Metaphysician Undercover

When "matter" and "energy" refer to two very distinct things, how can these two be conflated to claim only one kind of substance? We have a very simil...

OK, let's assume that an object is always in what you call a "conceptual shape". You also agree that the object must be in a conceptual shape, or else...

It may be said that moderation is the key to long life. But never ever take moderation to the extreme.

You seem to be reluctant to separate ideas from mind. I think that is a materialist premises which clouds the issue. Ideas are seen to be dependent on...

It usually doesn't take long for me to imagine things. Most novels are quite simple and the scenarios generally come to my mind as fast as I can read ...

I don't see how that follows, I said that external things affect the experience which is created by my internal being. How does it follow that my expe...

You didn't read what I wrote? First I imagine what a tree chopping event is. Then, I can imagine 70 by putting it into context with numbers like 60 an...

These things affect my experience, they don't create it, or cause it. That I interpret my surroundings as a lion approaching me, is something created ...

The outside world? Sorry, the outside world is not part of my experience. Please exclude things which are not part of my experience when speaking abou...

I don't see how my experience could be something other than something I create. I'm an active, living being, my experience is a property of myself. Wh...

What are you asking, if human beings participate in their own experience, and alter it by doing such? That doesn't make sense, because they create the...

But this is exactly where the falsity lies. They are not one and the same table. Playing with it in this way makes it different from the other table w...

Well, it's the way that I imagine things. I can't help it if it's not the way other people imagine things. Now you tell me, how do you imagine this? I...

I'm just speaking from my experience, that's how I imagine such a thing. I picture in my mind, a person with a saw, going and cutting a tree. Then I t...

The continuity of existence is what we take for granted. But how is this continuity real?

Good, if you're sure that you can do it, then I assume that you've already done it. So, how did you imagine it then? Did you picture someone going out...

Right, imagining something, and conceiving something, are two distinct things.

When you say "I can imagine such a situation without difficulty", are you really sure that you can, or are you just saying that? Did you try to actual...

But we're talking about skepticism, and doubt, here. Why do you need language to doubt? Why do you need to "argue against" in order to doubt? And most...

What about conceiving of things which have no sensible existence, such as is the case when the conception precedes the existence of the thing?

"To be seen" is not a proper way of putting it. "To be apprehended by a mind" is better. That is because we can conceive of things without seeing them...

I think you may be mistaken here. Why do you think that we cannot doubt reason itself? You describe a distinction between reason and "the fruits of re...

I don't use "ontological dependence", that's why I asked you what you meant by this? So how would I be the one causing confusion? If someone else thin...

Why would I believe that God could create a rock bigger than he could lift? That sounds contradictory. Doesn't creating imply that God has lifted it, ...

A quick glance of that article reveals that "ontological dependence" appears to be all smoke and mirrors. They define it as something other than a cau...

That scares me.

I think it's actually just a rhetorical question.

Doesn't the opposite of what you said follow logically? If the uncategorized whole is the Memory of God, then to claim that there is such a thing is t...

Classical idealism assigns priority, or a higher level of reality, to the realm of ideas than to the realm of material existence. You might consider t...

I am doubtful of this idea of perceiving an uncategorized whole. It may well be the case, that to perceive something as a whole, a unit, is necessaril...

To be is to be apprehended with the intellect, not to be perceived by the senses. There is a big difference here. I understand with my mind, that othe...

"Co-dependent" is the term I've actually encountered here at tpf. To me, it is used in a way which differs from "interdependence". Interdependence imp...

I think that might be a good idea. Here's an issue I've come across a number of times already in the philosophy forums. It is the idea of co-dependenc...

But this "sense of otherness" appears to be very real. In fact I think it is real. If it is, then to overcome it simply by assuming the existence of a...

The differentiating of ourselves, to see oneself as a thing separate from other things, is not the real problem I am having here, this seems to come n...

What substantiates our assumption of the reality of objects, is the comparison between numerous different senses. You refer to the visual field, seein...

I don't see how that's relevant. That something could persist in time (the fleece), beyond the point in time in which something was a part of it (the ...

There is an inverted form of this paradox which is central to Plato's Theaetetus. What happens is that Socrates, with his group, seek to define "knowl...

What part of the word "part" do you not understand? To say that the hay adheres to the fleece is not the same as saying that the hay is part of the fl...

It was suggested that the world is something which exists independent of minds, and also that I am a part of this world. To begin with, that appears c...

That's what I am asking. I'm not the one claiming the reality of "the world", I'm the one asking what that means.

Exactly! How can you know what the word refers to if there are multiple definitions to choose from and none of them can be considered to be the correc...

OK, I'm going to try to relate this to what you say about the apple, and about QM. I hope you understand, that to say the apple consists of matter and...

Well, I'm involved in the "Many Worlds Interpretation" thread. What makes you think that your assumption of "the world" is the correct one, and these ...

This is philosophy, and it's customary ask others to explain and justify the concepts they use. That's how we learn what the others are talking about,...

Let me phrase that another way then. You can use "the world" all you want, but I do not know what this refers to, other than something imaginary, in y...

But don't you agree that if you eat the apple, at some point it will no longer exist? And, don't you think that the apple came into existence at some ...

I disagree with this, in a number of ways. First and foremost, you haven't distinguished between the category itself, and the defining features of the...

As Michael explained, the proper way to phrase this is that the statement today, "the Earth existed at that time", is true. But at that time, millions...

Maybe something was meant, or maybe there wasn't something meant. But if we assume that something was meant (and that requires this assumption I refer...