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In a way, the 'hard problem' is IMO a form of a more general problem that arises when it is assumed that one can have a complete knowledge of anything...
October 01, 2025 at 06:31
I believe that d'Espagnat brillantly explains how we can understand an epistemic interpretation of QM (and how such an interpretation is compatible, i...
September 07, 2025 at 10:22
I do not deny that the interaction ends the isolation of the system. But such loss of isolation doesn't remove superposition. So, my question is: in y...
September 07, 2025 at 08:55
I do not think that anyone is proposing an ontological difference between the device and the system. Both are physical/natural. But this is exactly th...
September 07, 2025 at 06:54
I always wondered why people seem to miss this point. Experimental devices, computers and so on aren't different from, say, a mechanical calculator. A...
September 06, 2025 at 15:56
Well, I agree with Kant that knowledge in mathematics and logic is 'a priori'. In fact, I would even say that some knowledge of those domains is a pre...
August 26, 2025 at 19:37
Ok, yes, I agree with that. Logical and mathematical knowledge are of a different kind of, say, empirical knowledge. But even in mathematics, we can h...
August 26, 2025 at 10:06
Fair enough. But I believe that, perhaps, the fact that our knowledge is 'contingent', as you say, means it is incomplete. In a sense, we know nothing...
August 25, 2025 at 07:57
To make an analogy in physics. No measurement device is 'perfect' but we know that all of them are imperfect and we also know that some are more or le...
August 24, 2025 at 12:00
Ok, but for me unless it is 'proven' that we can't know, we should seek. YMMV Right! However, to philosophy's credit, in a sense, it is less easy to k...
August 23, 2025 at 16:06
I see two unexplained assertions here: that there is a 'given' and that such a 'given' can be arranged. Now, it is one thing to say that we might not ...
August 23, 2025 at 08:28
Here you are assuming that space is mind-independent. There is no need to do that for a 'realist' IMO. To make a crude analogy... think about the Matr...
August 22, 2025 at 08:43
OK. IMO they share a lot in common, but you are right. Interesting. But isn't this a form of 'transcendental realism', though? I mean, if we can disti...
August 22, 2025 at 08:11
Yes, I agree. This might explain intersubjectivity. But IMO this is only part of the story. I believe that we are in good agreement that the 'phenomen...
August 21, 2025 at 09:32
Well, if the structure of our cognitive faculties share a lot of properties, then the structure of pur experience is similar. But it is a bit of a str...
August 21, 2025 at 09:26
Interesting, will read! Perhaps. I know that there are some technical difficulties for de Broglie Bohm's extensions to QFT but I am not competent enou...
August 21, 2025 at 08:59
Ok, but IMO the classical analogy you propose misses the fact that the there is a change in the 'state' of the system by not detecting it. This is qui...
August 20, 2025 at 14:31
Sorry for the delay! Been busy! For me the problem with this 'variant' of Kantianism is that it can only explain the form of appearances, not that the...
August 20, 2025 at 14:25
There are also Interaction-free measurement, which IIRC do not seem to require a direct interaction between the system and the measurement apparatus a...
August 13, 2025 at 08:07
Thanks for the Bitbol reminder! In any case, as I said, I believe the great merit of epistemic idealism (of whatever form) is to remind us that the mi...
August 13, 2025 at 07:59
Yeah, I agree. That's one of his weak points. But I would also say that his 'immaterialism' by no means implies nominalism. In fact, I would even say ...
August 12, 2025 at 13:28
One might ask, however, how one that endorses an 'idealist' position that flatly denies the existence of some kind of material substratum can explain ...
August 12, 2025 at 09:23
It is not surprising IMO. Logical positivists actually are the result of a tradition that goes back to the Empiricists in the Enlightenment, especiall...
August 12, 2025 at 09:17
I agree! I would add that then those ideas are also present in the minds of humans (and other created spirits) when the latter percieve the former. An...
August 11, 2025 at 12:58
In many contexts physical and material are synonyms. Asserting that a mental content is 'physical' can be potentially misleading. I do understand why ...
August 11, 2025 at 11:55
Yes, I agree that Berkeley's target were secular materialists of his day. But IMO he used the empiricists' arguments (e.g. Locke) to show that phenome...
August 11, 2025 at 11:50
Agreed. Wheeler, Bohr, Dirac etc were all ambiguos. One feels like they didn't want to assign mind a role but it is not too difficult to see it as an ...
August 11, 2025 at 11:03
When one begins to say that 'measurement' is not a name for 'any physical interaction' (like RQM for instance does) but to mean something more complex...
August 11, 2025 at 10:24
IIRC John Wheeler is a good example of how sometimes physicists themselves provide writings that can be difficult exercises of exegesis, so to speak. ...
August 11, 2025 at 07:31
The problem is if you claim that the reality beyond/prior to phenomena is completely unknowable you have either to accept (i) that the activity of the...
August 11, 2025 at 07:13
Yes, according to Berkeley phenomena are mere appearances. There is nothing 'more' than 'what appears' to the mind. But notice that Berkeley explained...
August 10, 2025 at 20:15
You can see a pdf file of John Bell's article about 'local beables' here: https://cds.cern.ch/record/980036/files/197508125.pdf
August 03, 2025 at 13:18
Yes, I agree. I was questioning if with NDEs we get the same degree of agreement that we can, confidently, assume that people witness the same 'experi...
August 03, 2025 at 13:16
IMO not just for that reason, but also because he had to explain how 'classicality' arises. Ok. I thought that he said that a thing can't measure itse...
August 03, 2025 at 12:54
@"Sam26", I also find NDEs fascinating and I am interested in your research. Quick question... NDE reports show a remarkable convergence of 'themes' a...
August 02, 2025 at 07:53
No worries, as I myself said it is a quite secondary issue. Even if there is a counter-intuitive increase of number of 'bases' it is not a problem, I ...
August 02, 2025 at 07:44
Ok, I see thanks for the clarification. To me, however, all this means that Nietzsche believed in some 'objective' morality of some sorts. If there ar...
August 01, 2025 at 09:29
Yeah, I was just wondering if their magnitude is small 'enough' after measurement/interaction. Some years ago, I read that there was some debate on th...
August 01, 2025 at 09:21
Well, sort of what you say about Schopenhauer. By 'voluntarism', I mean a position that gives prominence to the will. So, for instance, the mere abili...
July 31, 2025 at 15:47
Yes, I think so. Probably it is because also I am muddlying the waters lol. Anyway, my contention is that if the interference terms are too significan...
July 31, 2025 at 15:32
Also, for the 'voluntaristic' part, I disagree but I admit that his voluntarism is quite strange as he questions the existence of the 'agents' that wi...
July 31, 2025 at 08:38
Or perhaps... it shows that it is approximately true. As I said, I think we have to just agree to disagree here. For me it is OK to say that some unde...
July 31, 2025 at 08:27
Right. But what is the 'basis' of the 'better' or the 'worse'? Here's what, for instance, Nietzsche said in Beyond Good and Evil, 259: So, it seems to...
July 31, 2025 at 08:22
Ironically, in a sense the problem is the opposite, i.e. he still 'reifies' too much things and leans toward a physicalism that is not very compatible...
July 30, 2025 at 09:54
Thanks for the clarification. This is a questionable premise. Scientific evidence, in fact, suggest that life 'in general' will end. But I am open to ...
July 30, 2025 at 09:21
Ok! Ok. But notice that religions that accept samsara generally posit some kind of transcendence of the transitoriness, suffering, death present in it...
July 30, 2025 at 08:52
I feel that we are going to have to agree to disagree here. Perhaps there are no isolated systems but the law of conservation of energy had been incre...
July 30, 2025 at 08:39
Yes. In order to get definite outcomes without interference you need that axiom (or some modifications of the mathematical apparatus of QM as in dBB) ...
July 30, 2025 at 08:25
Also, if death means the definitive separation between people that are dear to us, the rational way to process the separation is with grief. Because b...
July 30, 2025 at 07:49
Yeah, I see that I also went on to comment excessively on Nietzsche's philosophy. Anyway, in the first paragraph of my response I pointed out that, in...
July 30, 2025 at 06:52