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Metaphysician Undercover

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How do you get =1 here Banno? It appears to me, like no matter how far you go you'll always be a fraction short of 1. Have you got a cheat?
February 18, 2017 at 01:44
I think this is the issue which we approached with Pierre-Normand, concerning the notion of "enduring substance". Pierre mentioned that the concept of...
February 18, 2017 at 01:28
Sometimes I wonder the very opposite thing, what if Neo-Platonism is not actually true? But really, it's not truth or falsity which we look to in meta...
February 17, 2017 at 22:25
According to Aristotelian physics, any object, living or inanimate, is a unity of matter and form. Aristotle finds it necessary to assume this duality...
February 17, 2017 at 14:45
I don't think I would agree with this statement, specifically the part about enduring substance not falling under the purview of physical law. I think...
February 17, 2017 at 03:22
When any law is drawn up, it represents a particular intent. That is why it is important in interpretation, to put that law into the context within wh...
February 16, 2017 at 18:01
it's human nature to interpret the law in such a way as to maximize its compatibility with one's own intentions. That is the loop hole. Who would have...
February 16, 2017 at 14:31
Why would time be considered as a form of sensibility? The concept of time is produced by us relating numerous activities. What is being sensed here i...
February 16, 2017 at 14:23
I would not use "epistemological" in this way, and that's why I had trouble understanding your use of this term earlier. Epistemology is the study of ...
February 16, 2017 at 13:30
Here's the final passage in the Wikipedia article on American exceptionaism: 'In a speech on the Syria crisis on September 10, 2013, Obama said: "howe...
February 16, 2017 at 00:34
No, not at all what you said. The modeling which you describe portrays final cause (intention, or telos) as top-down causation, instead of its true po...
February 15, 2017 at 22:21
edit: Posted in wrong thread
February 15, 2017 at 21:53
I do not think that it is correct to exclude Aristotle from substance dualism. In his Categories he clearly defines primary and secondary substance, p...
February 15, 2017 at 17:27
Hi Tiff, as much as I am not one to make hasty judgements about another person's character, especially someone whom I have no personal relationship wi...
February 15, 2017 at 15:19
I tend to disagree with this. I believe the ability to experience music is innate, coming from deep within. Birds sing to each other. Animals in a bar...
February 15, 2017 at 14:37
What you refer to here, is Obama's ideology. And when we look at ideologies, what we find in general, is that the policies of the left are not liked b...
February 15, 2017 at 13:26
I don't believe it is good to make generalized judgements like this, casting a blanket of good or bad over an entire 'ism. That appears to be your app...
February 15, 2017 at 12:59
I'm not calling the right racist. Quite the contrary actually, I'm trying to separate the right from the racists. So I'm asking, is it the right which...
February 15, 2017 at 05:26
Is it the right who felt this way, or is it the white supremacists who felt this way?
February 14, 2017 at 21:45
As much as I don't believe that, it still may be the case. But how would you back up that claim? How do you justify it? For instance, I like hockey be...
February 14, 2017 at 21:15
You have forgotten to consider how we compare one distinct quality to another. All of your examples are of how we take one quality, one category, and ...
February 14, 2017 at 14:50
Actually when you come to fully grasp the concept of "substance", especially in light of modern physics, the very opposite becomes apparent. Spatial e...
February 14, 2017 at 14:40
I'm pretty sure I'm dualist, and apokrisis has repeatedly affirmed that I'm reductionist, so where does that leave me? No, I meant that hearing people...
February 14, 2017 at 03:37
I'm sure they might, but I would argue that this is an example of where the use of mathematics is harmful, when one thinks that mathematics is useful,...
February 14, 2017 at 03:15
I don't understand the bad reputation which reductionism has received. If it's the way toward a good clear understanding, then where's the problem? I ...
February 14, 2017 at 02:33
But for the Scholastics there is no such thing as "without God the world exists". For them, it was just a clear, undisputable fact, that God is the cr...
February 14, 2017 at 01:15
I think that the whole hardware/software analogy is an unproductive distraction. What is at issue here is the electrical processes of the computer, wh...
February 13, 2017 at 16:13
There's a deep irony here. Of all those millions of votes cast, there's only a few, "strategic" votes which make the difference between who wins and l...
February 13, 2017 at 13:49
Even the question "how to live" is extremely complicated. We're all different, with distinct aspirations, so the answer of that question for you will ...
February 13, 2017 at 13:29
Well, you might be surprised. There is usually a fair amount of inconsistencies within the philosophy of individual philosophers. I like to judge base...
February 13, 2017 at 02:10
If the simulation crashed, wouldn't we all die? Do you think it's possible that we can die, and be rebooted at a save point? Since there would be a ce...
February 13, 2017 at 02:04
This is a good point. Descartes offers us a very poorly defined rendition of dualism. And as the founder of modern philosophy it is probably no coinci...
February 13, 2017 at 01:49
That, I think is a very strange notion. You do realize don't you, that physics neither claims to understand the mind, nor attempts to understand the m...
February 12, 2017 at 21:59
I assume you understand that to have a sound logical conclusion requires that you start from sound premises. Mathematics, being a form of logic, is no...
February 12, 2017 at 18:03
There was surely some confusion, and it was my fault, because you had been talking about the experience of listening to music, and when I joined the d...
February 12, 2017 at 15:25
That social constructs exist outside of human consciousness, and act downward onto the consciousness of the individual is where the falsity lies. This...
February 12, 2017 at 13:10
So, what's the difference between reason and Blobreason? I don't get the question. Suppose someone hooks you and I up to brainwave machines and demons...
February 12, 2017 at 02:36
There appears to be a trend in modern philosophy to deny the reality of the "I", the "self", reducing the "I" to simply a part of the community in som...
February 12, 2017 at 02:16
I would think so, don't you? If listening to music were like this, "a network of perceptual experiences which we are unable to identify and make sense...
February 12, 2017 at 01:41
I agree, but these are objective principles which we are trained to hear, such as the top and bottom of the octave, the fourth and the fifth, etc.. Wh...
February 11, 2017 at 21:40
The issue here I think, is that mathematics must be applied, in order that it may tell us anything about the world. This means that things in the worl...
February 11, 2017 at 14:12
My apologies Agustino, I didn't realize that.
February 11, 2017 at 13:58
I would be interested to see more information concerning this point, a better description of the purported suppression and enhancement. Is there a che...
February 11, 2017 at 13:55
If we are going to discuss a higher level, and a lower level, then we need to distinguish the two distinct aspects of the free will act. First, we hav...
February 11, 2017 at 04:34
What I meant by "clearly", is that evidence indicates this. Even Pierre-Normand admitted this. If you have any evidence to the contrary, then bring it...
February 11, 2017 at 03:17
Isn't this contradictory to say that constraints are responsible for freedom? I don't know how that could work. Besides, you've assumed freedom as the...
February 11, 2017 at 01:21
The problem which I think Agustino is alluding to in the op is the intrinsic uncertainty in the way that we measure time. There appears to be an uncer...
February 11, 2017 at 01:15
Ok, so you have described a "higher level" of neurological activity, which you say is responsible for the intentional, rational, free will acts. Since...
February 11, 2017 at 00:43
You started your thread with a quote from me. Don't you think you should provide a reference as to where the quote was taken from? Otherwise it is a q...
February 10, 2017 at 22:27
Thanks for the quote Agustino. Perhaps you should provide a reference just to make the context a little clearer.
February 10, 2017 at 17:33