macrosoft

I find it hard to parse this. If you are only saying that ideas are caused by or related to or dependent upon brain states, then sure, nothing controv...

I think it's more about scientism. Doubt is perceived as 'scientific.' It's an asceticism in terms of belief. The less you believe, the better you are...

I agree generally, but there is the possibility of scientism. And then if we do think nature is a blind machine, then it doesn't help us much with dec...

It's nice to be able to agree with you on something. This is actually related to what I was saying about how things exist. To say only that God exists...

So what kind of reality are we talking about when we say that realism is refutable . Is our solipsist just deciding that realism is refutable in his l...

Is this a fact or possibly just a relationship between what we usually mean by 'mind' and 'experience'? If you define experience in terms of mediation...

Exactly -- and when the intention is not dominantly combative and instead sincerely curious, this kind of paradigm leaping (or attempted leaping) seem...

Hi. I'm not a theist myself, but I have enjoyed reading your posts. Others have also responded well, and this is generally an exciting thread. Thanks!

Thanks for the invite. I mostly like to react. It feels more natural. In a good way, you kind of remind me of my cat. You push lots of buttons to see ...

I try to be an original philosopher, synthesizing and paraphrasing everything that seems great. On an 'existential' level, I have no choice. I react t...

Fair enough, and I appreciate your honesty. I'll grant that when people share their own perspective that there is some whiff of 'be like me: let's all...

Why is the moon a different issue? Presumably human cognition 'chunks' reality into objects of concern. Most would agree that some kind of ur-object-s...

I roughly agree that facts don't need us in order to be facts. I believe that there is a world with particular ways that will continue after all of us...

What about the preface to the CPR? I feel like the preface really sketches his motivations and even his conclusions, though without the detailed justi...

If you ever get in the mood, his actual lectures are much more comprehensible. So is his philosophy of history. I find it exhausting to read his more ...

OK, thanks. But I still think there is some difficulty here. A fact exists for us, it seems, as a state of mind. Would you say that a fact exists for ...

OK. Could you explain that? (Sketch the relevant difference.)

But surely you already know. In short, the big meanings of life, the kind of things that religion and art also aim at. Who I am? Who shall I be? What ...

I understand where you are coming from, but I still think there are problems with that approach. It sounds something like a correspondence understandi...

'Contempt' is a harsh word. You might say that I like philosophy to include the concerns of existentialism. It doesn't matter to me what we call it. I...

I was strongly influenced by pragmatism, but I guess I'm a macrosoftist, and macrosoftism is always still underway. I am working it out even now in th...

For anyone to respond to, if they like: Is it controversial that 'nature' is a kind of dead machine that doesn't care about us? Maybe a little, but mo...

Oh, sorry. I just observed some of your conversation with others and got the sense that you were defending nihilism. Now that you've clarified, I'll t...

Well, sure. But then 'They're nothing more than that' is also nothing more than that, and merely one more mental judgement we make. The idea that only...

OK, I'll grant you that. But for me this falls under the critique of terminological dispute. It is an issue between philosophers with little or no rel...

I think this is a perfectly fine definition, but I don't think it exhausts the use of 'objective.' As I see it, there is a certain futility in trying ...

I personally agree that this is a good way to think of them. But I always try to feel my way into the use at hand as I converse with an individual. I ...

Yes, IMO, if we takelogic in a wider sense. This is a good theme. I can relate to understanding logic more generally in terms of the community's norms...

I like this, and I think it's an important point. That's why I'd say that nihilism 'has' to be expressed as self-conscious 'sophistry.' If it presents...

What about the value of doubting? Nihilism (as you use it there) implies that doubting is of value, does it not? Or why take doubt as a fundamental ap...

Yes, I think we largely overlap when it comes to some sense that things have to be understood from 'within' various perspectives. As far as 'metaphysi...

I agree. It's a masterpiece. The tension between its motive and its form is endlessly fascinating. It's a young man's book, a radical book, an arrow a...

I still like the TLP, so I just think it has its blindspots. And I haven't re-read it for a long time, so I am just informally gossiping about what it...

It's hard to know how to approach a question at that level of generality. I will say that I think life is ultimately mysterious. We understand things ...

I understand you and agree with you in this context. I've been studying things like artificial neural networks lately. I think they are great metaphor...

With the help of various influences, I started to see language in a new way. The project of building a certain kind of 'word castle' appeared both les...

Nice way of saying it and good point. But how about this situation: two individuals are both on the lookout for merely verbal disagreements, though ot...

. Has anyone ever accounted for experience in the final analysis? Or do they just link one thing to another with equations, arguments, myths? We trace...

Well said. And these practices might be 'in' the 'subject' in some sense but not explicitly verbal. The division of the word into objects and thoughts...

That's why I object to the world as the totality of facts if/when these 'facts' are understood as explicit propositions, etc. Exactly because I don't ...

Could you go into detail, and say what you think is the same? (What is the illusion of difference that I am laboring under?) How about this: if I poin...

It might be if one insisted on the impossible project of working without presuppositions or history. I'm glad to no longer feel that itch. An answer m...

. I think that's why people form different friend groups, religions, and intellectual camps. If they can't agree on the ground rules, then communicati...

No. It's not only emotional maturity. It is also (seems to me) something like math, especially pure math. Some have more of knack for this than others...

Yes, roughly.

While the foundations are shared, intelligence is finite. In complicated cases, it's not always easy to parse the complexity. And then in a real world...

This is a nice point. I've often found it amusing when folks accuse one another of logical fallacies without reflecting on the authority of the texts ...

But why add this 'literally'? Doesn't this assume that uses of 'sharing meanings' are employing some kind of fancy metaphysical machinery that you obj...

IMO, it's very tempting to understand an 'ordinary language' position in terms of an ought. And in some cases an ought may come along for the ride. Bu...

Well for me a simple continuum of pleasure doesn't get it right. What I have in mind are different kinds of feelings that we experience as we also exp...