Richard B

We understand someone is hallucinating because others have "veridical experiences" and judge the one hallucinating is not acting normally. So how can ...

Yep, for some, finding an answer to the the question is more satisfying, than accepting the question is nonsense or confused and so there is no answer...

One of the strengths that folk ascribe to this idea that we "directly perceive sense data" is the certainty that they can not be in error. This is the...

First, my response would be, "I perceive trees", "I perceive green leaves", etc. Second, I would not say, "I perceive sense data of trees, green leave...

Let us assume we humans evolved to where detecting “green” was so important in that it gave us the necessary energy to live every day. Every time we c...

Let’s clarify something here. What caused us to detected the green coming from the leaves of the tree. Well scientific theory teaches us that chloroph...

Pick up a copy of Semantic Relations and the following is the pertinent excerpt of the "two Bruces": "To this end, let us imagine a universe that is c...

Or, when will we realize that these “puzzles” are not meant to be solved, but to be dissolved away by reflecting on how we use our language. I can mea...

Yeah, I need to find that original. That said, maybe I can have a little fun here. Assuming she lives in a symmetrical universe, her everyday experien...

Does not this scenario presume one individual since it talks about duplicating the source? And if so, in principle, should be decidable.

“The Finean cluster may be roughly summarized by the following methodological “directives”: 1. Provide a rigorous account of the appearances first bef...

Nice synopsis.

"Water is H?O" is another unfortunate example where Kripke takes a "holiday" with language. Consider the following quote from N&N, "Let's consider how...

I would recommend reading Norman Malcolm’s paper on “Kripke on Heat and Sensations of Heat”. Taking a later Wittgenstein approach, Malcolm shows Kripk...

I like this quote from Wittgenstein in Culture and Value, “People say again and again that philosophy doesn’t really progress, that we are still occup...

Maybe one of the most profound passages in Investigations that seems most do not appreciate. It dissolves away much of philosophy’s pretentious founda...

Not only do we see this idea in popularized science, but has been firmly imbedded in philosophical circles. Whether D.C. Williams theory of the manifo...

Sometimes a question makes sense, or sometimes a question compels one to give it sense so to continue the dialogue; otherwise, we are talking nonsense...

Determinism could be problematic concept. I would say in three areas, explanatory power, falsification, and rationality. 1. Does determinism explain? ...

“We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.” From...

As an ultimately abstract entity, I enjoy the company of so many numerous abstract entities. We often discuss if there really are concrete objects, bu...

Nice, anthropomorphize DNA, I think I heard this story before

To think, I might be sitting next to unactualized possibles, the conversations to be ……

Can I get an “Amen”!

You got it, and you were determine to say that. Determinism it giveth and it taketh away.

I find P.F Strawson defense of free will more compelling that Galen, but fundamentally, all Galen can say is that at some point in the past I was dete...

This excludes every child that learns from their parents, that is convenient. I think Galen was not convince of this argument , but was caused by his ...

Language does not prohibit hallucinations either. So if p then q, p, therefore q is based on intuition. I don’t think we are using “intuition” correct...

Popper thought the Wittgenstein did grasp propositions of natural science. Specifically, as you say, he was interested in demarcating sense from nonse...

True nonsense that is unassailable and definitive. Of course you can’t argue nonsense. (This is essentially Karl Popper’s argument against the Tractat...

Yep, it is not that you can’t know, it is that you don't know. You don't know because you don't know what counts as a objective tree. And just because...

Well, according to Galen I say what I say about this argument because of the way I am. So, if you want to ultimately understand what caused me to say ...

I agree we are caused, but to will. And what you will, well take responsibility for.

I disagree with this argument because we are caused to will.

"Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language; it can in the end only describe it. For it cannot give it any foundation either. ...

To say that science needs a foundation that only phenomenology can supply because there appears to be a "philosophical problem"-yet science manages to...

Let us continue to see what the author had to say about his first book. 1. In the Preface of PI, Wittgenstein says, "For since beginning to occupy mys...

I guess when he spoke of “silence” he meant something else too because you still have a lot to say.

I suppose you like it but don't believe it since you continue to ignore 7. "What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence." Just a joke. And...

And yet science continues to make successful predictions and enhance understanding. Maybe to phenomenologist, and for Quine sensory surfaces, but most...

Yep, you can see in Wittgenstein’s writings he spent the last twenty years of his life trying to untangle the knot called Tractatus.

Let's consider this from Quine (from Two Dogmas), " As an empiricist I continue to think of the conceptual scheme of science as a tool, ultimately, fo...

To continue with this thought, if I ask someone “do you know how to ride a bike”, and she proceeds to repeat the manual on how to ride a bike. Does sh...

I think Quine would think that philosophy is continuous with science, but in a more general way. So his “ilk” would be Einstein, Newton, and Bohr.

I like this quote from Wittgenstein in Culture and Value, “People say again and again that philosophy doesn’t really progress, that we are still occup...

I believe you have this backwards. First, we come to learn a language from our follow human beings in world of stable objects and entities. Afterwards...

Wittgenstein PI 304 "And you again and again reach the conclusion that the sensation itself is a nothing.- Not at all. It is not a something, but not ...

Well put. I eagerly await the response. As I wait, I shall meditate.

“We encounter phenomena first. Period.” Wow, this sounds so definitive. Can’t be argued without sounding absurd. Let me try. What do we humans encount...

I am going to try to give this idea of “seeming to have a experience” some sense. But we will have to accept that a human is just a machine and that t...