Well, a degree in Philosophy is not "philosophy". It depends on what you want do do with it. Degrees are instruments, and instruments require goals. N...
Omnipotence (and other omni-attributes) are not to be construed as positively defined. It is not as if there were a virtual list of "possible actions"...
"Reality can be properly addressed through the use of the word X". You claim that "Nature" is an adequate X. I prefer "Reality", not surprisingly, and...
So, reality would be composed of real and imaginary beings? Isn't "reality/real" falling prey to the same problem that you identified with "nature"? I...
If you are implying that many of the great philosophers were closet agnostics or atheists, I'd say that this is an ad-hoc, non-philosophical arbitrary...
Yes, it's strange. Both this forum and its former incarnation are slanted towards atheism. In a survey of philosophers through history (which are not ...
I was you until you called the one reality "natural". Why would one use that word? Is it not better to employ a different word and keep the natural/su...
Let's suppose a dummy universe, with only a few laws (say, 3), which are discoverable by its inhabitants. They discover the first law, and call this t...
Ok, then the point made way back when, that "natural" would lose its usefulness (in metaphysical discourse) if the word "supernatural" were discarded ...
This means that whenever knowing my intent is not enough, context is necessary to communicate. Which is what I'm claiming. Our differences seem to be ...
I would hope most Christians (and members of any other religions) would emulate or improve upon these results. (Yeah, fat chance). To disobey the gove...
Yep, but what you just said is not what he said :D. These are not the only possibilities, of course. It is possible that I did not know what I wanted....
There is no contradiction, or even opposition, between a "romantic journey of discovery" and "people remember those that seem the most worth consideri...
So, Trump is not merely the person or the card, it is also the idea of tripping someone up -- assuming you interpreted my intent correctly. Curious. W...
First of all, by acknowledging that argumentation can be used for both purposes, and therefore cannot be the core of philosophy. After this step is ov...
X is subjective if it varies, freely, according to different subjects. X is objective (in ethics -- in ontology this would have to be expanded) if it ...
In whatever way matters to you, the one displaying the emotional response. It is not "ethically" superior, or "intrinsically" superior, which is how y...
Anger is an instance, a habit is, well, a habit :D. To use a Scriptural example, Jesus was angry with the moneylenders at the temple, but he did not h...
When something which you perceive to be inferior to you harms you, or presents you with the prospect of being harmed in the near future, the natural r...
@Wayfarer Values are both subjective and objective. The dichotomy is not applicable to them. To that extent, my wording was imprecise, especially when...
Whatever he or she experiences, of course. The world is full of wonders. Look at this car. Look at that tree. Our job is to open the curtains. Like ev...
If I understand what you are saying, you think that philosophy involves the development of hypotheses from an abstract viewpoint and then a testing of...
Sure. But there is no single value. All of those values can be explained. They coexist. All of them are true, but one does not trump the other. Value ...
Value is subjective. If you want to conceive of the value of life "outside of a human perspective", you will still require an evaluating subject. In t...
That's the point. It loses its meaning in some contexts (when we are discussing metaphysics) but not in others (when we are discussing, say, environme...
And then a perfectly useful word like "nature" and its related concepts would have become useless. To see the point from another angle. "Natural" is o...
Yes, very much. Though it is not "ex nihilo" -- we work with existing materials -- it is very much an act of creation. The best essay about this that ...
The fact that people talk about a bicameral theory of mind shows that the Cartesian allure is really too strong. Yes, I think that we can learn to spe...
An emotion is very much a narrative style. You were taught (by family and culture -- mostly culture) to explain certain inner events by recourse to th...
I remember a conversation I had some 15 years ago, with a very close friend (I'm the godfather of his 18 year old (!) daughter by now). We were talkin...
On the contrary, the problem is not that there is no general and undeniable truth, it is rather that there are too many, none of them is quite undenia...
People have mentioned logic. Logic is an important part of it. For example, you cannot state "your views" if the views are not yours. If "your views" ...
No, it's not private, but it is certainly individual. An individual does not exist in a vacuum, and there is no objective viewpoint from which he can ...
1. Does philosophy have basic principles? Yes. Are there some undeniable truths about the things that it examines? Yes. Does that mean that philosophy...
I would rather say that both materialism and idealism cannot be entirely consistent; any materialism involves, usually inadvertently, some grains of i...
No, it's not all the same, but any talk of "benefits of that project" will refer to (and be based upon) emotional aspects of it. Your dichotomy is loo...
The point is that if an argument starts from emotional preferences and fears, it does not become less emotional just because it proceeds rationally. I...
You'll have a hard time in explaining why a "rational argument about benefits and risks" is completely detached from emotional preferences and fears. ...
You'll see I did not say otherwise. I said that "traditional and modern fundamentalist Islam" has such laws. The idea that Islam should be judged by t...
Islam (in its traditional and "modern fundamentalist" varieties) includes instructions for rulers and for governments. It includes laws against blasph...
Jesus' teaching is not what most impressed contemporaries (though it impressed them somewhat. in some occasions -- not so much in other occasions). Je...
Lots and lots of people claim so and present what they consider to be evidence. But whether what they consider to be evidence is, indeed, evidence is ...
No disagreement with any of that; what you pointed out are the symptoms of tension. The tension is real and, like the process of immigration, shows no...
The elites were put there by majority vote. My comment is not supposed to mean that there are no tensions, or that there won't be violent reactions so...
Sure, but they exist in some other way. right? They don't exist "to the extent of...", but, somehow, they exist. Right? "Reality is not composed only ...
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