Is it possible to see a cat if one has never been in your presence? It should be, if the mere act of sensing causes the sensation. Yes, you might be a...
Hi TS, Just returned to TPF for the first time since my last comment (the pesky real world got in the way this weekend). Yes, you are fighting the goo...
I have just re-read the OP, and this is the most anti-science thing I have ever read. I know philosophy isn't enamored of science, but this is like so...
Perhaps I have misread the OP (I am rather tired), or perhaps it is because I come from a science background and not a philosophy one, but I must say ...
Must we share our icky bodies on a pristine philosophy forum? Do we need to be reminded that we are gassy meat-bags? Let the anonymity of the internet...
Perhaps. But as John has pointed out, one needs to beware of hubris. It seems that one who has experienced such an epiphany (i.e., embracing idealism)...
Of course! But the realist believes that the world continues while the brain lies dormant. Unconsciousness, sleep, etc. are no problem for the realist...
Let me try again : If existence is contingent on my experiencing it, then there can be no existence without me. In that case, I inhabit all of existen...
The point is that idealism appears to lead to absurdities : If existence is contingent on my experiencing it, then there is no existence if I do not e...
An interesting question, in a meta- sort of way : Is order a property of things (like universes), or is order a tag humans apply to particular things?...
But if one's soul continues on after death, can one be said to be really dead? Thus, one is immortal in that scenario as well. It is true that one's e...
Ah, so minds are not continuous (since, seemingly, a person may be unconscious for a time). Or perhaps you are arguing for a discrete existence that o...
Exactly. But the hubris goes deeper. Idealism arises from a person's desire to make their consciousness primary. The thinking goes : If all of reality...
But that is the issue. To defend idealism against the charge of solipsism, you wish to make a special claim for consciousness - that other minds persi...
Just to be clear : When I stagger home drunk and my wife hits me in the head with a rolling pin, and I go down for the count, I am still self-aware. I...
Following the appropriation, only if a person were unable to distinguish between dreaming and non-dreaming would they have grounds to doubt. But, not ...
Are there times when a mind is not self-aware? (I.e., during non-dreaming sleep, coma, or unconsciousness?) Perhaps you do not believe that a mind can...
Both believe in the existence of that which is not experienced by their own mind. One calls it "matter", the other calls it "mind-stuff". ****** I bel...
Do minds need to be experienced (not sure how we see 'em) for there to be other minds? If not, then you admit of the existence of that which is not ex...
What of the person suddenly transported to the Nirvana Vat? Would they remember their old existence? If so, would they not then recognize the change? ...
If endless name-calling were a fault, no one would have voted for your boy. Do you deny that Trump has ridiculed and slandered countless political opp...
Not like failing to pay - or file - taxes for at least 10 years. Or failing to pay your employees on a timely basis. Or going bankrupt numerous times ...
And who was Prez during most of the sexual revolution? Oh, yeah - Nixon. The country was SO far to the left. Given the continued wage disparity and re...
I find discussions like this generally quite bizarre. They are quickly high-jacked by righties who spout all the accepted Sean Hannity nonsense. I'm o...
So in a single comment, you take the left to task for accusing the right of anti-intellectualism, then point out the right's "blatant" anti-intellectu...
Well, of course you're drifting right. You're growing old. Change is painful (the music these kids listen to these days, jeez), and to stave off your ...
I do not think you understand the nature of a fetish. A true fetish (and not just an affectation) is decidedly not transitory. Try it. What do you hav...
It feels as though you have set up the problem so that no answer can ever be acceptable. Re the OP, everything is an "extension of the human experienc...
The part I have bolded is the issue at hand - i.e., the notion that neural activity causes consciousness. As if synaptic firing precedes the thoughts ...
To say "it was all meaningless until we came along and gave it meaning" is to admit that something (the "all" being referred to) existed before human ...
The reason I emphasize activity over state is that I think "brain state" is usually interpreted to be a snapshot of the brain at a given moment. I do ...
I think it is important at this point to say something about identity. Definition : A and B are said to be identical if : whenever it is the case that...
What of my argument (above)? The reason that none of the cited examples are analogues for mind/brain is that they are static, and mind/brain is dynami...
jkop came closest to the answer when the word "interact" was used. The reason that DNA/DNA info, computer hardware/rules of GO, and notes on paper/sym...
Ah, but then you are a physicalist. I suspect dukkha is not. And therein lies the rub. Since other consciousnesses cannot be experienced, it is logica...
- Terrapin Station True, but the negation of solipsism was not in question. The existence of other minds was in doubt - which is tantamount to solipsi...
Isn't this exactly why solipsism is notoriously impossible to refute? It is correct to say that no other conscious experience can exist. An interestin...
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