Ron Cram

I disagree. We absolutely can see kinetic energy. Anytime you see a falling object, you are looking at kinetic energy. You may not think of that term,...

Because I don't believe God would deceive us. We can plainly see that one ball has kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is a well-understood, well-described...

But we are not watching an animation. As long as you accept that the external world is real, there is no difficulty in understanding that a moving bil...

"Humans intuitively understand events to be causal." This is at least partly true. Events are understood to be causal. This may be because of intuitio...

I am not a fan of Hume. I just started a thread on Hume and I'm hoping that both fans and anti-fans would come join the conversation. https://thephilo...

I'm not a fan of David Hume. I started a thread about Hume and would love for you to join the conversation. https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/...

Hume is one of my least favorites. I've started a thread and I'm hoping fans of Hume will come answer a question for me and join the discussion. https...

I can't help but wonder if you have read The Science of Scientific Inference by Wesley Salmon. It is quite good. Also, I am not a fan of David Hume. I...

Yes, the external world seems obvious to me and is also demonstrable. It is also clear that a great many philosophers have seen the external world as ...

I think it is obvious that an external world exists. I don't think that Kant's proof or Moore's proof or any other proof has been persuasive so far an...

Not at all. Imagine a string lying in a straight line on a sheet of paper. Now bend the same string and it continues to lie flat on the piece of paper...

In what sense is God dead?

Thank you for the link to the paper. I've only glanced at the paper so far, but it looks like interesting reading. I'm behind on my reading but I WILL...

Why should growth and education give meaning and purpose? The idea seems silly to me. Did Dewey attempt to defend such a proposition in any of his wor...

Does Dewey discuss Nietzsche or nihilism much? Does Dewey claim that life can have meaning and purpose?

No worries. I often make similar typing mistakes.

No, most people find nihilism repugnant and unlivable. The crisis is to find a way to embrace both atheism and purpose in life. James Sire, in his boo...

That's an interesting thought. Can you think of any followers of Spinoza that have published that idea?

Can you think of a more descriptive term for natural selection than "non-random?" If it isn't random, what is it?

Well-stated for a nihilist perspective, but the vast majority of philosophers are not nihilists and never will be. My sources tell me that Erik Wielen...

I use the terms in the usual way. For example, logical positivism has been shown to be false. Even philosophers who were influential in it gave it up....

Not at all. I'm asking about a quest for truth. That's what philosophy is all about, right? It is a quest for truth, reality, wisdom and how to live b...

That isn't an answer to my questions. I'm asking for the names of philosophers who have shown that the two are not mutually exclusive.

I understand that some people have followed Nietzsche into nihilism, but most people are not willing to do so. I knew I would get some answers like th...

What philosopher do you think has been most successful in embracing atheism and avoiding nihilism? If you have some book you can recommend, I would be...

What is the crisis of philosophy in his view? I understood that it was the question of how to embrace atheism while avoiding nihilism. I haven't done ...

I'm trying to determine exactly what portion of my explanation you are having trouble with. What claim are you denying? Let's take the Mike Trout home...

No, I'm not equivocating. Movement of a body is kinetic energy. When you look at a body that is moving, then you are seeing a body with kinetic energy...

It looks like a body in motion. If you see a body in motion, then you are looking at a body that has kinetic energy. it really is that simple. To quot...

Your welcome.

The kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. This is rather standard definition. If you see an object in motion,...

I said "if" someone understands kinetic energy, they will see it when they see billiard balls moving. This is proof you do not understand kinetic ener...

They cannot. Natural science is possible only because nature always repeats itself. If the same conditions apply, nature will do exactly the same thin...

Hume was not respected in his time. His books didn't sell well and the people who understood Hume well, such as Thomas Reid, criticized him sharply. K...

Yes, it's justified. Hume wrote some complimentary things about Newton, but he didn't really understand Newton's science and so he wrote things that w...

No, I don't. But once someone understands kinetic energy, they must see it when they see a moving billiard ball. If they don't see it, they don't unde...

And another quote from Schliesser: "Hume’s anti-reductionism is made evident by the important assumption in his account of causation that all matters ...

Here is another quote from Schliesser regarding Hume's view of Newton's philosophy: "The full extent of Hume’s indebtedness to pre-Newtonian mechanica...

When you see a moving billiard ball, you are looking at its kinetic energy. When you see a stationary billiard ball, you are looking at its inertial e...

Some here seem to think that I'm the first person to accuse Hume of attacking Newton's Principia. I submit this quote from a paper by Eric Schliesser ...

Doubting "how our observations come about" is "doubting the science of kinetic energy." We are not talking about past observations or future observati...

This is an interesting thought. Clearly, I am a realist. I've never considered Hume's position on this point. Is he considered an idealist?

It is a presumption if one has limited evidence. Most people understand that proof is not absolute. Even in capital criminal cases, the prosecutor doe...

If the ball is moving, then you are observing its kinetic energy. Evidently, this is the point Hume doesn't understand. I agree with your second parag...

Yes. We can see the stationary ball move and we can hear the energy transfer. Also, if you observe a baseball bat striking a softball in a slow motion...

I appreciate that you are making an attempt to explain your thinking. It would improve your responses greatly if you could actually quote from Hume to...

You do realize, I hope, that if Hume was correct then Newton's Laws of Motion would be completely unwarranted. His Laws of Motion describe forces, cau...

Perhaps you would like to quote some passage of Hume where he writes that it is possible to observe or know causes and effects? If you cannot do that,...

I understand what Hume is saying. I understand that he is not denying the existence of causes and effects. Hume is denying that they are observable or...

Hello all. I'm Ron. Today's my birthday but gifts are not necessary. I'm married to a wonderful lady who loves me in spite of my faults, which we won'...