Terrapin Station

Meaning is created by individuals.

I was just interested in what the experience was. And a lot of my curiosity simply has to do with the fact that I can't even imagine what sort of expe...

Yeah . . . I'd just avoid "comprehend" because it seems like a category error to me. Rocks and such aren't attempted to communicate with us. ;-)

I always think it's ridiculous when anyone reads anything that way. They're depictions of those particular fictional characters.

I wouldn't use the word "comprehend," but I don't think that the notion that we can access or have knowledge by acquaintance of a thing-in-itself from...

The question is about the arroyo/wash as such, not about the water as such, by the way. But okay, if we don't need to say that the arroyo/wash is in t...

How can it possibly not be personalized though? We're necessarily talking about individuals and how they feel about things.

As I just explained above (a couple posts back), wants and needs (needs hinge on wants in my view) have nothing to do with happiness. If you're that m...

Oy vey, so it is anti-natalist stuff. I thought you were geniuinely interested in rewarding relationships. At any rate, it's obviously a matter of how...

You're looking for anti-natalist support or something like that? <puzzled> (If that was the ulterior motive, I can understand your response to my comm...

I shouldn't have responded so quickly. The issues here are personal--we're talking about relationships, how we interpret them, our expectations about ...

Right. So I said that what I described isn't something I count as a struggle. I'm not saying that struggles are not possible, but in my view, I didn't...

I prefer conversational interaction, and I'm not interested in visiting the argument clinic. You said that what I described was a struggle, right?

What does that have to do with whether a characterization counts as a "struggle"?

Maybe you'd describe anything that you have to put any effort into, where it doesn't just fall into your lap as a "struggle," but I wouldn't.

First, it doesn't have to be a struggle. Looking at it that way is already entering with an attitude that probably won't be beneficial. You won't nece...

Morality and reason are such instincts or intuitive "feelings."

In my opinion a lot of what makes the difference is one's attitude towards things like work and relationships. You can't have some narrow preconceptio...

Yes. I just don't believe that there's any good reason to buy that noumena are any different than phenomena.

Yes, but I only started posting there this past April or May. I know we interacted in a couple different threads. I'm pretty sure you were telling me ...

My tolerance basically ends at people initiating significant nonconsensual (physical) violence.

That would seem more reasonable at least.

Wait--it can't be that he's saying that the incontrovertible experience that transitioned him from an atheist to a religious believer is simply "knowi...

See, from my perspective, I find religious beliefs completely absurd, and I don't have any dissatisfaction with my present worldview. So I have zero m...

Okay, but especially as someone who was an atheist, I'm wondering why you're interpreting your experiences as something other than simply unusual brai...

But that point is false, at least in any sense that could be correlated with anything objective. If you were to subjectively interpret porn that way f...

Only a very small fraction of porn has women in subservient or "degrading" roles. An equal amount--still a small fraction, though more than above--fea...

Yeah, the whole premise of (as a problem) it is ridiculous. There's so much crappy theorizing supporting it. I also like how folks often say that obje...

What do you see as the difference between "sex object" and a focus on sex/sex appeal/sexual attactiveness/etc.? I'm not in favor of any speech laws pe...

The rhetoric of "objectification" is completely untenable from a number of angles. And unfortunately, no one seems to be seriously, systematically cha...

You'd like me to think that, eh? ;-)

I wouldn't say I'm seeking enlightenment. What I'm seeking is friendly, philosophically-oriented talk from people who don't just want to argue and who...

The analogy/question was whether we need to say that an arroyo or wash is always flowing with water, just sometimes the water is hidden (however it is...

Wait--we are?

And again: why did you ignore the other analogy?

Figuring that you'd probably read it as a reference to a feeling rather than a requirement to empty one's bladder because it's full, so that the body ...

I didn't say anything that suggested that. And I don't know what "definition" you're referring to. I didn't give any definitions anywhere. There's no ...

You should be saying that you had a subjective experience of seeing Alice--that's what seeing Alice is, after all, but of course you're also saying th...

I'd have no idea how you'd be defining the two terms in that case.

I have an equally lofty opinion of your contributions. ;-)

Yes. It's not some single object that moves around. Consciousness, sense of self, etc. only obtain when particular brain states obtain. That it only o...

Surely you don't believe that you're presenting anything like formal arguments and not just forwarding personal beliefs? Not that I'm implying that yo...

Hello irony. Certainly I don't think it's incoherent. That's right, because it IS process(es). It's identical to that, identical to process/change/mot...

I wouldn't say there is a non-subjective sense of experience. You could just use it to denote "events happening to a person" I suppose, but once you i...

What?? No. That processes are "of material" and have locations doesn't amount to time not being process(es). It's certainly not (just) a description. ...

Yeah, processes are of material, and they have locations. That's not an objection to my view (in my opinion (re your "but")). I don't buy that anythin...

Well, if we imagine that we really know "seconds since the big bang," and that doesn't differ relativistically, the way we know it is simply that we'r...

I'm fine with their being different "levels" of consciousness. I just don't see a good reason to buy that one level features the subject with no aware...

You mean how is looking at 4:00 on your watch, say, sufficient to tell you that it's 4 o'clock? Maybe I'm misinterpreting your question though. But yo...

I don't see there being a requirement on a broadness scale. The only requirement seems to be that something is right. And this is right. Process--chan...