Cabbage Farmer

I wouldn't call all such rationalizations "bullshit". Ordinarily I reserve that term to characterize discourse in which a speaker does not seem to giv...

How could conflicting statements about matters of fact each be true in every regard? Where then is the conflict? Mediation must interpret competing cl...

I'm not sure that's the only real question. I confess, I'm as boggled as you are about how it comes to pass that human beings tend by and large to tak...

Some people provide extensive arguments for their theistic or atheistic claims and beliefs. I'm not inclined to call that "guessing". Is it only a gue...

It seems likely to me that the person who asks such a reasonable and pertinent question about terms as confused in our tradition as these, is a though...

I would not say I ordinarily estimate the trajectory and velocity. I look and catch, look and throw. Something in me does estimate the trajectory and ...

Isn't it more likely that the population will develop natural resistance and immunity to coronavirus before we run out of new circuses? Meanwhile, the...

I think it's a good idea in principle, if you can find equitable policies to do the job -- especially in technologically advanced global societies fac...

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean to suggest that all beliefs are beliefs about things or propositions or states of affairs that are "not demons...

How did you come up with this question? Care to show your work? What is the reasoning by which you start from "no God" and wind up at "nothing"? Can't...

I've heard arguments along these lines: Since robust voter turnout is said to add "legitimacy" or perception of legitimacy to an election, eligible vo...

Doesn't the "seeming straightness" of the staircase depend on the character of its visual appearance? Doesn't its visual appearance depend on facts ab...

I say the purpose of philosophical discourse is to cultivate an integrative worldview suitable to inform, guide, and promote harmonious action in indi...

Under a wide range of "ordinary circumstances", human observers would be unable to distinguish (ii) and (iii) from each other or from genuine human be...

I suppose that's one way to put it. Would you say this "symbolic dependence" involves something like an intention, promise, obligation... of the parti...

I presume I've made my stance on the theme presented in the origin of this discussion about as clear as anyone here has done. With respect to the topi...

I call all the things of which we are aware "objects of awareness". I'm not sure this is contentious usage. If it's reasonable for me to apply a predi...

Let's grant the initial premise for the sake of conversation: Assume that "God is a necessary being" is a true statement. What does it tell us? What d...

What sort of experience shall we agree to call "perception", Wayfarer? There's a powerful tendency in our tradition to divide introspective awareness ...

Thanks, Wayfarer. I noticed that post and have begun a reply to it along the same lines. I hope to find time for finishing it off.

Do you mean to suggest this thread is a place reserved for introductions and brief salutations, and that here we should refrain from philosophical rem...

I suppose it depends on the values; on the way the values fit together or conflict in each particular case; and on the way the agent has learned to ap...

What is it like to be a bat? I suppose this line from Nagel, as much as any other in our tradition, directs us to the heart of the matter in these dis...

I see no reason to speak as if "existence" were purposive. A carbon molecule, a stone, a thunderbolt, a galaxy... may be said to "exist", but not by t...

What's the difference between socialism and communism according to you and Marx? What, according to you, are "the benefits of progress and prosperity"...

I'm not sure these three items are mutually exclusive alternatives, at least the way you've framed them here. To all appearances, I am a human animal,...

What do you mean by "the divine"? Does this phrase indicate anything different from the "theos" in "theology"? On what grounds do you claim that "reas...

I don't recall anyone arguing about it, but on my read it's been tough to ferret what consensus there may be about the definition we're trying here; a...

I'm not sure I follow. What does it mean to say the receiver is blindsided? How deep does this contract go? Isn't it only a contract for the seller to...

It seems to me I have it the right way, and go a bit further than you allow. I trace the phenomena to the places they seem to appear, even when they a...

@"Marchesk" @"Janus" @"Harry Hindu" Maybe I should press this definitional issue: The p-zombies about which I've heard rumors are not just i) any AI t...

The two idioms you gesture at here, which I might distinguish as ordinary language and scientific language, are both cultural products of human animal...

This sounds about right to me. Perhaps we can define a "free worker" in terms of freedom from the socioeconomic need to exchange one's own labor for o...

I'll say it has no "subjective experience with phenomenal character"; but allow that it does have simulated subjectivity. It has features we ordinaril...

Evidently some of the professionals paid to philosophize and to instruct students in their art seem to think it's a pretty big deal. Me personally, I'...

It seems we'll have clear up our terms before we make much progress in this conversation. What you've said so far confuses me. Here's a first pass: Fo...

I'm still not clear whether there is a consensus view in this conversation with respect to what counts as a zombie, and what features of consciousness...

Is it consciousness they call an illusion? Or only the so-called phenomenal character, or qualia, or subjective experience... or some such putative fe...

Do you suggest that consciousness is bad for survival? Negative survival value is not the same as zero survival value. Why do tetrapods have four limb...

I'm willing to grant, at least for the sake of argument, that the bogey in question does act exactly like a human, according to genuine human observer...

I wonder if that fight isn't just another circus sideshow, albeit an especially repugnant and dangerous one. It seems to me those nationalists are by ...

I expect most eliminativists or illusionists about the phenomenal character of consciousness will insist the path from perception to perceptual object...

I've never quite understood romantic talk of "absurdity" along such lines. I might agree that each of us is more or less out of tune -- with the truth...

I'm not sure you have drawn a relevant "logical conclusion": I expect that being an "illusionist" about the putative phenomenon of conscious experienc...

The concept of number is a human concept, but human judgments of number have an objective character in matters of fact. The concept of existence is a ...

Isn't it meaningful? Or how isn't it? I'm still unsure what tree you're barking up. It seems perhaps you're aiming to correct an immoderate bias you b...

I'll agreethe assumption that there is a mind-independent objective reality arguably entails that there are objective limits to the freedom of individ...

I suppose I'd prefer to distinguish the number of proper names in a given universe from the number of proper names indicated by, say, a formal notatio...

A good cook, painter, or martial artist might, but need not, use tools designed by engineers to facilitate the labor of these specialists. Their excel...

It seems reasonable to expect the trend toward multinational and global organization will continue, given the persistence of technological culture alo...