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Richard B

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Yes, like I mentioned, if we both were standing in front of a tree, I am directly experiencing you looking at a tree, I don’t directly experience your...
July 19, 2022 at 15:28
I believe you would say that we do not directly experience electrons and proton but only indirectly. If I follow your views, I believe you will also n...
July 19, 2022 at 02:30
Lets say we both are standing in front of a tree. I look at you and see you directly looking at and experiencing a tree. I don’t see you directly expe...
July 18, 2022 at 16:35
Thanks, something to explore
July 18, 2022 at 02:39
“We directly experience the idea of a tree and indirectly experience the tree as a physical object.” Lets re-word this a bit and say: we directly expe...
July 18, 2022 at 02:38
From John Searle’s “Seeing Things as They Are” “A mistake of nearly as great a magnitude overwhelmed our tradition in the 17th century and after, and ...
July 17, 2022 at 21:56
A is A is kind of boring, but it gets a little more interesting when we think about such things as Water is H2O George Washington is (fill in your des...
July 11, 2022 at 01:12
“My view is that ideas already exist in the mindscape, just as trees exist in the landscape. Seeing a pair of apples may awaken our mind to the idea o...
July 05, 2022 at 17:29
“Suppose you see a hurricane on TV. You directly experience the TV's light and sound; you indirectly experience the hurricane. Similarly, you indirect...
July 05, 2022 at 02:49
“Our five physical senses limit us to experiencing sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. So, we don’t directly experience concrete objects. (I have n...
July 04, 2022 at 21:05
Physical objects and Abstract objects, what do these two things have in common that we want to call them objects? A shared essence or some family rese...
July 04, 2022 at 04:05
I like to think this argument is successful at proving its idea, however, what we are left with is a rather shallow and dull view of existence. The co...
June 27, 2022 at 17:58
Yes “someone can believe something that has been proven false”. Here is the proof: I believe “someone can believe something that has been proven false...
May 25, 2022 at 17:03
Does an atom have free will?
November 11, 2021 at 20:31
“Water” does not have an essence but “H2O” does have an essence. Both are concepts and both can refer. And both could be used interchangeably in many ...
October 24, 2021 at 16:53
“I can as a philosopher talk about mathematics because I will only deal with puzzles which arise from the words of our ordinary everyday language, suc...
October 13, 2021 at 01:16
I thought this quote from Daniel Dennett might be useful and somewhat amusing for the current discussion at hand: “Happily, in those days before tape ...
October 12, 2021 at 15:16
I believe Wittgenstein was trying to convince Turing of the following: 1. If you arrive at a contradiction the result would be inaction 2. If a bridge...
October 12, 2021 at 03:29
Recognition of evil comes before knowledge and belief of evil. First, we need a group of human beings to experience and react to situations they would...
October 07, 2021 at 01:57
I think a simple passage from Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations can be a reply to the sentiment being explored in this discussion: “71. One ...
October 06, 2021 at 02:58
So, we give a “rigorous” definition of reality. Some things are excluded and some things included to our liking. I suppose someone can come along and ...
September 27, 2021 at 22:53
Ok, I am not my body. Let us say I am just a sum total of all experiences up to some point time. The brain is just the collector, organizer, and repos...
September 18, 2021 at 00:08
Bob: Hey that was a great idea, where did you come up with that? Mary: When I was studying Philosophy at the University of Sunset. Therefore, in this ...
September 07, 2021 at 20:39
“To others I am a part of their objective observable universe just as a chair or the sky is. I am outside of them. They cannot prove that I’m aware an...
August 15, 2021 at 16:37
“Perhaps while we’re asleep we first think of a cool sequence of events and then forget the order so that we can visually re-enact it. Then our subcon...
August 08, 2021 at 17:33
Consider this thought experiment how such thinking could be problematic about “moods”. Let us say we hooked up a device to someone and asked the subje...
August 06, 2021 at 23:40
“In the laboratory, when subjected to an electric current, for example, someone says with his eyes shut “I am moving my arm up and down” though his ar...
August 06, 2021 at 19:53
“When people talk about the possibility of foreknowledge of the future they always forget the fact of the prediction of one’s own voluntary movements....
August 06, 2021 at 19:32
I think it worth considering what Wittgenstein said in his later philosophy in Philosophical Investigations: “Suppose everyone had a box with somethin...
August 05, 2021 at 22:50
So, if I understand this correctly, if we can’t prove without “perfect” accuracy the outcome of some predicted event, this is evidence the world is no...
August 05, 2021 at 22:39
I guess the mind is not “arbitrary and whimsical in nature” when we determine the physical structures we observed so we can make the claim “the mind i...
August 05, 2021 at 15:13
This is a fascinating claim, "Our power is limited in this world whether it's real or not". From an anti-realist perspective, this claim does not make...
August 05, 2021 at 06:07
“If you look at a photograph of people, houses and trees, you do not feel the lack of the third dimension in it . We should not find it easy to descri...
July 28, 2021 at 00:38
“ We can describe our thoughts through language but some of the experience of emotions are not readily describable.” The first part of the sentence so...
July 27, 2021 at 04:13
What are these kind of paradoxes suppose show us? 1. That something is dubious about reality because the logic is sound. 2. That something is dubious ...
July 27, 2021 at 01:39
“It seems to me that they can if beliefs or the forming of beliefs take the form of brain states or changes in the structure of the brain, but I’m not...
July 25, 2021 at 20:22
“when you look at a star, you are actually seeing what it looked like years ago. It is entirely possible that some of the stars you see tonight do not...
July 24, 2021 at 21:34
“The starlight we see are light years away. This means we’re not seeing the real stars as such but a perception of them as they were years ago.” This ...
July 24, 2021 at 19:16
“The third world breathes our air tomorrow We live on the time we borrow In our world there's no time for sorrow In their world there is no tomorrow O...
July 24, 2021 at 02:16
The choice between “realism” and “anti-realism” should be decided based on ethical and/or practical consideration rather than some decision of the ver...
July 23, 2021 at 19:38
Wittgenstein wrote this in his last section Philosophical Investigations “The confusion and barrenness of psychology is not to be explained by calling...
July 23, 2021 at 19:13
“Suppose everyone had a box with something in it: we call it a “beetle”. No one can look into anyone else’s box, and everyone says he knows what a bee...
July 22, 2021 at 18:16
“It's a subject we rarely mention But when we do we have this little invention By pretending they're a different world from me I show my responsibilit...
July 21, 2021 at 22:51
Some thoughts: Words like “God”, “Space”, or “Time” are concepts that have some use for people. They can accept the use and go along with its implicat...
July 21, 2021 at 21:21
I would recommend John R. Searle “Seeing Things as They Are: A Theory of Perception”. This book will provide an alternative view that it is not all in...
July 20, 2021 at 00:38
“One world is a enough for all of us”, The Police
July 18, 2021 at 21:29
"God talk is a Platonic discussion, interesting but useless." Similar to how some Mathematicians talk about the existence of abstract object and the b...
July 08, 2021 at 23:26
2. “There is a possible world in which god does not exist.” But this contradicts the concept of God: “a necessary being who exist in ever possible wor...
July 08, 2021 at 21:58
First let us assume determinism is correct, consider the following: 1. Individual A says “I have free will.” 2. Individual B says “We don't have free ...
April 01, 2021 at 02:39
In: Dreaming  — view comment
“4. Therefore you don't know that you are now sitting at a computer/phone screen.” I learned how to sit, recognize a computer, and type out these word...
March 23, 2021 at 05:45