Interesting question. The disconnect is not as stark as you suggest. For one thing, philosophical discourse is not limited to the narrow field of prof...
On my use of the term, phenomenology -- the study of phenomena, the discourse on appearances -- avoids entanglement with such "metaphysical" doctrines...
What does the term "construct" mean in this context? I might prefer to say we notice and observe similarities in the look and feel of the wall's strai...
Great citation. In its careful appropriation of available empirical research, the passage reminds me of Gassendi's discussion of the perception of the...
Thanks, that's kind of you to say. And thanks for this delightful exchange. No reason to apologize. I thought your reply was admirably concise, especi...
There's some ambivalence in philosophical use of the word "fact". I prefer to use the term primarily to mean something like an objective state of affa...
I don't believe the atheist has the privilege of committing to only one substantive claim -- not a reasonable and honest atheist who's acquainted with...
Rampant industrialization and oppression plagued anticapitalist economies as well as capitalist economies during the 20th century. Exploitation, injus...
Etymology remains an instructive guide to good usage for good speakers. Clear thinking is promoted by clear speech. I'm aware that etymological consid...
I suppose this is a special variation on the theme illustrated by discussion of the legend of the Ring of Gyges in Book Two of Plato's Republic. Are y...
I'm not sure what you mean. If a person is willing and able to discuss "reasons" for choices and actions, and to accommodate moral considerations in s...
According to the sort of account you indicate, it may be possible to produce an artificial consciousness, e.g. in the form of a computer program. But ...
Do you really think most people were so responsible in their opinions fifty or a hundred years ago, or at any time in this planet's history? I don't t...
Would you please explain to me how concerns about the origins of a disease and about the profitability of the corresponding vaccines should function a...
Let's try to get clear about which explananda sit on either side of the alleged "gap". Unfortunately there's a lack of uniformity in the relevant term...
Of course it's amusing to say that any canonical text in philosophy runs the risk of increasing the perplexity of many readers, but I suppose it may b...
Perhaps. Empathy is still a relatively new word with a rather tortuous history. Apparently the word entered English around 1908 as a translation for a...
Is that what the pandemic has shown? It seems to me the motive for stimulus was not that people were saving too much, but that the pandemic disrupted ...
I agree it seems relevant in the present context. I wouldn't say application of the golden rule requires the agent to believe that others are capable ...
I'm grateful that Nagel took his stand to defend the fact of subjectivity in those dark times. But I don't think mere acknowledgement of the subjectiv...
What do you mean by "loaded concept"? What do you mean by "crystallized intelligence"? I believe you're right to notice that much academic and canonic...
My dear human, what are you apologizing for? I'd be about the last person to blame an interlocutor for enthusiasm in philosophical conversation. I'm f...
Thanks. I agree, it seems like one of those cases in which simple analysis of the definition of terms unravels a psuedoproblem. Though in some such ca...
I've yet to catch wind of the difference you suggest. "When it comes to us as individuals", sometimes we understand a situation correctly; sometimes w...
Do you happen to know where Reid offers his formulation? I'm inclined to take issue with Reid's assessment as you relate it here, in part because the ...
How do we know when our perceptions make sense? How do we learn to have reliable expectations about any course of events? It seems pretty clear that w...
Absolutely. We can and do live in doubt. Doubt is not denial. Doubt is the negative form of wonder. Doubt is compatible with belief. Would you say the...
I recommend you take another glance at the Donald Hoffman TedTalk you linked to, or perhaps read the transcript. Hoffman isn't talking about logic -- ...
I'm not one for deadlines. And I like space between turns. No worries. I agree. It's on the basis of that impression that I've sought to begin by gett...
I'm pleased to hear it. I try to avoid making unreasonable claims. I suppose I expect the same general principles of judgment to apply in these matter...
I'm not sure I follow your historical prelude. But you present an interesting path of objection to the claim that hard determinism "makes ethics irrel...
If our experience is "not reality", then by definition it isn't "100% identical" to reality. Since the simulation is a simulation, then by definition ...
Before it runs headlong into the weeds, the SEP entry on belief notes that "ost contemporary philosophers characterize belief as a 'propositional atti...
Did I at any point suggest that you had made such a claim? I'm surprised to find you so quick to interpret such a straight answer as if it implied a d...
I'm aware that sort of view has been fashionable among hard behaviorists, functionalists, computationalists, eliminative materialists, and their ilk. ...
"Someone said so" is not in general an adequate justification for an inference or belief. Testimony can be a way of "attaining knowledge". It can also...
What if it is? I suggest that in the long run, the aim of "giving people moral guidance, thymos, and social cohesion" is well-served by promoting the ...
I'd say there's a great deal more involved in defining people's "relationship to the future". But of course the progress of technological culture is o...
If I had good reason to believe that there were lots of human-like AI robots and lots of p-zombies tooling around the Earth, I would go with a third c...
I agree it's inevitable that human beings will continue to use technology to enhance and expand their natural powers (so long as we continue to exist ...
Good call. Here here. Where would you recommend nesting the category, given the current structure in the sidebar menu? It's an open question whether p...
Evidently the Efilist believes there is such an imbalance. But is there? How can you establish that these measurements are reliable, and persuade peop...
I suppose it depends on the particulars of each case. If I had to pick one in general, I might say that false wisdom is worse, and most important to a...
What are you asking here? What does the fact that climate changes in the course of geological time have to do with our reaction to the problem in the ...
It seems you've got the wires crossed. AI that passes the Turing test need not be *physically indistinguishable* from a human. A p-zombie is physicall...
It doesn't generally bother me. Maybe if someone seemed to enjoy stomping the life out of the unfortunate creature in an especially inhumane way, I mi...
Comments