Pseudonym

Yes, we wouldn't want any gobbledegook would we, like in Deuteronomy where God finds it necessary to insist that we don't boil a young goat in its mot...

clarified what I meant (thanks). I think it's reasonable to assume that "consent" means something more than the physiological ability to say yes, but ...

But this is exactly what happens with all adults out of necessity. If a rape claim is brought on the grounds that the victim was not able to consent -...

It's interesting you mention this. It's something that I've noticed here two. There's only two real consensus issues among philosophers according to t...

So should we allow citizens to possess nuclear weapons to ensure they cannot be oppressed by their nuclear-armed governments? If not, why not?

Yes but it's not "confusion" it's disagreement, logical, sane disagreement. Nagel takes exactly the same line as you seem to be doing - "Since then th...

But we're not talking here about protecting certain people from others, we're talking about presuming to protect them from themselves. Smoking is defi...

You've just redescribed your position. I asked what observations have lead you to this conclusion. But you didn't say Materialism was confused, you sa...

Then why don't you enlighten me?

Which observations in particular? To be honest I was with you up until here Why must you spoil what was otherwise an elegant description of how you fe...

Orange buffoons?

I disagree. I think that religious people are no more satisfied by the idea of an afterlife than someone who has raised children that they are proud o...

I agree, but I don't think anyone particularly wouldn't. The point is this kind of sentiment still leaves open the real question which is how we actua...

Sounds like the whining of someone with some agenda they're too scared to lay out so they hide it behind a lot of flowery obfuscation. Yes, there's so...

Why futile? In orienteering we will almost always find our way by compass direction "head North" is our objective. Does it matter that we will never g...

And so ends any philosophical interest. You already hold a set of beliefs and we're just playing around with words until our descriptions of the world...

Yeah, great philosopher, lousy zoologist.

What might an inconsistent definition look like (inconsistent with what?), or one that doesn't work (what is the job it has to do that it might fail a...

Alluding to what?

You're looking to define belief. The usual method for defining something is broadly either analytical (what should it mean) or linguistic (what is it ...

If you're curious then coming at the problem with an already fixed human-shaped answer isn't going to help.

Why would the content of a belief make any difference? I can find you a thermostat which clearly 'beleives' it's cold. I can find you a human who is i...

How do you know it isn't possible to communicate with lions? Many people have effective communication with animals. Plus, you're neatly dodging how ba...

Yes but why? Why are you wanting to give a special word to some responses to propositions just because those responses are carried out by a human?

But why do we need these things, what purpose does this restriction of the definition serve? Which brings us back to cats, and thermostats. The thermo...

I think we've entered entirely too speculative a territory here. I really don't see any way to untangle what we know to be an extremely culturally var...

Then how are we to assess whether the believer 'knows' what the proposition means. We're getting circular here. Would we not have to say they had a 'b...

Many marine biologists can understand a significant part of dolphin communication. Can they have beliefs? What about babies before language, do they n...

Also, how is not just stimuli-respone that when you hear the words "explain your beliefs" you respond with words which correspond to the way you inten...

No I can't. I cannot ask a Polynesian to explain their beliefs because they will have no idea what I'm saying and I will be unable to understand any r...

All other animals have beliefs. The tiger 'believes' that the antelope will alleviate its hunger. If it turns out the antelope was a cardboard cut out...

I don't see any problem with it not having a representation. When John says "the sky is blue" we can propose the causal explanation of that John might...

I think we're getting into semantics here. We could say that beliefs are attitudes to a proposition that have to be contained in a mind, but there wou...

I agree that such a desire exists, but I don't think it's as mysterious as some branches of metaphysics make out. It's simply the expression of our ev...

Yes, I see no reason to ascribe some special factor to human responses to external stimuli. The simplest explanation seems entirely adequate. John's s...

Yes, I would say that in order to avoid the counter-intuitive conclusion that the spectrometer 'believes' the sky is blue, we have to add to our defin...

OK, so what is preventing the spectrometer from containing a proposition?

Then what is "the sky is blue"? It cannot be a belief because it is itself just a variable in the thing you are defining as a belief. The first variab...

I think that if we have a simple definition of belief such as you propose where the 'fact' simply resides in, or belongs to, a person, then we are com...

So what about the spectrometer measuring the number of photons in the wavelength that most people associate with "blue". Does it 'believe' that the sk...

You're assuming that these mothers have only their daughter's internal well-being as the motivation for their position. You only need to look at thing...

By what logic would mothers have some magical insight but the daughters themselves not know their own minds?

I'm suggesting it can't be. It cannot be both wise to ban sex at age 13-18 and be wise to allow sex at age 13-18. The two opinions are directly oppose...

I don't think I will, I'm not at all concerned about meaning after I die. If, after I die, it turns out that I have some kind of conscious awareness, ...

Why though? Why does a purpose cease to have meaning simply because it is achieved at some point. My purpose is to live 70 happy years. At some point ...

OK, so what is this 'something' outside of time to which it relates, and how do you know that meaning relates to something outside of time, is this a ...

This is familiar territory. I get the feeling I'm never going to understand this. "Meaning and purpose only obtain teleologicallly" - what does that m...

But we're not talking about a 'possibility'. The 'possibility' exists that after my life persuing evolutionarily derived happiness I somehow spend an ...

What good is happiness if it doesn't end? It's the fact that we're going to die that makes it worth doing anything. If we were to carry on eternally, ...

Yes. I'd be interested to hear what it is (unless it's God, I've heard that one already).