Valentinus

Point taken. So how do you see it connected to something you care about?

It is like Pascal's wager but there are differences. Pascal presumed you had some days to live before the end so changing your relationship to it coul...

How does that "logical sense" relate to anything I might experience? We get to see what power does in our lives.What does imagining having an "infinit...

Hmmn, the creator with a death wish. Creatures are not necessarily on board.

That seems like a good description of the Boulder Model, which is the basis for training "scientist-practitioners." From what I have heard from clinic...

I don't know. It seems like you take the "discipline" needed for granted. Socrates does not seem to take efforts of those kind for granted. It is a ra...

That seems likely. But putting it that way does not frame desire as a process we have options for. The texts suggest a course of action is recommended...

Your point is well taken that Socrates demands direct engagement with ideas from his interlocutors and eschews arguments based upon authority. It is a...

Beginning your reply with "I'd like to make it helpful, but I'm afraid of what commitments you might have to convention that might interfere with the ...

The first book that really grabbed me was The Republic by Plato.

I see the interaction of terms playing a part in the way we talk about things but it seems to me that the remark: "The personal character each of us b...

Presumably, if God exists, the action is happening without my view of the matter mattering very much. It would be a pretty wimpy god who could only ge...

The similarity is striking. There are a number of Zhuangzi passages where artisans are connected to how results appear. Plato works with that kind of ...

I don't find much favor with the teleological part COJ either, especially where he brackets Spinoza as an error of theism rather than a challenge to h...

I propose that the matter of individual development requires a psychological register. There are various theories concerning what should be regarded a...

The Popper remark about being able to change things reminds me of Cratylus 387a "Socrates Then actions also are performed according to their own natur...

That is an interesting point of comparison. I will think about it. By the way, if you mean to respond to a particular post, there is a swoopy reply bu...

I am not sure how you are presenting that observation as a response to mine. Kant did not ask that the CPR prove what he believed as a Christian. Or a...

Regarding Kant and Plato, The Critique of Judgment discusses the origin of life in the section upon Teleological judgments. There is a very interestin...

My hovering of the cursor only produces a jerky circular movement of the cursor.

I don't like it. But now that it is in operation, I am curious how many receivers of hearts are givers of them as well. Maybe one can have the numbers...

Excellent summary of the matter.

I am asking that you don't respond directly to Fooloso4, at least for some time.

Does that mean you agree to the deal?

The deep dive is to just go ahead and read The Critique of Pure Reason. It is not a three hour tour. The Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics assumes...

Good. How about you, @Apollodorus?

Stacking the deck. Now that is more Hunter S Thompson territory.

I figure you meant "stocked" but your version gives a Kafka flavor to the milkshake.

Have you read any Kant? I am not asking to be intimidating but to know how to reply.

To put that in a more Kantian way is to say that "objects" are a result of our perception and cognition of what we encounter in experience. If you wer...

My brain froze when I was told I can't bring up the noumenon.

I would like to see a moratorium where both Fooloso4 and Apollodorus do not respond to each other for a good while. They have both explained their poi...

I had one teacher of martial arts who put it this way: "We have many ways to compare our different experiences. Methods of learning a new skill don't ...

Well, you are still the one who claims Foolso4 is advocating for "atheism". But he keeps saying he is not doing that. You do not deal with that. What ...

My son says virtuous rulers will work toward the good while others will not. The question is what the good thing is. So the instrument of power is no ...

I am not going to look at the answer. I am in High School again. The information won't help me.

Power and meaning are interrelated. Being able to influence an exchange requires giving and demanding at the same time. One might not know where the n...

Therefore, the point of view is not inherently atheist as you keep arguing it is. You keep forgetting that it is your argument that the position is at...

That we have all been returned to High School. Dammit, I have acne again.

Spinoza is not obscure. The part about God not being involved in your personal business comes early and fast. It seems that any Ethics has to be a res...

Many "proofs" are not presented this way. Anselm, for instance, presents the matter of what one could come up with on their own. The idea that there i...

Good observations. They connect to Nietzsche as the philologist, a student of how we came to talk in various ways.

There is a mess.

I would be interested in seeing you demonstrate how Strauss came to unsubstantiated conclusions. I don't agree with him on many points but he has read...

Is the "unfortunate fact" something that is a problem for all discussions of morality? If so, Nietzsche's approach either brings that factor into view...

The empirical observation is parallel to the method of La Rochefoucauld, who noticed that many expressions of selflessness were actually outbreaks of ...

A forensic attitude is always helpful. Why is the situation the way it is now? When did the thing I am looking at happen? Intuition is better at respo...

Pardon me. I am cryptic by nature and my efforts to improve are in a rudimentary stage. I meant that there is a sequence of causes that all experience...

I work in an industry where the causes for events remember themselves better than I do. Bracketing that unfolding of the world as determinist or not d...

However one conceives the difference between the environment inside and outside of the cave, the experience of turning around is what is desired. The ...