unenlightened

Perhaps it would be helpful to turn things around for a moment and ask, 'what would have to occur for nature to disobey laws?' Miracles? Magic? One di...

No. "because" not "by cause". An explanation is not a cause of anything except, occasionally, understanding.

If women were pretty, there would not be the huge beauty industry to which every woman in the world ever pays homage every day. This is esoteric knowl...

This is a case of becoming hypnotised by superficial appendages. Every complex member of the fauna is fundamentally a worm, consisting of mouth, stoma...

I think the scientific presumption is that demons do not exist. If they did exist, they would be just the entities to impose laws on particles like po...

Well, almost nothing.

Nothing.

The way you tell it is almost as if our cognitive apparatus is unnatural, or supernatural.

Then you need to answer the question that I refuse; what makes nature obey the second kind of law?

Also Euclidian geometry is good for builders of Parthenons and aqueducts etc.

Of course there is. Science is a big topic and hard to speak of globally. But it is an old cliché that scientific laws are descriptive and not prescri...

None of the above should be taken to deny teleology, purpose and meaning or god in the world. It should be taken to deny it all in science. This is wh...

I can't pass a beggar without leaving a bit of change. If one begins with maximal simplicity, there is nowhere to go but towards complexity. However, ...

Like, there is both. If you have a problem with the idea that physical laws are largely statistical, take it up with some physicists.

Well without going into everything, terminal velocity is a function of the difficulty of pushing all those molecules of air out of the way. Gravity it...

I think it's called "regression to the mean". If you toss a coin twice you might get heads twice, tails twice or one of each ht or one of each th. If ...

I think I mean mainly, that the question is ill-formed, in suggesting that human ideas can dictate reality, when it is the other way round, that reali...

Nature does not conform to Laws. Nature does whatever the fuck she wants, and laws have to learn to conform to her, if they know what's good for them.

Because life is wonderful, and so am I. You seem to know a devilish lot about hell, by the way. Are you one of them mythical poets that did the tour, ...

I am going to outlive you all, so you don't have to worry.

Slightly out of order, but here is a McGilchrist talk - 30 mins overview of his stuff in case anyone is unfamiliar. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_...

Asbestos is another; clogs the lungs and I think irritates causing inflammation lung cancers... Sahara sand blows into Europe occasionally. Sand in th...

It's an invidious comparison. The environmental effects of estrogenic pollution are not negligible and the direct effect on humans include a drop in f...

Well then, when in over your head, retreat to dry land and build a bridge.

This thread is just a dream. Do not trouble to respond, folks.

When in over one's head, it is recommended to keep one's mouth shut, and head for the shallows. People have drowned in these waters.

022 As you might imagine, I am quite onboard with blaming the Enlightenment for everything; the relativising emotivising and downgrading of morals, an...

"Perfection or damnation." Thus saith the Lord.

Well, donkey, unfortunately, carrots are going to be running short, and sticks too. But thistles will probably survive somewhere or other.

"All you need is love." (But I need a whole lot more.)

Yes. everyone should become a professional roller skater. War would end, and everyone would be happy.

021 Not much Hegel, but quite a lot of McLuhan. And an interesting light shed on this discussion: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/14989/how-...

020 "DNA analysis has shown that 8,000 yrs ago 17 women reproduced for every man. Male parentage began to decline at the beginning of the agrarian rev...

019 020 This is hard for me to write about and I have been putting it off. First, there is a problem with finitude in that it is defined negatively. '...

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a46678623/climate-change-sea-sponges/

https://www.pml.ac.uk/News/Major-new-report-confirms-just-2°C-of-warming-will

A slightly interesting way to envisage moving beyond the myopia of organismic or species centres identity. your daily dose of academic weirdness. http...

Excuse my lack of an actual answer, but life is too short to try and understand syllogistic logic through a translated 2000 year old text. Instead, ha...

Well I think I understand a distinction between physical, biological, and social determination, roughly like this. Physics decrees that everything fal...

[reply="ssu;880331" :fear:

Horses live in harems with a dominant male that kills all the male foals until he becomes too weak. But humans can and do make conscious choices and a...

No the thought was more particular than that. Hierarchies are naturally occurring in many species, with nothing I can see of artifice or artificiality...

Shit, now all the trolls are going to find my Hegel thread. Quick, someone hide it in religion for me, please.

You're not lacking an excess of negatives there.

Most people, most of the time will do what they are told. This is right and proper and the necessary foundation of civil society. We stop at red light...

It is really rather tedious to have to explain one's creative use of idioms, but at the second quote from you of the same phrase: it is a cliche of Br...

Yes, but ... a tyrant always functions with a conspiracy of bully boys, without which he is no more than a hate filled loudmouth and at worst, a possi...

They can't do anything about climate change because ... climate change! You heard it here first.

That is quite the achievement considering how much the West has been exporting it's heavy industry to China. Somehow, I am not totally reassured.

And that's something different from the action, obviously, because Banno's words are quite clear, but his "point" is not. How can this be? It's like t...