You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Metaphysician Undercover

Comments

If "freedom is the condition the will takes place under", then why is "free will" a misnomer? For example, lets say that "flow" is the condition a riv...
August 31, 2019 at 11:33
Lots of gas in me! Actually gas is dissolved in liquids, and can be locked up in solids, so there is a lot of gas in a living being. You already named...
August 31, 2019 at 11:14
In: Brexit  — view comment
It's not good to be perogied?
August 31, 2019 at 01:26
The problem here is that the charting technique puts time as distinct from all three dimensions of space. So if dimensionality is defined by spatial e...
August 31, 2019 at 01:13
This concept of free will requires a particular understanding of the nature of time and change. We see that time passes, and as time passes, time whic...
August 31, 2019 at 00:59
Right, the faulty definition of "deterministic", which you added is the premise required. It's a false premise though because it's not an acceptable d...
August 30, 2019 at 01:51
Good, but you're still not making the distinction which I asked you to make, between the thing, the tool, (knowledge in this case), and the activity w...
August 29, 2019 at 11:17
What do you mean by "deeply invested"? Again, I think I need to stress the difference between knowledge, and mental activity. Do you agree that mental...
August 29, 2019 at 02:20
That's not true. When you predict that something will happen, and it does, this does not mean that the thing is deterministic. This conclusion would r...
August 29, 2019 at 01:38
And what do you think lead to that move? Metaphysics. This would only be the case if you restrict the act of knowing, in the manner that you have prop...
August 28, 2019 at 11:32
The existence of free will demonstrates that the universe, as we know it, is not a deterministic system, nor closed system. To say that there are mult...
August 28, 2019 at 10:48
"Irrational" refers to an incommensurable ratio. This means that the two things being related to each other cannot be measured by the same system of m...
August 27, 2019 at 11:36
That we come to the same conclusion from different approaches is good support for the conclusion. It isn't though, because the car breaks down when yo...
August 27, 2019 at 10:46
When the two sides of a right angle are of equal length, the hypotenuse is irrational. Therefore the Pythagorean theorem as a first principle of geome...
August 27, 2019 at 02:41
That's right, there is no such thing as a completely deterministic system. That's a fantasy. There is a very real problem with this assumption, and th...
August 27, 2019 at 01:53
Remember, with time the boundaries of the fixed system will break down. Keep rolling the dice and after a while you won't be able to tell which side i...
August 26, 2019 at 11:20
Transgression! How did you loose your will? Unpredictability seeps in, to even the most predictable things. Why?
August 26, 2019 at 11:02
How about "Jesus was a human being"? This allows us to deny 2), and it's more truthful. But what is Jesus now? I think that's a more interesting quest...
August 26, 2019 at 10:52
Of course, that's the nature of knowledge. Proceeding from the first principle has a similar problem,. There's no infinite regress, just some degree o...
August 26, 2019 at 10:44
Sure, just like any artificial thing is real. What? Scientific results are not artificial? Artificial means produced by human beings. Are you suggesti...
August 26, 2019 at 02:03
As far as I can tell, telling the press is a way of making it publicly known.
August 26, 2019 at 00:13
That's contradiction, "first" means first, the possibility of infinite regress is therefore excluded. Metaphysics does not operate on an axiomatic sys...
August 25, 2019 at 23:57
A coin is something natural? What happened to you claim that "randomness can only be spoken of in relation to a fixed system"? A "fixed system" is an ...
August 25, 2019 at 23:46
This is important, randomness is only a property of an artificial system. It is something created. The randomness in QM and other microsystems, discus...
August 25, 2019 at 12:12
Such misinformation is good reason for outrage.
August 25, 2019 at 11:33
The stupidity is in the method, making it publicly known that I want to buy Greenland, instead of discussing this possibility with those who currently...
August 25, 2019 at 11:32
But metaphysics is reasoning toward first principles, not reasoning from first principles. Here is evidence of your mistake. Morality, in the sense of...
August 25, 2019 at 11:14
I don't see how that is relevant to absolute rest.
August 25, 2019 at 10:51
As I said, it's an exercise of will power.
August 25, 2019 at 10:46
I didn't equate leisure with freedom, that's another example of your misunderstanding. What I implied is that one must have leisure in order to act fr...
August 24, 2019 at 16:32
This is randomly composed nonsense. The observed passage of cause and effect refers to the past only. That is the point of the op, empirical knowledge...
August 24, 2019 at 11:34
But you still have not provide a coherent definition of absolute rest. As I explained earlier, there could be something which everything else is in mo...
August 24, 2019 at 11:16
Actually, I think that this is where the misunderstanding lies, not in the conditions of "social contract", but in the misunderstanding of "individual...
August 24, 2019 at 11:10
There is a difference between being still to avoid being preyed upon, and being still in order to prey, but neither involves an inactive mind. Both, I...
August 24, 2019 at 10:47
Materialism conceives of the world strictly in terms of material objects. The problem which this comes up against is that we see that all material obj...
August 23, 2019 at 11:17
I don't really think it's known by intuition, I used intuition as an example of knowledge without measurement. If it's intuition, then what type of kn...
August 23, 2019 at 01:24
I can't agree with this charles. If when paying attention, human consciousness experiences these things, and it is only human consciousness which prod...
August 22, 2019 at 10:57
Actually that's what I'm asking, the means by which we'd establish what really is. So it would be kind of silly to include a proposal of that within t...
August 22, 2019 at 01:29
You have one sort of attitude toward some events, and a completely different sort of attitude toward other events, and you classify two types of event...
August 21, 2019 at 11:36
I think that if we say there is a difference between past and future, this necessarily gives ontological priority to the present. Don't you? Wouldn't ...
August 21, 2019 at 01:58
I would say that's contradictory. One cannot be oriented towards two opposing things, that's like saying you're oriented toward the east and toward th...
August 20, 2019 at 10:52
That's what we were discussing in the other thread. Yes, but these terms are very general and vague, they can be interpreted in so many different ways...
August 20, 2019 at 10:22
If I understand you then, you think that we have a particular orientation, and this orientation justifies the claim that there is a difference between...
August 20, 2019 at 00:04
I don't think empirical knowledge can justify the claim of a difference between past and future, for the reasons outlined in the op. We experience nei...
August 19, 2019 at 22:00
Yes there is something wrong with the argument, you haven't defined "absolute rest". Does absolute rest mean that nothing is in motion, as would be th...
August 19, 2019 at 00:06
The issue is not a matter of my capacity with the English language. It is a matter of your inability to explain what you mean with terms like "Mind", ...
August 18, 2019 at 13:34
Now, Aristotle demonstrated that the Ideas of Pythagorean idealism (the Forms of Platonic realism), cannot be eternal. But that does not force the con...
August 18, 2019 at 12:12
It is a particular, but it's prior to and therefore separate from material particulars. It is better understood as a Neo-Platonic Form, because Plato ...
August 18, 2019 at 01:28
This is where the concept of free will is derived, a cause which is not itself caused.
August 18, 2019 at 00:50
Don't try to turn the table, you are the one making the illegitimate reification, talking about this Mind, as if it is a real thing. If it's not a rea...
August 18, 2019 at 00:49