charles ferraro

Excellent piece! Well thought out! Unfortunately, rational explanation has never been an effective antidote for the majority of humanity. The majority...

Well before Heidegger, both Leibniz and Schopenhauer dealt with this question. It is not a peculiarly "Nazi" question.

If, as you state, " ... nothing, the idea, causes contradictions and so, is impossible," how, then, in the first place, can the idea of nothing be a "...

Be courteous! Arguments "ad hominem" are often the last resort of the ignorant!

The question: "Why is there something rather than nothing?" presupposes, uncritically, that the principle of sufficient reason, according to which my ...

I assure you, in the most personal way, ultimately, there will be nothing rather than something for each one of us.

Obviously, Descartes' "Cogito Sum" (the "reflection") can happen any time I wish to perform it (the "certain quality"). Non-positional self-consciousn...

Sartre's central contention is that, from a phenomenological point-of-view, the transcendental "I" is not (to use Kantian terms) a necessary and stric...

David, with respect to the question of the dependency relationship between non-reflective and reflective consciousness, I find the following comments ...

Gregory, thanks for your positive comment! Unfortunately, I do not fully understand your thoughts. However, I will make the following observations. Sa...

David, nice to read someone's opinions that have substance to them! What do you think of the following? A person’s pre-reflective consciousness, when ...

David thanks for your comments. I have no objections to what you are saying. In fact, I agree with you (and Sartre) completely that self-consciousness...

Whatever human consciousness can intend, be it in a pre-reflective or reflective way, is an entity.

Daniel, thanks for your comments. In line with your concluding paragraph, how can being-for-Itself (you and I) be so certain that being-in-itself (the...

Yes, it certainly does mean that, but I think it also means much more than that. It is the "metaphysical dreaming" which makes all the difference, bec...

paralogism With respect to your question, especially as it relates to Descartes, please take a look at what I believe to be two relevant topics I post...

paralogism

The fact that there can be so many varied and equally interesting opinions regarding the nature of time and the nature of the dimensions of time indic...

Human consciousness, when it pays attention, experiences that its present is always transitioning into its past at exactly the same rate as its future...

Do degrees of reality attach to the modes of time? From one perspective I can argue that time-past events and time-future events are less real than ti...

Can it be argued that the past and future modes of time can only be experienced by the person's imagination in the perpetually vanishing present mode ...

Creative Soul: What the hell are you talking about? What are the basic hypotheses that comprise your so called OWN theory of mind that are subject to ...

"When and while I think in the first person, present tense mode, I must necessarily exist." Question: Can this famous Cartesian epistemological hypoth...

This is the inherent weakness that attaches to all philosophical theories, no matter how marvelously they may have been constructed. Beautiful theorie...

Also, isn't it interesting how we have to resort to BELIEVING, or NOT BELIEVING, in the truth of epistemologies, rather than relying, instead, on the ...

Or, phrasing it somewhat differently, what are the reasons why we'd believe the epistemology of Schopenhauer over the epistemology of Sartre?

I prefer that the history of false ideas (Plato/Aristotle) shouldn't be confused with the history of true ideas (Darwin). But, don't let me interfere ...

It appears that no one is really attempting to answer my question. Oh, well!!!!

Let me repeat! Who needs a "divine intellect" if the evolution of natural biological forms is due to the combined operation of spontaneous genetic mut...

I thought the evolution of natural biological forms was due to the combined operation of spontaneous genetic mutations and the process of natural sele...

Hume thought it meant our inability to experience any necessary connections between or among empirical entities or events. Are you saying he was wrong...

The terminology of cause and effect seems to me to beg the question. Instead, let us ask if it is possible for any physical entity or event to exist s...

I do not think the central issue is whether, or not, we want to have completely free will, or even our emotional reaction to having it. The question i...

What would it mean for me to know and to experience that I have a completely free will? What conditions would have to be met? Ultimately, I think it m...

Perhaps the three discussions I've posted regarding Descartes might interest you. They are entitled: Why I Think Descartes' Ontological Argument is Fa...

I believe you're missing my main point which is as follows: Schopenhauer claimed that the human Understanding (the brain) spontaneously applied the Pr...

What really counts, after all is said and done, is precisely truth "in the real world" among "the common folk,' as you condescendingly refer to them. ...

No Joke!! I would submit that I have, in fact, described the "false" criterion commonly used and accepted by most unsophisticated humans to distinguis...

How about trying a more “down-to-earth” definition of what is true and what is false. For example: Any system of human thinking, doing, and governance...

Very interesting alternative approach to addressing the issue, precisely because it questions a basic assumption of the accepted epistemological parad...

Yes, Schopenhauer certainly had quite a lot to say about how the brain processed sensations (he did not use the term stimuli), especially visual sensa...

Not necessarily. I am seeking any explanation that works. See my response to I LIKE SUSHI.

I think you misunderstand me! My question could care less about the materialist/idealist dispute. In fact, personally, as a matter of record, I agree ...

Yes, it would! But who the hell knows where the unprocessed sensations come from in the first place? The processing of said sensations is certainly by...

For Kant, space and time were pure a priori intuitions and the manifold of sensations were a posteriori intuitions to which space and time were applie...

We do NOT know if the BSCPO's NEVER coincide with the "real" causes. We are, in fact, unfortunately unable to determine, with certitude, if the BSCPO'...

I certainly expect present day neuroscience to continue to provide us with more precise detailed descriptions/explanations of the myriad complex ways ...

The only "reason" this question arises is because the human intellect is an ontological and epistemological prisoner of the Principle of Sufficient Re...

TASTE IT!!!!!

I don't believe consciousness went anywhere. It's still situated in the human brain. However, it is no longer a Kantian consciousness, but an indubita...