Jamesk

I never read Plato from such a purely subjective standpoint. I thought that he is also referring to a separate universe that some how impinges on ours...

I think that you are too focused on Justice here. Justice is a Form as is beauty, good etc. Understanding the Forms is vital because Plato can only re...

It is a refutation of Taoism.

There is agent causation it is just very minor. Determinism is the teaspoon dipping in and out of the sugar bowl, distributing it all around. We are v...

Brilliant explanation and quote.

And what about the Forms?

Some people believe he was right about morals and some think that he was wrong. His metaphysics are unique and incredibly complicated and are based in...

I understand your point but I am not sure that I fully agree with you. The connection between the city i.e society and the individual are obvious but ...

So all we can prove here is that in a causally determined universe there are some completely random acts and so we must take into account some randomn...

There are no circumstances that justify making a lying promise or not answering truthfully to a definite yes or no question that can claim moral worth...

Mae culpa :) Wrong context of gift. However there is some Kant in the question what do you say to mother when she asks you about the gift. You must no...

Kant says that we have an imperfect duty to ourselves (a duty that we should do when we can) to develop our gifts and talents as much as possible. It ...

Not at all or not just? I don't know what you mean by statecraft, I was referring to a society built on the republic modal.

Plato's republic would have not have been a very nice place to live according to our standards today.

That's a hard question to answer. The non-physical existential claim. Idealism posits a non-material / mind dependency claim. Berkeley does struggle t...

Which is Hume's argument against the Libertarian definition of freewill. An undetermined will is a random will and if all of our acts are random then ...

Materialism doesn't leave much room for God. Dualism creates a problem of coherence. Idealism however makes sense because it allows you to keep God an...

People choose suicide as a way out. True it does take something akin to bravery to actually take your own life but that bravery is in a one time act. ...

Like I said I also find it problematic. Can we move back to the original question? Assuming that neither of us can prove or disprove the others theory...

Suicide is cowardice. It takes bravery to stay alive.

I meant metaphysically possible. That means possible in at least one possible world. I am not saying that I agree with this or the use of possible wor...

If you can conceive it then it must be possible.

If there is even the slightest possibility of there being another outcome then the outcome was not necessary.

For causation to be necessary connection then when A happens B must also happen. When your first ball hits the second one, the second one must move an...

Can you give an example of something that is metaphysically necessary? Something that 'must' be the case in all possible worlds? Or something that abs...

He is certain that all we know about causation is regularity. I should have said that he is very clear about causation. Surely you can remember and em...

We don't know anything with certainty. As empiricists we accept that all of our knowledge comes from sensory experience. We do not experience necessar...

Hume is very certain about causation, it is not necessary connection but it is constant conjunction.The view that all we know about causation is regul...

Spiritual substance and mental substance are the same thing. You can form an idea of my body or bodies in general but not of minds. Brains yes but min...

I would say the major difference being that material objects have no causal powers we can know in which case we do not know what causes them. Ideas al...

Materialism only provides the best explanation of the world without God.

Difficult question but I think that he probably did. I think that all objects also have Forms with Plato. I can base this on his banishment of artists...

no not you, Terrapin Station is just ruining the thread and trolling the discussion.

Is there a block / mute / ban option on this site?

Berkeley replaces Locke's material substrata with a spiritual substances - minds. and material objects with ideas supported by minds. How do you perce...

What do you think matter is?

What situation could you envisage that would offer no alternative courses of action? Unless you have unwillingly and unknowingly been 'possessed' or '...

We perceive material objects all of the time, we do not perceive matter. The material substratum supporting the mind independent, absolute existence o...

Objects are ideas surely? We have no idea of matter because we cannot directly perceive it.

I wasn't being clear, the lesser problem is empirically detecting them whereas the greater problem is knowing what they do, how they do it etc.

That wasn't my intention, I do not deny that mental states exist. My problem is that 'mental sates' are largely mysterious, at least as much as determ...

If you had read the Dialogues you would know that Berkeley already addresses this question as well as all of the other objections that have been raise...

Again this is not an attempt to defend Berkeley, I want to compare his theory with Locke's. You are perfectly correct in questioning whether first per...

Yes indeed. Newton asserted the absolute independent existence of matter, force, space and time upon which our science is based. Berkeley shows that w...

You appear to be right on this, I was oversimplifying it. Berkeley is into Contra direct realist materialism. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/berke...

I need to reread my Berkeley but he definitely does make allowances for the dreaming / hallucination argument he also covers himself against solipsism...

A professor once told me that we can't do philosophy only by definitions.

Every time you take for granted that objects exist independent of perception you are actually speculating.

One of us seems to be a bit mixed up here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_and_indirect_realism

Ok but how can you prove that these things exist independently of our perceptions of them?