You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

SophistiCat

Comments

I was never good at memorization, so formal language learning wasn't easy. And there wasn't much conversational practice available. Like you, at some ...
October 02, 2024 at 14:58
One learns to write better primarily through example and practice, but having a live feedback that points out outright mistakes and suggests improveme...
October 02, 2024 at 00:08
I intentionally picked a frivolous and perhaps imperfect parallel to sharpen the issue. Perhaps it would go easier with an example from physical scien...
September 29, 2024 at 21:26
That's a shame... There is a cluster of concepts closely related to potential: possibility in all its forms, probability, powers, dispositions. All of...
September 29, 2024 at 20:28
Well, that's what identity theorists say about consciousness vs neural activity. There are arguments against identity theory (other than epiphenomenal...
September 28, 2024 at 20:06
I already addressed this. The causal exclusion argument that motivates epiphenomenalism applies equally to physical events in a similar supervenient r...
September 27, 2024 at 21:08
Right, just as when you say "neutral activity is wanting to have milk" you don't mean just any random neural activity, but specifically whatever activ...
September 27, 2024 at 17:15
Originally, epiphenomenalism was indeed articulated in relation to mental/physical relationship. However, the justification for it does not rely on an...
September 26, 2024 at 23:41
Why not? Moving your feet does all the work, so why would we need walking?
September 26, 2024 at 21:21
If walking consists in putting one foot in front of the other, is walking epiphenomenal?
September 26, 2024 at 18:03
The post was from Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs official account, in case that wasn't clear. Russian government agencies are not banned on X/Tw...
September 25, 2024 at 11:08
https://twitter.com/GermanyDiplo/status/1836812764192321994
September 24, 2024 at 02:17
This thread belongs in the Lounge. What people find interesting or uninteresting in philosophy says more about them than about philosophy. PS But yeah...
September 23, 2024 at 16:56
Your question is too general. A lot depends on what decision you are making and which beliefs are influencing it. A decision has to be guided by some ...
September 18, 2024 at 16:05
Could you perhaps unpack what you mean by potency/potential in this context? Perhaps this is a well-trod ground for some, but I, for one, am not sure ...
September 16, 2024 at 23:51
I haven't read any of the discussion - just wanted to note that "Dr" Joe Dispenza (he has a chiropractor degree from something called Life University)...
September 09, 2024 at 00:08
I think the difference here is in how the sentences are structured. In "see... directly" the word 'directly' does not mean anything on its own. Instea...
September 04, 2024 at 21:02
All the people who take seriously the possibility of "humanity hitting the singularity" could probably fit on one city square, whereas the people who ...
September 02, 2024 at 15:59
Indeed, the challenge for the Contrast theory to meet its own criteria or meaningfulness would be to point out actual or potential instances where lan...
August 30, 2024 at 21:24
No, I think you were right the first time when you pointed out that the contrast theory of meaning does not require that the opposite trait be exempli...
August 30, 2024 at 19:47
Just seen About Dry Grasses, the latest by the Turkish master Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Long, slow, and depressing, just the way I like it :D Kidding about d...
August 26, 2024 at 00:10
An interesting new study. NDEs have been compared to effects of psychedelics before, but those comparisons were "inter-subject": they compared reports...
August 25, 2024 at 17:46
Story collections by Julio Cortázar. There is a clear influence of Borges in a few "high concept" stories, which I generally don't like much. I actual...
August 24, 2024 at 23:38
I liked Pratchett. I don't read much fantasy, but I found his style and humor appealing. I was introduced to Pratchett by a college buddy who was a bi...
August 24, 2024 at 23:14
Geocentrism can be viewed as a matter of perspective, and as such it is neither right nor wrong - it is apt in some contexts and not others. But if yo...
August 24, 2024 at 00:52
No, I still don't know what you mean by 'external world as it is,' in general and specifically in this context. You say that the description is good, ...
August 21, 2024 at 00:25
See, this is what I was talking about: a lot of confusion is created when the term "information" is thrown around with little care given to its meanin...
August 21, 2024 at 00:10
I wasn't talking about geocentrists, I was commenting on the plain facts about the rising and setting of the sun and the stars. This is the stuff of a...
August 20, 2024 at 00:32
Information crucially depends on the sender and the receiver (and noise, if any) - this is what is being neglected here. Divining from patterns of tea...
August 20, 2024 at 00:24
Exactly, how is it that the same marks on dry clay can carry more or less information in different contexts? And note that it's not just any marks tha...
August 19, 2024 at 16:18
"Information" is a vexed term, as it is used differently (and often vaguely) in different contexts. A crucial thing about Shannon's theory in particul...
August 19, 2024 at 01:00
The statement 'the Sun and the stars revolve around Earth and they move from east to west' is, if taken literally, perfectly true, as anyone can attes...
August 18, 2024 at 17:47
FUCKING MAGNETS, HOW DO THEY WORK? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSd_nb3-fHA
August 16, 2024 at 21:39
:up: I am not sure that epiphenomenalism is all that common in our thinking. Historically, the term itself was coined in the context of mental vs phys...
August 11, 2024 at 15:20
No, I'd heard of Hoffman's "interface theory," but was discouraged by the largely dismissive reaction of the professional community and didn't invest ...
August 10, 2024 at 21:31
Nothing wrong with reductionist analysis as such (A is nothing other than B) - that is the most common type of explanation, particularly in science. W...
August 09, 2024 at 11:00
I am still not sure what position this is supposed to be. Plantinga's attack is aimed squarely at the "evolutionary naturalist," and Hoffman would be ...
August 08, 2024 at 23:51
That's only according to the epiphenomenalist view, which Plantinga ended up weaponizing for his argument against naturalism. (His so-called EAAN went...
August 08, 2024 at 21:51
Yes, I know about Plantinga's argument, but it would work against Hoffman's position, not for it, since it aims to undercut its very foundations.
August 07, 2024 at 21:09
What is that common view that he thinks is self-refuting?
August 07, 2024 at 11:34
I know Criterion, though I am not yet a subscriber. Used to rent Criterion tapes and then DVDs in my formative years. I would say Jarmusch is one of t...
August 05, 2024 at 00:34
Checking with IMDB, I didn't even realize how many Jarmusch films I have seen! Some I barely remember, but I do remember that all of them were enjoyab...
August 04, 2024 at 22:44
I thought so too when I watched it. Tarkovsky does have such inexplicable longueurs here and there.
August 04, 2024 at 13:58
I have seen his Narayama and nothing else, I think. That one was very impressive.
August 04, 2024 at 13:51
:up: One of my favorite Jarmusch movies.
August 04, 2024 at 13:49
We still subdivide time into 12, 24 and 60 units, even though we use decimal notation. A remarkable legacy of ancient Sumerian mathematics, which used...
July 28, 2024 at 16:08
I've always thought of consequentialism as a future conditional. After all, moral choice occurs before its anticipated consequences.
July 20, 2024 at 12:33
This is a discussion forum, not a bulletin board. If you are not prepared to have a discussion, you should not post here. By the way, what is your cur...
July 19, 2024 at 23:37
Not so (duh!) I am not sure I understand your algorithm and what probability distribution it gives to the integers, but clearly, there is any number o...
July 11, 2024 at 23:30
I think we can make an even stronger statement: the only way that the usual probability rules (normalizability, additivity) can be satisfied on an inf...
July 10, 2024 at 21:26