temptation is to think that we all meet in our depths, in some kind of shared immaterial-internal space, where the same 'pure' pain (...

Actually, it's put in the mouth of the Jesus. I do remember talk of this stuff by Paul as well, and maybe that affected what got written ? Christ is t...

This is not unlike Aristotle's articulation of 'common sense' that I quoted in another thread. We are shrewder now. We have asked after the nature of ...

:up:

It's the motte/bailey point I made earlier. Ordinary mentalistic talk is fine, but something weird happens as it's made absolute. An 'impossible' sema...

:up: Yes, one is one around here. Our deepest piece of software is perhaps this enacted 'myth' or 'software' of the ghost (singular) at the controls o...

That's a misunderstanding though, of my own case anyhow. The point is an awareness of a certain logical sloppiness that's difficult to point out or to...

Becker's The Denial of Death quotes William James on the world being (existentially) a stage for heroism. What I'm aiming at is something like the ego...

:up: That sounds right. We might make exceptions for those who identity more with creativity and courage even in these fields. Where do we fit in ? Ho...

It's wise to be grateful, so it was good that you reminded us of the good. :smile:

To me the problem is we don't have a semantic grip here. It's not that I don't relate to what you and those in your camp are saying. I get it. But I'v...

:up: This might be the unjustified (yet automatic?) assumption that causes all the trouble. But doesn't the fact that the bornblind can talk about col...

:up: I feel you. I love my university's library, and I have benefited very much from many scholars who work for universities.

I'm not sure how much of this is interpretation/projection after the fact (though I can find some quotes to support it), but I tend to understand a pu...

Yes, I was going to announce this. Also (no pressure) feel free to use he/him. (You can also use 'it' 'cuz I'm Darwinian Eh Eye).

Is this synthetic or analytic knowledge ? A discovery or a paraphrase ? What is the nature of this self-given self ? Is this person itself given ? Are...

:up: Certainty might be the peculiar obsession of those who wear an associated costume. Others might prioritize taste or courage or kindness. But resp...

:up: 'We don't know what we are talking about.' Of course we know practically well enough, but it's like fog that we mostly don't notice is fog. We re...

:up: Yes. And if someone methodically designates an elusive entity that cannot, even in principle, be plugged into the rest of the causal nexus, then ...

How could something like this be checked or falsified ? What kinds of things do we in fact take for possessors of 'firstperson experience'? Talking pr...

I agree with you about using language to express thoughts and feelings that are otherwise hard to express. On the point quoted though, I think we can ...

One problem with this privacy talk is the implied possibility of a p-zombie. You insist that some locked door exist which can never be opened, and the...

:up: Right. And note what seems to the unquestioned dominance of the 'label' metaphor. 'Green' is thought of as labeling some immaterial Experience. T...

:up: Right. To me this looks like a metaphysical interpretation of QM. One can be more informal in an interview, but he's being hilariously reckless.

:up: He seems to be making quite a few of the classic mistakes.

:up: I don't like the metaphysical wrapping paper, but it's probably cool to study some of this on the level of detail. I've programmed worlds with li...

:up: I happened on a strong paper once that minimized the difference. I'd be glad to hear what you come up with.

It seems like a metaphysics and therefore subject to other tests, like consistency and meaningfulness. Both criteria are entangled and difficult, thou...

He made some interesting and plausible points about perceiving quantities of water that might be worth something. But it's all dressed up in bad metap...

Hoffman : The idea that what we’re doing is measuring publicly accessible objects, the idea that objectivity results from the fact that you and I can ...

Maybe someone could call electrons useful fictions if they left ordinary stuff like microwaves alone. Personally I go with Popper's critical realism o...

In the ordinary way of speaking, I basically agree. That's what makes this issue so tough to discuss. Our mentalistic language of private experience e...

OK, so he doesn't believe in brains ? Neurons, brains, space … these are just symbols we use, they’re not real. It’s not that there’s a classical brai...

Here's a piece of an interview w/ Hoffman found here : https://www.quantamagazine.org/the-evolutionary-argument-against-reality-20160421/ Q : So every...

:up: That sounds right.

:up: I'm glad you reminded me of it. PMN is beautifully written. CIS is maybe even better, because more existential and less technical. The essays ten...

The book looks so self-cancelling from just that sample that I'm surprised an editor didn't bring it up. If we just see fitness then our seeing oursel...

I do value the 'knowledge industrial complex,' and I don't think anyone will muffle Brandom, for instance, but it's not hard to find examples of profe...

Thank you for the sincere and detailed answer. Did you ever see one of Rorty's last essays expressing that kind of point, an appreciation for poetry a...