Real Gone Cat

I'm not a dummy. However, unlike 90% of the philosophy majors on this forum, I am a physicalist - if I'm observing the night sky and I blink, the moon...

By the way, do you have a position to claim? Or are you just a skeptic?

OK, I see how you're skinning this cat (pun intended). Just throw chum in the water - it's not your fault if the swimmer isn't fast enough. Got me. St...

Sorry, didn't think I was being so mean. By the law of parsimony, when making grandiose claims, the burden of proof is on the claimant. You made claim...

This is some 19th century made-up mystical mumbo-jumbo (he mentions souls :roll: ), and I don't see how it answers my questions. Care to elaborate?

And how, exactly, does the brain "receive" consciousness? Is there any indication of an antenna? Why would evolution result in brains that receive the...

Being countable means being able to be placed in a one-to-one relationship with the integers (or counting numbers). The integers are a human invention...

Some thoughts : The knee-jerk horror that philosophy majors harbor for any argument connecting consciousness and the brain needs explaining. One possi...

I know you philosophy majors hate science, but come on. Receives from where? And why can't any of us remember our thoughts before the brain received t...

Someone needs to look up Messiah Complex. You seem easily angered for one so enlightened.

Let me toss another one on the fire :razz: : Stephen Wolfram's A New Kind of Science. I'm not advocating, just mentioning.

The reason I keep pressing you to name a source for your ideas is that I intend on Tuesday (Monday's a holiday) to reveal to my students that lines do...

I concede the floor. I am no match for your brilliance. But I beg of you one thing - please do not deny the math community access to these ideas. Beli...

It's a little bit of a stretch, but Hare's egocentric presentism in On Myself, and Other, Less Important Subjects. It's the closest work I could think...

Who said that? :gasp: Haw haw. Just playing devil's advocate. Actually, I'm a physicalist. But that points out why I find immaterialism so ridiculous ...

But perhaps "others" report seeing a cat because you expect them to. Maybe there are no others.

Caspar Hare?

Actually, I have. But I fear that you will refuse to accept any explanation that counters the ideas you have invented for yourself. That is the way of...

My apologies for being a bit harsh - I was tired and lacking sleep. Not everyone has math concepts at the forefront of their mind. I think about math ...

Holy cow. You need to talk to some mathematicians. I'm not kidding. Where did you get this? I have to read that source. This upends every geometry cla...

This is simply not the modern view of motion. The modern theory of motion is sometimes call "at-at" : Motion is : being at different places at differe...

Yours is the classical interpretation of velocity (pre-calculus), not the modern one (post-calculus). In fact, your definition is what we now call the...

Hmmm, just to let you know, I'm a math professor at a medium-sized college in upstate New York, so I know a little about this stuff (been teaching cla...

I'm thinking we should rename this "The Theology Forum".

Please forgive this primitive naif. I have been enjoying our exchange, but now I see that it has been an annoyance to you. Still, I cannot help myself...

You're correct. I apologize. I should have been upfront from the beginning. Same as you do. Given your view, how do you avoid Zeno's Paradox of the Ar...

The problem with understanding what is meant by an "exact" number in math is tied to the concept of number systems. In a standard positional number sy...

I disagree with the premise that there is a succession of universes, one every moment, stacked like pancakes. This leads to Zeno's Paradox of the Arro...

Not sure why you think this true. Again, it seems like theology. And you realize that its impossible to refute because its untestable, yes? I might ad...

Forgive me, but I'm not a philosophy major : Is this your idea or someone else's? Is there a source you can cite? I must admit I find it needlessly co...

Alright, let me see if I understand your position (correct me if I’m wrong) : there are many (an infinite number of) universes, each containing all th...

I disagree. Assuming you do not want to experience eternal torment, the moment you consider Pascal's wager to be a valid argument, it becomes your pri...

et al. Sure, what no longer exists (causes, dead grandmas) is no longer in the universe. But does that mean it then moves to an existence outside the ...

Hmm…you applaud 180’s take down of Pascal’s wager… So all this time your insistence on the validity of Pascal’s wager has been a sham? Just toying wit...

But I've met my grandmother, so it's hard to ignore the fact of her existence. Agent Smith makes the claim that God is not in this universe. So his Go...

I can't. She's dead. And thanks for reminding me. Now I have to relive that trauma. Haha. Not really. She was an abusive alcoholic. Good riddance, you...

I guess I just find it difficult to accept that an adult - especially one who has obviously spent some time thinking about these things - can believe ...

So I ask how we can have a relationship with an entity not of this universe, and you come back with PASCAL’S WAGER? Um, hate to burst your bubble, but...

Are you suggesting that Pascal’s wager is a good reason why God should NOT be ignored? Hmmm…I’m just not that scared of the consequences. I was just t...

Can an android marry an android? Can they get divorced? That would mean alimony for all eternity! Oh my god, that's my nightmare!

Then God can be ignored. For all intents and purposes, God doesn't exist. How can we interact with anything outside the universe? What relationship ca...

How about a stochastic universe? Then both randomness and determinism can exist. Consider a case with two, and only two, possible outcomes. Randomness...

If particles are conscious, I guess that takes care of the observer effect, and physicalism is back on steady ground! Hmmm, maybe there's something to...

You forgot to add the words : “…from goal-post moving.”

It is of interest to note how car companies test their cars for safety : they take a small sample of cars from the production line, outfit them with c...

I was expecting something akin to this response. :wink: Now what if I could describe a case where measurements are taken by objects that are not man-m...

I know that you feel you’ve already addressed this point, so forgive me for returning to it, but I wonder if we might explore the idea of measurement ...

I think there is a simple solution that I don't ever see mentioned : If it's measurement that collapses the wave (and not the presence of a mind), the...

Ah, Schrödinger. I've often wondered how the cat feels about all this.

One of the most famous experiments exploring the observer effect was conducted by the Weizman Institute of Science and reported in the February 26, 19...