To answer the question requires an ongoing and continually refining process of interaction between an imperfect sensory perception and an imperfect co...
The concept ‘dog’ is constructed in our minds with the help of language in relation to instances. So, a ‘dog’ may be initially understood in terms of ...
So you ARE interpreting the question to presuppose an arbitrary assumption that someone has put us here, thereby limiting the scope of the question as...
Well, my take on this is not essentialist, so I don’t see it as ‘abstracting the essence of dog from the instances’, but as abstracting recurring patt...
Purpose: the reason for which something is done or created OR for which something exists. There is no ‘outside force’ presupposed by the term ‘purpose...
The interesting thing about laying out the rational characteristics of love is that it ceases to resemble ‘love’ as we experience it. I agree that @"P...
The question ‘what’s the meaning of us being here?’ does not necessarily presuppose that someone has put us here. Neither does it presuppose that the ...
I’m not suggesting we attribute possible meaning to your cat. I’m saying that our awareness of the aquarium’s significance to your cat has meaning for...
I get what you’re trying to say, but I think you’re oversimplifying. Being able to identify an instance of dog is not the same as knowing dogs. By the...
Without reading the IEP entry yet, just going on your description here... I have a memory of my daughter learning to speak that comes to mind here. Ag...
This doesn’t follow necessarily. Purpose: The reason for which something is done or created, or for which something exists. A particular requirement o...
Space consists of relations and relational structures: distance, direction, shape, size, volume. Molecules consist of both directional and distance/en...
I get the sense from the OT that most of it was written with the benefit of hindsight incorporated into the story. It’s also unclear from what perspec...
And because this is the object, it isn’t possible to eliminate bias from a debate. The way I see it, debate thrives on bias, and various strategies ar...
I didn’t detect any hostility, either. But I DID detect passive-aggressiveness - and despite denying it to me, he’s admitted as much to others. Not ev...
I’m not denying your ability to play nice - but it requires someone like @"Wayfarer" - who is not easily antagonised, and forgiving of throwaway comme...
It seems clear to me that you’re used to it - there’s a defensive over-confidence to much of what you write that suggests you expect to engage in deba...
I won’t deny that. You did, however, say this: So I’m curious: would you say that the aquarium water source has variable significance to your cat (ie,...
I do regularly encounter an assumption that I’ve lost sight of the ground when I start shifting rapidly between perspectives like this. I have an over...
Fair enough - not consciously recognised as significant, but nevertheless manifest in her attention and effort towards the aquarium. That’s how you re...
The cat doesn’t need to distinguish purpose or meaning in order for her interactions to be purposeful or meaningful. The relation between the cat and ...
Yes - the detail I think we seem unable to agree on is whether meaning or significance is prior... Not in the sense that meaning is distinct from sign...
Welcome to the forum! I agree with this - I also think it can be difficult to remind ourselves of this process when discussion turns to debate. I’ve o...
As I said, I have no argument with you preferring ‘thing’ to ‘object’, or indeed rejecting the object/subject dichotomy as an essential distinction. T...
Fair enough - I’ve no argument with you there. But it seems to me that you’re not referring simply to difference, but to significance. And that these ...
Okay... (I’m surprised I’m making much sense to you at all, then) So, meaning exists by virtue of a correlation between not just different things, but...
Yes. The idea that the answer must be a consolidated, certain and invariable knowledge went out at least with the advent of quantum physics. The relat...
So...the chemical gradient is not meaningful to the amoeba? The amoeba is incapable of drawing a correlation between the shape of the chemical gradien...
Okay, I need to make this clearer: The statement would be considered an attempt at logical rendering, as you pointed out. But we are capable of relati...
Ok. But do you agree that existence, as a necessary precondition of becoming meaningful, has at least the possibility of a relational effect/affect pr...
Truth has use, of course - but I’m not talking about use, but about relation. Acknowledging that truth as we use it is an approximation guards against...
What would you call it then? Existence is a relation to the possibility of non-existence. In its entirety, and prior to becoming meaningful, the possi...
Well, my framework is not a logical one, but a relational structure which is founded ultimately on a binary contradiction. I’m okay with that, because...
‘False’ seems to advocate a dismissal of the entire testimony. I just read an article on the 150th anniversary of Darwin’s ‘Descent of Man’ that addre...
Oh, did I say completely indeterminate? Let’s just say ‘fuzzy’. Nevertheless, the idea is there; the significance, not so much - still, there was one ...
A range of sizes and colours, and even variable shape - especially that cannot be determined from a hoof-print. However, it isn’t the universal sign, ...
Well, a universal is a possible consolidation of an indeterminate idea. Unless we acknowledge the idea as both possible and indeterminate (it looks li...
This is like saying that ‘energy actually exists physically as patterns or arrangements of matter; this matter produces heat/work that can be detected...
I think the distinction between memories and insights IS the temporal aspect of memories. We don’t have ‘memories of ideas’ because ideas have an inde...
Again, I think this is a misunderstanding of faith as interpreted within certain (most) Christian traditions. The idea that faith is an unshakeable au...
Some relations may never become meaningful for us, but it’s possible to relate to them nonetheless, outside the bounds of language. But to most we hav...
No, of course not. I’m saying that any rules governing human behaviour must be based on a sound relational structure, not the words themselves or any ...
Yes, he does: He’s referring to an interpretation of faith within a particular religious tradition. From a child’s perspective, it’s fear, awe or reve...
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