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Thales

['Member']Joined: December 05, 2023 at 13:35Last active: June 24, 2025 at 19:023 discussions32 comments
Location: At times I reside in the state of anxiety, and at others in the state of euphoria.

Bio

I am a curious journeyman.

Favourite Philosopher

Heraclitus, Wittgenstein

Favourite Quotations

"Outside a dog, reading is man's best friend. Inside a dog, it's too dark to read."

-- Groucho Marx

Discussions (3)

Comments

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...
November 21, 2024 at 14:25
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...
October 08, 2024 at 15:55
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 ...
October 08, 2024 at 08:30
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 ...
September 28, 2024 at 16:46
"Desperate" is my middle name! :cool:
September 27, 2024 at 15:58
Can a qualitative difference between humans and other animals be found in what humans "do" differently rather than how humans "are" different? For exa...
September 27, 2024 at 08:00
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...
September 26, 2024 at 09:04
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, ...
August 25, 2024 at 15:43
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...
August 19, 2024 at 13:26
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...
August 16, 2024 at 14:18
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 ...
August 04, 2024 at 16:24
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...
August 04, 2024 at 15:39
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 ...
August 02, 2024 at 12:03
I like your theistic (deistic?) spin on my thought experiment! :up:
July 14, 2024 at 15:54
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...
July 14, 2024 at 13:55
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?”...
July 06, 2024 at 04:28
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...
June 15, 2024 at 14:13
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...
June 15, 2024 at 14:00
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...
June 13, 2024 at 20:45
Actually, whereas Descartes may have proven “thinking” exists, his leap to proving his own existence is less certain. He argued: “I will doubt everyth...
June 11, 2024 at 18:12
Thank you for bringing this idea to my attention, Patterner. I really like how a seemingly hopeless situation like uncountable air molecules can – by ...
June 11, 2024 at 17:04
My sincere apologies, Relativist. I was actually using your list of “determining factors” for making a decision as a general description of how determ...
June 11, 2024 at 12:20
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...
June 10, 2024 at 23:18
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...
April 04, 2024 at 13:38
Great analysis and application of Frege. I remember first learning about the Morning Star/Evening Star/Venus when reading about Pythagoras. In discuss...
April 04, 2024 at 13:27
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 ...
April 02, 2024 at 17:13
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 ...
February 22, 2024 at 14:07
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...
February 08, 2024 at 21:58
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...
February 08, 2024 at 19:47
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 ...
January 09, 2024 at 16:14
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 ...
January 01, 2024 at 19:37
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...
December 26, 2023 at 22:48