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Of course, I can't provide any scientific study that show that belief in samsara/rebirth is necessary to achieve the same mental states of those which...
January 06, 2026 at 10:54
Yeah. Such an idea is also rejected in the traditional Theravada. In one of my earlier posts, I referenced to the paper "Anatta and Nibbana" by Nyanap...
January 06, 2026 at 09:09
Yes and No. Yes, because in some sense the 'hardware-software' two different 'aspects' of a computer. However, 'no' because it suggests that human min...
January 06, 2026 at 08:54
Ok, yes, a famous 'definition' of Nirvana is the 'cessation of suffering'. An early Buddhist school, the Sautrantika, apparently believed that it was ...
January 06, 2026 at 08:45
I didn't ignore those evidence.I simply do not see them as convincing evidence that those experience are the same, not just similar. Anyway, it seems ...
January 06, 2026 at 08:34
As I said, I was joking. So no offence. No need to worry or apologize. However, unfortunately, it is easy to get misunderstanding in written medias. I...
January 05, 2026 at 09:21
This might be true but the original question was something like "is it possible to attain the same 'achievements' even if I do not believe in what Bud...
January 05, 2026 at 09:01
My 'suggestions' do not come from a 'scientistic' perspective or anything like that. Rather, they come from a desire to clarify the use of concepts in...
January 05, 2026 at 08:51
:up: This is IMO central. If it isn't just an intellectual understanding, motivations behind why one practices become relevant. Indeed, the goal we se...
January 04, 2026 at 14:20
I was joking but it seemed to me that your use of adverbs like 'clearly' meant that it was impossible for you that I could be a panentheist :smile: Co...
January 04, 2026 at 14:18
Not sure why you would say this. I am neither against religion nor philosophy. What I want to point out is to be careful to 'mix' them with science. S...
January 04, 2026 at 14:03
I wanted to add this. Contrast the above situation to the scenario that is true if rebirth happens. If one's 'succession of lives' spans so many diffe...
January 03, 2026 at 10:55
Yes, but I'm still convinced that you're reading too much into the concept. Note however, that this doesn't mean that your metaphysical outlook is 'of...
January 03, 2026 at 10:45
You might be disappointed by what I say now: I am a panentheist, so obviously, I regard the (Divine) Consciousness as ontologically fundamental (incid...
January 03, 2026 at 09:00
It's a bit contorted argument, so I'll try. Basically, the point is that while a person might intellectually accept the idea that "the self is an illu...
January 03, 2026 at 08:46
You seem to have some familiarity with Buddhist texts. A great number of them speak about why Buddhists historically saw 'liberation from samsara' as ...
January 02, 2026 at 18:22
I disagree about the 'clearly'. Theists, panentheists, idealists etc would have a word about it. Even someone like Spinoza would disagree. For him the...
January 02, 2026 at 17:47
Ok, I see. Consider the points I raised here: The question becomes this: can one attain the same meditative status if one doesn't believe in rebirth? ...
January 02, 2026 at 11:07
Good point. I would add that this also distinguish Bitbol from Nagarjuna. The latter only accepts the binding normative standards to show that, accord...
January 02, 2026 at 10:16
Thanks! Yes, I know. I wanted to just make an additional remark on the possible theological reasons of the condemnation of the belief in reincarnation...
January 02, 2026 at 09:15
You're free to use the word 'energy' in a way that is different from the way it is used in Physics. However, you might encounter a problem when you tr...
January 02, 2026 at 08:41
As an aside, in Christianity there are also theological/philosophical reasons to reject rebirth. First, if there was a 'pre-existence' of souls then o...
January 02, 2026 at 08:35
Why not try to have a 'secular approach inspired by Buddhist elements'? You'll have a lot of difficulty to make sense of 'Buddhism' if you abandon the...
January 02, 2026 at 08:21
:up:
January 01, 2026 at 12:28
But note that even within your own model intelligibility doesn't pertain to the subject alone but also to the 'world'. So, it would seem that the 'wor...
January 01, 2026 at 11:03
Thanks also to you for the interesting exchange. Intelligibility, however, implies the potential to be understood. At least at the level of potentiali...
January 01, 2026 at 10:58
It isn't a 'physics seminar', yes, but if one uses the concepts of physics, it is seems to me correct to point out if they aren't used well. In the ca...
January 01, 2026 at 10:52
While I agree with hylomorphism (in a broad sense), I disagree with you that 'energy' is so special as a property. Why not, say, angular or linear mom...
December 31, 2025 at 10:43
Yes that's a jump in my argument, I admit that. However, note that it makes sense as an hypothesis. If this is not so, we have no explanation on why e...
December 31, 2025 at 10:32
Sorry, perhaps I am missing something, but all I see here is an explanation of how intelligible models work but I don't see an explanation about why t...
December 31, 2025 at 10:04
I am not @"Wayfarer" and I don't speak for him but as I see Nagarjuna goes beyond phenomenologists. Remember that most Buddhist schools IIRC say that ...
December 29, 2025 at 08:33
:up: That's an interesting way to frame the antinomy. However, I feel like it divorces the 'epistemological' and the 'ontological' aspects in a too ra...
December 29, 2025 at 08:17
Ok. But, again, if there is no a priori intelligible order, why our conceptual maps work? Same as above. The problem is not which kind of 'entity' is ...
December 29, 2025 at 08:04
Ok, perhaps 'direct'/'indirect' isn't the best way to put it. But I would say that our knowledge of the world is limited, imperfect, we can't deny the...
December 28, 2025 at 13:41
Yes, and I still in some way I agree with that perspective, i.e. that consciousness is foundational to intelligibility. However, we need to ask oursel...
December 28, 2025 at 10:56
While I agree with the wording, my problem here is that I don't see how these kinds of accounts are plausible. They appear to give to the subject the ...
December 28, 2025 at 10:02
Good OP and good summary of Bitbol's views. I broadly agree with Bitbol's perspective and his 'phenomenological' approach. IMO it is a very valid path...
December 27, 2025 at 10:33
The problem with 'energy' is that it is defined in physics as a property of physical objects and physical systems. And while, for instance, in experim...
December 25, 2025 at 08:59
I would also add that it also appears that some 'physical objects' are more like convenient abstractions that are useful for our purposes. For instanc...
December 21, 2025 at 13:30
Marry Christmas!
December 20, 2025 at 21:47
you're right about the book, my bad.
December 20, 2025 at 20:51
Personally, I don't think that it is even coherent to think of some kind of 'unstructured reality'. Clearly, their 'structure', which might be regarde...
December 20, 2025 at 13:41
As you know, I am sympathetic with transcendental/epistemic idealists views. However, a problem that IMO is left unadressed is the problem of how can ...
December 20, 2025 at 13:34
I would here also add that in the case of algorihm-based machines, consciousness seems to be unnecessary. In our case, it seems that being self-aware ...
December 09, 2025 at 14:38
Sorry if the following answer doesn't cover all the points you made. But I hope to clarify some confusion that I think I accidentally made. Regarding ...
December 08, 2025 at 15:36
'Knowing' something seems to imply having an awareness of such a knowledge. My calculator can perform the operation "5+3=8" by processing the data I'm...
December 06, 2025 at 09:49
IMO I don't even think that we can say that one can 'know' something without a qualitative experience. For instance, I don't think that my computer 'k...
December 04, 2025 at 17:37
The problem with eternalism is: are those experiences (i.e. that 'time flows', the appearance of 'free will' etc) compatible with eternalism? Again, e...
November 30, 2025 at 17:04
I assume that by 'absolutist' you mean theories like the modern versions of Lorentz Ether Theory (LET). There have been attempts to build versions of ...
November 29, 2025 at 10:52
I agree with you that relativity - both special and general - taken literally imply 'eternalism'. And, indeed, the existence of time dilation, the lim...
November 28, 2025 at 17:56