RegularGuy

That's true, Devans, but if I just said that, then I wouldn't have a whole paper. ;)

I justify it by the fact that the limbic system has been shown by neuroscience to be the driver of our frontal lobe's decision making process. It is n...

Thanks, Dingo! I'm pleased that you appreciated my post. :)

I could just deny your second premise. I believe we are compelled to make the choices we make, and the availability of choices is just a mental exerci...

Thanks! :)

Thanks!

Got it now. Thanks!

Your response was really interesting and awesome. However, I am having trouble parsing this last sentence. Could you clarify, please?

Thanks for the thoughtful response, Diego. I no longer believe in reductionism, but prefer the idea of supervenience which you seem to be explaining h...

I should state that I no longer believe in material reductionism. Free will is a matter that needs to be better defined.

An analytic truth is a necessary truth knowable a priori. Kripke talked of necessary truths knowable a posteriori. For example, it is necessarily true...

As far as majoring in philosophy, it may or may not be a waste of money. If you double major in something "useful" as Mentalusion suggested, then it c...

Naming and Necessity also deals with the contingent a priori, but those weren't the parts I was referring to. I was referring to the parts where he de...

Thanks for the insight on "substance". Interesting stuff! :)

These are some interesting thoughts, macrosoft. I will have to give it more thought myself. Thanks for contributing. :)

I've dealt with apathy and anhedonia for years. It was just a matter of getting on medication that my body could metabolize (my doctor gave me a genet...

It's really not a long book. Just a series of lectures. Weren't you considering majoring in philosophy? It's been years since I've read it myself, and...

I will jump in without reading the entire thread. Sorry for being lazy and sorry if someone else mentioned this. You should read "Naming and Necessity...

I haven’t read the entire thread, so I apologize if someone else talked about this. I recommend reading “Naming and Necessity” by Saul Kripke. He is s...

Yes, of course! Perhaps I also took "great" to mean "setting a precedent" as well.

Perhaps it's more a poverty in the education system than anything. Contemporaries rarely get their due in secondary and post-secondary institutions.

God bless you, macrosoft. You said it, bub!

I may have misinterpreted Brian's original request for "the last great ones." Certainly there are great works of art that are being produced right now...

I don't believe clarity is always necessary even for philosophy. I think being poetic is quite okay for some areas of philosophy, especially ontology,...

A third possibility besides consciousness being (1) an epiphenomenon or (2) a primary substance is (3) consciousness is a substance on par with matter...

Well, I always liked Copland's "Rodeo" But I also like Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. Eery sh*t!

Well, okay. However, if the patterns follow physical and mathematical laws as in Turing's fractals, then they aren't just in my mind as the rock forma...

Musical piece: Can't go wrong with Bohemian Rhapsody for the virgin ear! Freddy Mercury's command and presence, the different styles all in one song, ...

I was just saying that nature tends to repeat patterns on different size scales.

Good points, Herg. Perhaps neurons coelesce around consciousness? Consciousness is the glue? If so, then consciousness would be the primary substance....

That analogy doesn't fit with Turing's fractals in the same way that my analogy does. I don't find any aesthetic beauty in your analogy, but more cons...

It has been observed that the cosmos when viewed from a sufficiently far distance is structured very similarly to the neuronal structure of brains. Pe...

Does this metaphysic imply that libertarian free will is possible? Can neuroscience even falsify it?

I also take "light" to mean "knowledge." So, to be "in the light" would be to know God.

Edit: OOPs. posted in the wrong thread

Herg: I think the commandment should be read as, "Do unto others as you would have done unto you (by others)," not "do to others what you do to yourse...

Much of the Bible deals with turning away from God who is also personified light, as in the light of the Spirit. For someone who has turned away from ...

It is also my belief that the referential theory of language is inadequate regarding God. Language and rational thought do not and cannot refer to God...