Richard B

I would say Michael, and others, are committed to a particular metaphysical worldview I like to call “The Private Theater.” In this worldview, they im...

This is based on Searle's ontological distinction between modes of existence. Entities like mountains, molecules, and tectonic plates have an existenc...

Yep, I often thought if Wittgenstein wanted to theorize instead of just describe he might have moved in the direction that Searle has. I will have to ...

I will start off with a quote from W.V. Quine from his seminal work "Word and Object." He says, "There are however, philosophers who overdo this line ...

I little more exposition on Searle's view of colors: From Seeing Things as They Are: "Color is a bit tricky because of such phenomena as spectrum inve...

Alternatively, Newton, From Opticks, said, “From what has been said it is also evident, that the Whiteness of the Sun's Light is compounded all the Co...

Again from Russell’s Analysis of the Mind Lecture VII The Definition of Perception “The notion of perception is therefore not a precise one: we percei...

The point of this example is to show that Russell is concerned about the grammar of colour, so we can get it right about what science is actually inve...

Since this is a philosophy forum, I will provide some interesting nuance views of color and mental percepts from for philosophers who were admirers of...

I think the following two passages provides some insight on how Wittgenstein viewed perception and colors: From Wittgenstein's "Last Writings on the P...

And what is the common essence of calling these all “percepts”? I guess I can not use family resemblances, or I will be accused of being blinded by Wi...

If I put on a pair of color distorting glasses and the tomatoes appear white, do we need to question if the color of the tomatoes are “really” red? Or...

Well put

This is insanity. No wonder Wittgenstein saw this as an illness.

But does not God create humans to have free will? And if so, can choose in such a way to create an unfair and unjust world?

The “common-sense” naive view truly posits that colors are mind independent properties of objects because when I change the color of my room’s wall an...

It is strange to ask if mental percept are mind-independent, seems like we have already defined it as mind-dependent by calling it “mental”. You keep ...

Well, I would say that the stick that looks bent is not, just pull it out of the water. And the same with dreams/hallucinations, what appears to have ...

But we do not teach what the meaning of "hallucinations" and "dreams" are by pointing out "mental percepts", but by teaching these words to someone wh...

So "black" is an adjective and a noun because not only does it describe the property of the object (absorbs all colors of light) but it picks out the ...

Yet, I can see black objects. I can pick out an object that is black from other objects that are colored. Why can't we say it lacks the property of co...

Here, I see some agreement with scientific metaphysics, in particular on how this is manifested in the debate of determinism and freedom. That said, i...

I believe sense can be given to saying colors are brain-independent and brain-dependent. For example, I am looking at a multi-color object in front a ...

I have to say your position is a bit of a mystery. It seems you have a particular disdain for science, or dare I say jealousy of its status in modern ...

Imagine we discover an unknown tribe of humans from some remote island. After several months of studying their ways, we discover that they are particu...

The relevance is that many human beings do not report dreams, hallucinate, etc, so are we compelled to say they have no mental phenomena. Mental pheno...

To put it another way, if I imagine a world full of beings who do not dream, hallucinate, etc, I do not need to posit mental phenomena for these being...

Do you really believe that the only way to make sense of dreams, hallucinations, etc is to posit mental phenomena. Definitely science does not need to...

Interestingly enough, Wittgenstein has some interesting things to say about vagueness of concepts. From PI 71, "One might say that the concept 'game' ...

I believe Norman Malcom's book Wittgenstein: A Religious Point of View provides a nice exposition on his view of religion. In the introduction, Malcol...

This is quite a claim and strongly put that the idea of "family resemblances" has been proven wrong. Please provide some references to support such a ...

I would I have something like this in mind: From RFM 153 “What does people’s agreement about accepting a structure as proof consist in? In the fact th...

I would agree from this perspective. Those who engage in the language game of “forms of life” need to agree in judgment when it comes to pointing out ...

Yep, and this was my point, if they are completely different in action/ judgement, why call it arithmetic at all. Well it will not be from some self e...

But has not history shown that what intelligent people called “reasonable” and “unreasonable” has changed from time to time.

Ok, point taken, I rather not hide in vague metaphors. Let us start with some quotes from Wittgenstein: PI 23 "...Here the term "language-game" is mea...

I guess there is a lot of "trouble" to go around when it comes to this thesis. I think we can all agree that there are different concepts. Do we need ...

Not sure what this could mean, but maybe one can give it meaning. For example, I had a computer which can display a simple valid argument using tradit...

What is more fascinating is that anyone understands what one is referring to with regards to a supposedly private object that no one has access to but...

It seems debatable that an individual becomes aware of a rule as described. There is quite a lot of stage setting that would occur to understand if su...

My main point with this example is that Rawls is not looking to the ordinary use of "Just" to come up with his conception of "Justice" nor should he. ...

I see your quote and raise you three: From Wittgenstein Blue Book "Philosophers very often talk about investigating, analysis, the meaning of words. B...

Based on what I read by your post, I would recommended a much more sympathetic reading of Wittgenstein's views on Godel's Theorem in the book "Godel's...

I think “God” is a vague enough term that it fits pretty much all of these examples with the exception of the last. As for the last, well, all of our ...

If you believe we live in a simulation, or likely, what follows? God the simulator.

I like to explore this idea that "we don't believe(or know) nothing can travel faster than light" or "we don't know that for sure." One reason I have ...

Interesting question, not sure I can answer that from a personal psychological perspective. Additionally you bring in “truth” which adds an additional...

I find your definition of knowledge quite narrow. If someone ask me if I knew the verification principle of meaning, I would provide a definition, pro...

Sort of like Euclid’s Element definition of a point: “A point is that of which there is no part.” But if asked by a Mathematician “what is a point?” A...

Let me ask, do you believe your position that “if there can be any doubt that it is true, then we don’t know it either” can be doubted as true? If so,...