The Trinity is logically coherent because the concepts upon which it is based can be defined in a logically consistent way. That said, if one consider...
Not true. You are assuming the fundamental constants could have been different, so each combination of constants participates in the lottery. Let n be...
We experience qualia. How can these be simulated? If you flip on a bit for the perception od redness (for example), you could program a human-like beh...
I don't see how any of this makes sense unless you assume there is some "essence" of a person. i.e. that which makes you YOU, as a unique individual -...
FWIW: Anyone who "expected" Mueller to develop a prosecutable case for criminal conspiracy by Trump was misguided. On the other hand: - anyone who sug...
The universe lottery randomly selects a set of constants, and each set of constants will result in a universe with consequences that are unique to tha...
Because when we use non-standard terminology, it impedes discussion. I don't have a degree in philosophy, but I've read a bit of epistemology and base...
You're overlooking that every one of the billion possibilities had an equal chance of being drawn (1 in a billion), and therefore it's not remarkable ...
I'm referring to conscious decision making, of course, and we are also free to re-think many of our unconscious decisions. My fundamental point is tha...
What if a person has been raised from birth to believe killing is good. This person didn't choose his belief, so how can he be considered morally wron...
Fine- call them opinions. There are still 2 important considerations that need consideration; how strongly you hold this opinion (which is a psycholog...
I'm referring to every day life. Despite there being guesswork to our choices, we still endeavor to to make the best possible guesses. Imagine if you ...
See what you just said: "for life to be possible." You are treating life as the objective. I am pointing out that life is a consequence of the constan...
It is fallacious to claim the universe is fine tuned for life. Life is a consequence of the universe being the way it is. Only if one assumes that the...
And that leads us into epistemology, and the justification of unproven/unprovable "beliefs." Regarding your opening question: no, we can prove causati...
I suggest that "to believe" means to accept or treat something as true as a psychological attitude, an attitude that influences our future behavior (i...
Sort of. The constituents exist (within a SOA), and we can think abstractly about them. That's consistent with Armstrong's view. The constituents (e.g...
The Idea that "all People are Created Equal" is a essentially a useful moral principle: anti-chauvinism. If we treat all others as equals, it is to th...
The "success of science" refers to the success of theory in making predictions. This constitutes evidence (not analytic proof) for the theories being ...
No. A state of affairs is not "relations between abstract entities." Abstract entities do not exist (that would be inconsistent with physicalism). Abs...
The fundamental thing to keep in mind is that (according to Armstrong), everything that exists is a state of affairs (a particular with its properties...
The relation between (or among) states of affairs can often be described mathematically. The point is that the equation is an abstraction, and doesn't...
Frank - Terminology aside, your views seem pretty reasonable to me. I only brought up the standard terminology to explain how I had interpreted your c...
Frank - It's not bullshit, as this shows: " The classical definition, described but not ultimately endorsed by Plato, specifies that a statement must ...
Strictly speaking in philosophical terms, knowledge = a belief that is true, justified, and (somehow) avoids Gettier conditions. So in order to KNOW F...
Had Barr's summary fully captured the "context, nature and substance" of Mueller's report, we would call the summary "accurate." I assume you were per...
My wife and I also have cat companions, and in almost all cases we've chosen to put them down eventually. The criteria we use is: are they getting som...
Self contradiction: Statement F: "I, for one, do not do any 'believing' at all." Therefore you don't believe statement F. There are a variety of epist...
D.M. Armstrong developed a physicalist metaphysics that is consistent with these abstract principles. In a nutshell: Everything that exists is a state...
Yes, the success of science offers useful evidence. For the practical purpose of advancing science, causality should be assumed. That doesn't prove br...
I think the thought experiment is useful. Brute facts can't be proven to exist nor to be metaphysically impossible, but the causal chain provides some...
Here's my take on brute facts. Consider the Principle of Sufficient Reason (a version popularized by William Lane Craig), which states: Anything that ...
Yes, and that's why I actually pointed to the semantics. Cause/effect are semantically inseparable, but that does not entail that everything that exis...
Alvin Plantinga believes that he "knows" (in the strict sense) God exists, despite the fact that he can't provide irrefutable evidence of God's existe...
Trump said in December: " Our request will add another 230 miles this year in the areas our border agents most urgently need. It will have an unbeliev...
If you're going to criticize what I said, you should read me more carefully. What I said is that a border wall does not solve *all* important problems...
Imagine if theoretical physicists considered causation optional: it would be the end or research. I think it's safe to continue assuming it, even thou...
The semantic discussion can be avoided by sticking strictly to the facts and refraining from use of the misleading term "collusion." But if it is goin...
How do we conclude what we "feel"? To be precise, the actual experiencing of a feeling is not a conclusion. The describing or labelling of a feeling e...
" you're applying some common sensical meaning to what collusion entails (we don't have a set legal definition and jurisprudence dealing with its inte...
Consider the zero tolerance policy that led to separating parents from children. Trump thought this would be a deterrent and ignored the morality (and...
Qualia (which is the plural of "quale") are sensory experiences, such as the sensation of headache pain or the experience of the color red. Because a ...
There's lessons to be learned from the Trump administration's failed tactics. They haven't been the sort of obvious, short term remedies that are done...
There are problems that are manifested at the border, but a border wall does not solve it because asylum seekers can enter through legal points of ent...
The meaning is the feeling itself. The words are an attempt to convey the fact that this feeling is being held, and it can only be truly understood by...
The key question is: what is consciousness?. Philosophy of mind discusses a variety of aspects of consciousness, such as the holding of beliefs, inten...
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