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Fire Ologist

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You assume you are reasonable but your own reason teaches you that you are not using reason. Just sane enough to know you’re insane. Sounds like a Kaf...
March 25, 2024 at 03:30
I follow you on the logical analysis. Does “I am” itself mean anything, show you anything, without the syllogism and analytics? You say it all fails. ...
March 25, 2024 at 03:23
“whether they think or not”? I thought we were on the same page but we can’t even seem to connect on what “I am” means and now you are bringing in wha...
March 25, 2024 at 01:03
Yes, I can doubt everything except that I am doubting (which already includes that I am, which is the point of cogito). What do you mean “at the level...
March 24, 2024 at 22:29
Has anyone ever wondered if they might not actually exist successfully? A good solid “wait a minute…am I?” You doubt everything first, see if you can....
March 24, 2024 at 21:48
Can’t humor you there. It’s not possible that both you do not really think you are typing this and I don’t really think I am reading this; at least on...
March 24, 2024 at 19:27
Really guys - we are at the root of any certainty, any practical use for logic at all - that is the subject. There is a practical, raw observation at ...
March 24, 2024 at 18:13
Hi Bill, I’m a practicing Catholic, BA in philosophy too. Always good to know someone thinking for themselves while grateful to God for inviting us al...
March 24, 2024 at 17:49
No, it's discovery of a certain objective fact in reality. It's just a discovery each has to make all by themselves. It doesn't mean nothing is discov...
March 24, 2024 at 14:55
Completely agree the statement "I think, therefore I am" demonstrates nothing objective to you about me. But "I think therefore I am" or better put, "...
March 24, 2024 at 14:40
That is too sweeping a statement. It’s not meaningless. It’s something kid can derive meaning from. It’s not possible for you to think you are while y...
March 24, 2024 at 14:17
It’s a tiny bit of logic as a statement, but it is a monumental basis for science. Things we may know can be demonstrably proven true, and valid and s...
March 24, 2024 at 13:26
Not for the same reasons. I disagree with that. My point is that it is tautology, not that it is unsound or invalid. Saying “I think therefore I am” t...
March 24, 2024 at 13:13
I agree too. I think = I am thinking. So “I am thinking, therefore I am” isn’t much of an argument. It’s a tautology. Descartes pre-loads being as thi...
March 24, 2024 at 04:06
Extraterrestrial refers to a physical thing or many physical things. You will not get to any use of the term extraterrestrial until you place the eart...
March 23, 2024 at 21:53
If everyone, from their heart and deepest convictions, set out to help and serve everyone else first before they even asked what they themselves wante...
March 23, 2024 at 21:43
I am 100% certain that you know of some difference between “certainty” and any other term. Or this conversation wouldn’t work. That’s not quite parall...
March 23, 2024 at 21:17
We are here distinguishing “certainty” as a term. In order to move from one sentence to the next using this term, we must make, we must take something...
March 23, 2024 at 20:54
If there is any use in the term “certainty” there must be something taken to be 100% certain. Otherwise, the term wouldn’t work at all, at any percent...
March 23, 2024 at 20:37
That looks like an example of a tautologous kind of certainty. How does knowing trillions of things with certainty respond to what I said? Can’t tell ...
March 23, 2024 at 19:18
Love it. The tautological kind shows us what certainty is, but gives us no real content. The simple non-buggy program we build is perfect example of c...
March 23, 2024 at 17:01
Interesting discussion. I find that Eastern thought on mind or self instructive. Western traditions make too much of fixed, reduced constructs which g...
March 02, 2024 at 22:39
. I think I agree that mechanic is to racing driver as philosopher is to politician, or at least mechanic can be to racing driver, as philosopher can ...
March 01, 2024 at 04:19
I agree with the general direction you're taking, but we cannot remove walls without revealing new ones. Walls are the ground we walk on, and the sent...
March 01, 2024 at 03:53
"The answer to the ultimate question is..........................42."
February 24, 2024 at 15:28
Sounds like more of a gay science, than just an art. Idle "Truth" talk being one component of the science, or maybe a shading tone of brown as you re-...
February 23, 2024 at 13:53
I say no it's not just idle talk, but I think life is so full, there is room for objective, absolute, eternal truth. Philosophy, for me, involves the ...
February 23, 2024 at 00:03
Looking back I really shouldn't have said that and need to be more clear. I love Nietzsche. The world needed him. Future generations should all read h...
February 22, 2024 at 23:18
I'd say it leads us back to a starting point. This may somehow mean the same thing. I guess it actually adds that it's not dead, it lives at the start...
February 22, 2024 at 03:03
Exactly. I never heard of Eugene Gendlin, and I wouldn't say it that way (I. obviously, would use way more words than he did). But it fits right in li...
February 22, 2024 at 02:42
He goes right to heart of epistemology: And ends the discussion. Beautiful. Then he gives us a reason to go on being reasonable among the objects we m...
February 21, 2024 at 05:39
Thanks for the post. Owe you a big reply.
February 20, 2024 at 05:46
I appreciate the reply, Joshs. My point was that no matter what the starting point is, and there are more than I mentioned, enough holes have been pok...
February 20, 2024 at 05:44
Sartre basically hovered around the starting line just like the rest. "Consciousness of" is a brilliant reformulation of the predicament. Nietzsche, m...
February 18, 2024 at 19:53
This clarifies the question for me. I was talking about the fact that the first unit ever made in a mind, so the first number ever counted, was a "1",...
February 18, 2024 at 04:08
In the end, after all the true history would be sorted out, to me, they would still represent the whole rest of the world, that he was there in a hors...
February 18, 2024 at 02:57
Yeah. There is a leap of faith involved. I do doubt it all at times. Not lately. But when I do, I think God still wants me (and all of us) so he keeps...
February 18, 2024 at 00:43
Yes, I try to be a Catholic. When Moses asked for God's name, God just said "I am". Sounds very Eastern. When Jesus was born, the story goes, he was v...
February 18, 2024 at 00:18
I responded to the question of what religion by just talking about my belief in God, so I wasn't really being sensitive to the differences between dif...
February 17, 2024 at 23:40
More like the other way around. Like, "I can't believe what I am seeing" or "I wasn't seeking anything and it found me and knocked me on my ass."
February 17, 2024 at 23:11
Short answer, yes.
February 17, 2024 at 23:06
I agree we shouldn't hold anyone up as such a great person, because we are all full of weaknesses and limitations. But I also agree that we shouldn't ...
February 17, 2024 at 20:39
I think you read way more into my saying that I can't change your mind. It was not meant as a comment on the openness of you and your question, and it...
February 17, 2024 at 20:00
At the risk of losing all respect and credibility in a world dominated by physicalistic, scientific discourse, I am a Catholic and believe in God. To ...
February 17, 2024 at 19:30
These both agree with my point. My point is that reason and proof sit in between things that exist. We have to simply experience something to consider...
February 17, 2024 at 18:15
All constrained to the same white posting box, with the same alphabet, same bold feature, etc., same words, yet after even only a few posts, each of o...
February 17, 2024 at 17:50
That is a true issue for physics or metaphysis (identity of a rock), but no matter what the results of those inquiries, even if no results, it could h...
February 17, 2024 at 16:51
I can't change your mind. I think it's too late. We'll never know if we could have started numbers some other way. We started counting, numbering, and...
February 17, 2024 at 16:43
I agree. We can't do philosophy without grappling with Hume. But at the same time, if we listen to Hume, we just can't do philosophy.
February 16, 2024 at 06:53
I can see why people who believe in God, and who like philosophy, would want to prove the existence of God, so they can philosophically treat God as a...
February 16, 2024 at 06:44