Thales

This is all great stuff. Ever since I decided to major in Philosophy in college many decades ago, I had to face the inevitable questions from family a...

I believe I’ve narrowed it down to one of two possibilities: The escape clause is either receiving a free ticket to The Louvre, or being granted a con...

Instead of art and morality being juxtaposed, is it possible to look at morality as a subset (or genre) of art? Someone living a “moral life” (define ...

Thank you, Ludwig V, for reflecting further on my question, and trying to rescue me from myself. I don’t even think my mother would do that! :cool: I ...

"Desperate" is my middle name! :cool:

Can a qualitative difference between humans and other animals be found in what humans "do" differently rather than how humans "are" different? For exa...

This is great stuff, Wayfarer... "meaning" is nonorientable, like the one-sided, one-edged Möbius strip with an infinite loop. Makes total sense to me...

What I had initially thought was a nice and tidy solution to the personal identity problem has been shattered into a myriad of interesting arguments, ...

This reminds me of Karl Popper's "Bold Conjectures," which he posited as an important, initial part of doing science that is then put through the rigo...

Please forgive me if this is totally off-topic, but this discussion brings to my mind Wittenstein’s Tractatus, which on the opening page reads: “The w...

I may be channeling Wittgenstein (I can hear the collective groans out there), but doesn’t the fact that we can have this discussion at all mean that ...

I’m humbled and honored to be named discussion winner. But what is my prize? (I hope it’s the poker Ludwig Wittgenstein brandished at Karl Popper!) :c...

I may be hearing Heraclitus playing the lyre here, but it seems to me that “oppositeness” is the simplest possible building block of the universe. In ...

I like your theistic (deistic?) spin on my thought experiment! :up:

I say we flip this discussion on its head and, instead of postulating that “life, “human beings” and “consciousness” evolved from non-living matter, w...

Isn’t all of this just begging the question? I mean, are we not allowed to challenge the assertion that “necessary existence” is a “positive quality?”...

You’re exactly right, ssu. And upon reflection, I should really throw in the towel. Because even “hard-core” free willists believe in determinism – al...

Thank you, Patterner. I really enjoyed that post by Zarathustra. Great stuff! Maybe I'm in the wrong forum here, and should switch over to science fic...

Back when I was young and innocent, I read an article by Richard Taylor, a Brown University philosophy professor. Taylor’s view was that some phenomen...

Actually, whereas Descartes may have proven “thinking” exists, his leap to proving his own existence is less certain. He argued: “I will doubt everyth...

Thank you for bringing this idea to my attention, Patterner. I really like how a seemingly hopeless situation like uncountable air molecules can – by ...

My sincere apologies, Relativist. I was actually using your list of “determining factors” for making a decision as a general description of how determ...

In reading this discussion, I am struck with the idea that the reason determinism is so compelling is also why it’s so unpersuasive. What is this reas...

I seem to recall Bertrand Russell making the same argument. In proclaiming, "I think, therefore I am," Descartes has snuck "I" in the back door. All h...

Great analysis and application of Frege. I remember first learning about the Morning Star/Evening Star/Venus when reading about Pythagoras. In discuss...

If we are to know anything about external objects, then don’t we need to (somehow) have access to that object of knowledge? And to have access, don’t ...

In reading this discussion, I’m wondering: Is “anxiety” a condition that strikes only when things are beyond our control? Or is it possible for us to ...

I am reminded of Wittenstein’s “Tractatus,” which on the opening page reads: “The world is the totality of facts, not of things.” “Facts,” for example...

Thank you for your thoughtful response to my post. Although I also appreciate the input given previously by the other responders, you actually went th...

Your original post (and subsequent responses) are very compelling to me, Wayfarer. Well done! Too many times when science is challenged, it is on the ...

I realize this discussion has taken many twists and turns over the past year, but I keep finding myself wondering about (and coming back to) the same ...

I found myself nodding at Wayfarer’s take on all this above: “o objective description of brain-states can convey or capture the first-person nature of...