Terrapin Station

Well, you don't know if it's accurate or not. The alternative of representationalism, for example, if that you only know something that's mentally "co...

For example, as I wrote, "something mental is normally 'coloring' the perceptions and that we're only seeing the coloring, without any way of knowing ...

Naive realism is a stance in philosophy of perception. The very concept of perception is that of us being situated-beings-in-the-world, taking in data...

Where we don't already have an explanation, supernatural explanations should have long ago been eliminated by a "We don't know what the natural explan...

You're looking for an example where we know that something didn't have a starting point, somehow, in contradistinction to what you're taking to be exa...

??? As I made explicit, what I was disagreeing with was the part about causality, not the part about beginning to exist. But sure, maybe some things d...

I see it more as (a) admitting relativity, and (b) acknowledging that minds are part of relative "systems" or "equations" rather than losing mind-inde...

* I don't agree with (1). I think that's rather an assumption that we don't really have any good empirical or logical justification for, as with the a...

I'd change rape law by eliminating it. Not because I think rape should be legal, but because a general assault law covers it.

Right. And the article certainly isn't stating that the block theory is the received view in the sciences.

Even if that were true, why would anyone want to equate the universe to the sum total of "necessary mathematical truths and physical laws at play"?

Well, reference is simply having something in mind for a signifier--it's what an individual is taking a signifier to be "pointing to" or "picking out....

As a moderator, aren't you supposed to care more about the quality of philosophical dialogue than basically devolving into "Is too/is not" and barely-...

I'm just going to do one thing at a time with you, otherwise this will keep getting longer and longer with no resolution to anything. So I'll start wi...

Re Putnam, by the way, I don't at all agree with his argument, because I don't at all agree with his views of how meaning works.

That last statement is tautologous about physicists who believe that, though. That's different than it being a received view.

That would make no sense. For example, the first sentence is this, "Einstein once described his friend Michele Besso as 'the best sounding board in Eu...

Which statement(s) in that article to you take to imply that the block theory is the received view?

That's an argumentum ad populum.

I'm a subjectivist on justification by the way. So yeah, some people certainly feel they're justified in morally judging beliefs and expression, and t...

Haha--if only I could make it snappier.

When I say "You shouldn't x" what I mean is "I'd prefer that people do not do x, or I'd prefer a world where people do not do x, either because (a) I ...

Actually I said the opposite of that. (Not to be patronizing, but just in case this is needed for anyone reading: contiguity is different than continu...

I merely stated a conditional and gave my opinion on it. Re quoting, I only quote the sentence(s), or even just the phrase(s), that I'm commenting on,...

Did you catch where I explained that in my view, ethics IS about one's feelings (or "feelings") about interpersonal behavior? So yeah, if one doesn't ...

I wouldn't say something like "people are just their skin color," but I think that's part of what a person is. In other words, I think that people are...

Ah--I see what you were getting at. I don't agree with that take on it, though. I don't think there's anything more than what people actually have pre...

Ah, thanks. I had barely even looked at the menu on that page.

I don't know if this is a request for a feature tweak or a request for an explanation how to use a feature: The number next to "YOU" on the menu bar i...

In other words, you're forwarding an argumentum ad populum. That's a fallacy. Things aren't correct just because a bunch of people agree or do somethi...

You mean something less common than some combination of those things, yet nevertheless relatively common? I have to guess even more for that, but prob...

It doesn't make any sense to say it doesn't make any sense. "It's correct to morally judge beliefs or expression" IS a statement (what the heck else w...

A=A, or, say, A=B, where "B" is simply another name or another way of making verbal reference to A. A classic example of that is Frege's "morning star...

You can't know the answer to questions like this with certainty. You can't prove empirical claims. The issue instead, then, is this: Why should you be...

So you'd say that the block universe theory of time is indeed the received view in the sciences?

I don't refrain from morally judging beliefs or statements BECAUSE they're beliefs or statements. I refrain from morally judging them because I don't ...

Probably some combination of money/material wealth, sex, health, family, friends and social status.

I like the idea of an actively moderated philosophy forum, but the only sort of moderation I want to see is that the moderators make sure that it most...

I don't agree with your metaphysics there (which we should know from the wax discussion). The living, breathing, being is identical to the form in my ...

It's rather not possible to have either a true or false moral view.

If we're talking about consequences that are "brought about," we're no longer talking about mere beliefs or speech. We're talking about actions. Defin...

I think people tend to see "cartoon versions" of everyone/everything. We tend to see simplified caricatures, and part of that is a factor of simple ca...

What I believe is a category error is whether it's correct to morally judge beliefs or expression. Some people do morally judge beliefs or expression....

I didn't answer the poll, because there's not an option that really fits my views. First, it might be worth saying what I think morality/ethics is. So...

Yippee.

Wait. Stop right there. There are a number of issues to bring up here, but given the way these sorts of discussions usually go, I'm just going to do o...

Who gets to decide whether something counts as a rational account/justification? It seems like often what happens is one person thinks they're forward...

It's simply for each person to decide for themselves, should they be interested in it.

I don't know if it's the same guy posting on a bunch of different boards under different names, but I keep running into people assuming that materiali...

That's not a definition I'd agree with, obviously. One reason why is that what's adverse versus neutral versus beneficial is subjective, but I think i...