Relativist

I'm fine with that.

"Would you classify Consciousness as "immaterial"? Is the denotation "figurative" or "literal"? You tell me" I'm willing to call it immaterial, in the...

Yes and no. One the one hand, we are part of the physical world: we were caused by the physical world, and operate within it. On the other hand, you'r...

The universe operated just fine during the billions of years it existed before there were any minds around to grasp, reason,or understand anything abo...

Not really. There are mathematical relations between the things that exist. These relations don't exist independently of the things that exhibit them....

You're close. I used "reification" to refer to the treatment of an abstraction as a thing, where thing is something that exists (i.e. it is ontic; par...

I agree with this, but I also hold some sympathy for the position of Israelis (not the government or military). Israelis ought not to live in fear of ...

I do not acknowledge that these abstractions (or any other) are part of the ontological structure of the world. Abstraction is a mental exercise, and ...

This is consistent with perdurantism. It doesn't dictate a mereology (identifying parts), or force one to overmine, overreach, or undervalue the parts...

Perdurance entails an object having "temporal parts". So there's a unique Schopenhauer1 at each point in time of your existence. The individual parts ...

Thanks for the interesting article, but I don't see a direct relation to the notion of individual identity, and it persistence over time. The issues h...

Your view seems consistent with "origin essentialism": "biological individuals have their biological origins essentially." This is discussed in this S...

I don't think my proposal violates the 2nd Amendment, although I agree the NRA would oppose anything that constrains gun ownership. It would be a poli...

I compared mental activity to running. The word "running" is an abstraction, but ontologically grounded in a material process. Mental activity may be ...

Agreed, but then it's just an historical fact about you. Sure, but can't we say the same about all the facts in your personal history? If you went bac...

I suggest that you are assuming the rock has an enduring identity, as a premise, and then identify some of the things that would have to be entailed. ...

In that case, then "Janus, at this exact day and time", would not exist if indeterminism is true and a different history had occurred.

The Schopenhauer1 of 1999 lacked all the experiences of the Schopenhauer1 of 2023. This is why I previously asked: "Are you the same person (same iden...

Is that bolded part true? In recent years, 70% of homicides are by firearms (per FBI stats) Even if your statement is true, the statistics suggest hom...

I agree with you in principle, but it is an unfortunate fact of life that the Supreme Court has so ruled (District of Columbia v. Heller, 552 U.S. 122...

The mind (i.e. mental activity) may be matter-based. Are you denying that possibility? It's not clear, but by stating this dichotomy, it seems that wa...

I think you're saying that the particular sperm/ovum combination that produced you is essential to being you. That combination is your historical orig...

Are you the same person (same identity) today, than "you" were yesterday (or 20 years ago)?

He emulates his mentor, who has developed quite a following with this sort of behavior.

Giuliani's lawyer said this in his closing statement: “remember this is a great man.” If I were on the jury, this would have pissed me off. No greatne...

Rudy Giuliani hit with $148M verdict for defaming two Georgia election workers Anyone feel sorry for Time Magazine's 2001 Person of the Year? I'm pred...

I'm not sure anything stranger actually has ever happened. Regardless, my impression is that his rhetoric is what gets him elected: "owning the libs",...

Do you think Clarence Thomas will agree with you (and piss off his wife)?

Wait...can't be tried twice for the same fact? I thought it was for the same CRIME. People have been acquitted of murder, and then charged with a civi...

This merits discussion: Special Counsel Jack Smith Petitions the Supreme Court to rule on Trump’s Immunity Defense The above article contains the full...

I asked you to specifically discuss the morality Trump's attacks. The mere fact that free speech is a generally good thing doesn't imply all speech is...

Fee speech is a virtuous policy and censorship is a vice. But irresponsible, hateful speech that predictably leads to threats of violence is a vice, e...

Trump sort of made a tenuous attempt at a self-coup. He pushed Pence to do something illegal, and he wanted to appoint Jeffrey Clark as AG - because C...

You have a lot in common with Trump: you're rebuttals consist of negative adjectives and biased judgment with no facts or logical arguments. Are you a...

You're groping for something to complain about, since you ignored the substance of what I said. The label "attack" applies to many negative statements...

Get real. No one's claiming the people making threats are innocent. But it's firmly established that there are people like this who follow Trump. Thre...

I think some of those consequences are on the table: mandated appearances, questioning by judge, and jail time - just like violating any court order. ...

The broad legal issue is: are any judicial gag orders constitutional? Trump isn't special.

Following up on what I said in the prior post, Trump's attorneys are appealing the gag order to the next level. They say: ""Without expedited review, ...

I expect Trump supporters will continue to complain that this is infringing Trump's free speech. They apparently lament Trump's being restricted from ...

Great points.

I think the 2 biggest causes of the 1960s counter culture were the Viet Nam War and Civil Rights. It's debatable about whether or not Kennedy would ha...

IMO, our emotional reactions to events are the product of genetics and experiences - so these feelings are still part of an algorithmic process, altho...

Feelings. These play a significant role in the choices we make. We could simulate the role of feelings in software, but neither the hardware nor softw...

:cool:

You're right, but only if fossil fuels were banned overnight. The best perspective is to consider projections based on the current status quo. (See: h...

That's irrelevant to the police actions at the time. They aren't clairvoyant. There was a credible threat when the actions were taken. The context inc...

It's not an a priori truth in the traditional sense, because its falsehood is logically possible. I'm simply saying ~solipsism is a rational belief.

You omitted the fact that they were fired upon with non-lethal weapons to prevent their entry into the Capitol, that would jeopardize the proceding, a...

No one is born a solpsist. We innately know (non-verbally) there exists an external world, and proceed to learn how to interact with it. Two issues ar...