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Terrapin Station

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I didn't see the exchange you're quoting, but it looks to me, based on just those two quotes, like Mongrel read andrewk's comment as saying, "It's a p...
October 13, 2016 at 16:40
I have an understanding of all of the words you're using, and most of the phrases you write make sense to me, but put together into sentences and chai...
October 13, 2016 at 16:27
In my view truth is subjective. (Namely, it's a subjective judgment regarding the relation of a proposition to something else--states of affairs in th...
October 13, 2016 at 12:53
Empirical studies can only give you non-valued information. You can then use that to figure out how to be more likely to achieve your subjective aims....
October 13, 2016 at 12:41
I'd agree that idealism doesn't necessarily entail solipsism, but I don't know if I've ever seen any good reasons why it doesn't in any particuar case...
October 13, 2016 at 12:37
I'm actually fine with laws against it, ceteris paribus re the current status quo, as the utility of those laws is that it makes it easier for folks t...
October 12, 2016 at 20:49
I'm guessing that you're referring primarily to eating meat? First, remember that I do not consider non-human animals persons anywhere near the level ...
October 12, 2016 at 19:20
I don't agree that empirical research can actually demonstrate this. I don't have a problem assuming that some non-human animals have consciousness. I...
October 12, 2016 at 17:53
Well, first off, I don't buy the idea of brainwashing, period. I'd also say that I don't buy the idea of hypnosis period, though it depends on just ho...
October 12, 2016 at 16:12
Well, for one, I don't consider any strictly "psychological harm" unethical and I especially wouldn't make any laws regarding it. (Which reminds me th...
October 12, 2016 at 15:41
But I specified that I can't make sense of the distinction of physical/nonphysical. That's because the very notion of "nonphysical" is incoherent. I j...
October 12, 2016 at 15:32
The difference is that my physicalism only arises because people claim dualism etc., where they're relying on a putative distinction that's incoherent...
October 12, 2016 at 14:48
I'm trying to imagine myself as an idealist for a moment: I believe that the occurrence of a toaster is just a mental phenomenon (assuming that makes ...
October 12, 2016 at 14:23
I'm skeptical that you could make any sense of an objective/real category if you're positing that we can only know (either epistemically or by acquain...
October 12, 2016 at 14:04
It seems like you're getting at something that I argue, but I instead stress that representationalist-oriented idealism can't get at a support for its...
October 12, 2016 at 13:54
It just seemed like it to me because you keep stressing that and only that. So is something objective to you under the view I gave by virtue of it bei...
October 12, 2016 at 13:42
, you seem to only use objective (and "real" in other instances) as referring to something existing when it's not being observed (rather than noting t...
October 12, 2016 at 13:38
"Best interests" is always about preferences, and preferences are always individual (even when a bunch of individuals have the same preferences). "max...
October 12, 2016 at 13:24
Not looking to hijack your thread, darthbarracuda, and I'll go back and look at your post in a moment, but this is related and I wanted to post it som...
October 12, 2016 at 13:02
It's a thought experiment about something that's logically possible. Logical possibility is different than metaphysical possibility, if you want to ar...
October 11, 2016 at 20:20
In the logically possible scenario I presented, it coincidentally occurred when observation stopped. There was nothing causal about it--as I stipulate...
October 11, 2016 at 19:56
I don't think that any ideas are too ridiculous to entertain in a philosophical context. And thought experiments aren't typically very "realistic" in ...
October 11, 2016 at 19:25
Would you say that the IEP says that necessarily, people having subjective states are objective?
October 11, 2016 at 18:15
So in your opinion if the IEP says, "The object is something that presumably exists independent of the subject’s perception of it. In other words, the...
October 11, 2016 at 18:12
Okay, that's not a necessary property though. I explained why. Can you address my explanation? Or are you not capable of that?
October 11, 2016 at 18:09
What are you quoting there. You have a quote with no attribution. Sorry I just saw your opening remark. (I don't know if you just added that.)
October 11, 2016 at 18:07
It's just like yesterday when you didn't even bother to respond to my question about your assertion that the thread-starter had in mind your misunders...
October 11, 2016 at 18:05
You're being intellectually dishonest by not dealing with that.
October 11, 2016 at 18:03
No it isn't. You're misunderstanding the definition. I explained why. You're ignoring that I explained why.
October 11, 2016 at 18:03
Stop being intellectually dishonest, please.. The way to answer the question I asked is by saying, "The dependence on conscious awareness in the examp...
October 11, 2016 at 18:01
The question I asked you was "where is the dependence in the example I specified." Answer that question please--instead of taking a step back and doub...
October 11, 2016 at 17:58
Yes, I'm completely serious. It pops out of existence, as I stipulated, completely coincidentally when we happen to not look at it. So how is that dep...
October 11, 2016 at 17:54
How, per the example I described, do you believe that the toaster is dependent on conscious awareness of it?
October 11, 2016 at 17:52
I wrote "popped out of existence" so there's no ambiguity if you actually read what I wrote. Realism has nothing to do with believing that objective t...
October 11, 2016 at 17:42
Not necessarily. Assume that things like toasters exist and that they're not just mental phenomena. Now, let's assume that the toaster is separated fr...
October 11, 2016 at 16:55
Yes. That is not the same thing as "they continue to exist when we're not aware of them." That's because logically, things can exist that are independ...
October 11, 2016 at 15:46
Which does NOT say anything about the issue of whether things exist when one isn't observing them. That's the conventional definition, which is consis...
October 11, 2016 at 12:59
Couldn't agree more with this. In particular what bugs me is when people assume that any behavior or characteristic needs to be evolutionarily advanta...
October 10, 2016 at 18:14
From Wikipedia: So yeah, per that definition, which is the sense of "absurd" that Camus was using for example, the absence of objective morality or me...
October 10, 2016 at 17:52
One would guess so, but I think that both professional and serious amateur philosophers tend to be "bigots" (in the way you're defining that) and egoi...
October 10, 2016 at 17:33
"Bivalent logic" as someone else pointed out. That's the name you'll run across more often in a philosophical milieu. Anyway, "What's wrong with it?" ...
October 10, 2016 at 17:26
Based on?
October 10, 2016 at 15:06
First off, that's not at all the subjective/objective distinction that I make. I also believe that "exists even when it's not being observed" is not a...
October 10, 2016 at 15:00
It does, because it's no inference. It's an observation. Inferences are not observations. Not that that's all that I typed, but it's enough for the mo...
October 10, 2016 at 14:52
No. I mean that, for example, I'm observing my kindle right now as I type this.
October 10, 2016 at 14:45
You lost me a number of times in your opening essay, but the part I was most confused about was this: At first I read that as if you must be talking a...
October 10, 2016 at 14:43
It seems like there's a major increase in idealists/should-be-solipsists-if-you're-to-be-consistent folks running around on philosophy forums lately ....
October 10, 2016 at 14:17
Empirical claims are not provable. That's Science Methodology/Philosophy of Science 101.
October 09, 2016 at 12:48
Wait, why would the focus be on proofs, first off?
October 08, 2016 at 20:25
First, I wouldn't say that the cogito employs some narrow sense of "think" so that simply being aware wouldn't be sufficient to count as thinking. Sec...
October 06, 2016 at 13:59