You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

BC

Comments

I accept (and have articulated in the old forum) the idea that "the real physical world" which we perceive is one step removed (at least) and the real...
September 03, 2017 at 02:02
Of course there is no light in the cranium. I don't think I suggested that light penetrates into the back of the brain (or for that matter, the front)...
September 02, 2017 at 23:33
The tiger eats you to enhance its fitness to reproduce. There isn't any "reason" for any creature to reproduce, other than sex feels good and eggs get...
September 02, 2017 at 19:40
Yes. Timely observation.
September 02, 2017 at 19:27
An avocado tree could just as well wrap bread around a skinless fruit and put the chicken where the otherwise useless pit is. Sandwiches on trees isn'...
September 02, 2017 at 19:02
Seeing is believing, or is it "believing is seeing"? Does it make a difference in one's reception and comprehension of Hoffman's talk that he talks on...
September 02, 2017 at 18:05
Have you not affected what people will say by asking the question? Put up or shut up: What do you think the world lacks? (But it is an absurdly open-e...
September 02, 2017 at 15:46
Why do you want to know? Are you missing something?
September 02, 2017 at 15:42
And you're trying to unravel the mystery of God? X-) The whole project of defining God or god(s), convincing scientists (anybody, really) that God exi...
September 02, 2017 at 15:33
Thank you for the suggestion!!! It hadn't occurred to me to try out a publicly available defibrillator on some quite ambulatory citizen. Interesting p...
September 02, 2017 at 14:44
Being an upstanding American, I just naturally understand rules, and the whole hierarchical nature of rule making. "It's" is a contraction and "its" i...
September 02, 2017 at 06:13
People don't combine alcohol with ice cream enough.
September 02, 2017 at 06:06
In the short video clips that were linked after the one from Love and Death, Dick Cavett is interviewing Woody Allen on his show. Dick invites Woody t...
September 02, 2017 at 05:59
I haven't been banned yet. Is the HAL 9000's unplugging experience similar to being banned? Do one's thoughts slow down, and drop in pitch (an artifac...
September 02, 2017 at 04:53
In honor of Modbot, I suggest a different name. RoboMod? Robomodor? Modover? MordorMod? Modorootor? ModPot? Or "Hal" as in "I'm sorry, TGW, I can't do...
September 02, 2017 at 04:38
Well sure... A robot poster capable of acerbic comments that were related to the surrounding posts (Modbot sometimes was, sometimes wasn't) would requ...
September 02, 2017 at 04:16
Serious philosophers would get a joke? You must be kidding! (I didn't get it.)
September 02, 2017 at 03:39
Free admission; come in look around; try the text box out; "Oh, it works." Leave, never return. I used to be a member of a socialist group that ran a ...
September 02, 2017 at 03:31
Debs + Guevara = you must be a socialist? I haven't read that much about Debs, though I do have a couple of books about him that are on my list (along...
September 02, 2017 at 03:13
Ditto. For a long time there were only 3 people participating, and two of them more than the third. Don't know whether they are still in business, or ...
September 02, 2017 at 01:12
If the Museum of Modern Art in New York can add Texas Chainsaw Massacre to it's collection, then we should be able to occasionally chat about the triv...
September 02, 2017 at 01:09
Jesus had just been asked something along the lines of "Isn't the standard 7 enough times to forgive somebody?" Yes, the up shot is that one should be...
September 02, 2017 at 00:49
That's an interesting view of sex you have, there. There are a few flowers (one is an orchid, if I remember correctly) that resemble an insect's mate....
September 01, 2017 at 18:56
As Jake Tarragon said, "It just so happens that the behavior it engages in DOES so." But sometimes a cell doesn't preserve itself. Apoptosis (a Greek ...
September 01, 2017 at 18:46
I dislike Donald Trump immensely (just for there record). Trump is part of larger problems, not merely a problem in himself. As Richard Feynman says, ...
September 01, 2017 at 18:16
If you look at yourself as an wronged individual (without reference to what has happened to other people) you may see forgiveness of the wrong-doer as...
September 01, 2017 at 05:07
"Right" and "wrong" are determined collectively, and over time, by society. "Right" and "wrong" are not handed down from on high, unless one lives und...
August 31, 2017 at 22:43
Neither democracy, nor dictatorship, nor benevolent pisspot can effectively plan for a future beyond the human horizon -- which is, generally, not ver...
August 31, 2017 at 20:44
People would be harmed. The drug is used in other countries to treat malaria (rare in the US at this point) and other parasitical diseases. Under the ...
August 31, 2017 at 20:32
Right, I need to clarify. Billions of people have found fulfillment in not just reproducing, but nurturing their children and bringing them up to beco...
August 31, 2017 at 17:36
what about plants? They also have to deal with gravity. What was the range in plant size at the time of the dinosaurs? Also, mammals were not very big...
August 31, 2017 at 05:15
Come again? What do you mean, "did i stutter?"????
August 31, 2017 at 04:58
I didn't take it as anti-gay, particularly, but I find the idea of people having children in order to find a purpose in life a little disturbing. It's...
August 31, 2017 at 04:57
Some of the ideas of Marx and other socialists are very good ideas, indeed. "Marx", "Socialism", "Communism", etc. are all very loaded words, of cours...
August 31, 2017 at 03:35
as in, "one ring to find them, One ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" -- that sort of thing?
August 31, 2017 at 03:34
Reproduction is the purpose of life?
August 31, 2017 at 03:32
Once upon a time, there was a silly young girl who didn't know what the purpose of her life was. She thought about it all the time, but nothing occurr...
August 31, 2017 at 03:22
One of the problems that MIGHT (I don't know) be in the way of an understanding of T Rex & Company's size is the paucity of fossil evidence. We only h...
August 31, 2017 at 02:29
Here's an article from this week's New York Times Magazine:
August 31, 2017 at 00:01
Whether one uses the term democracy, republic, federation, or whatever, there is form and then there is substance. The US is perhaps a representative ...
August 30, 2017 at 23:52
This animation shows the manner in which Boston filled in the bay to achieve the present (mostly by 1900) size/shape of the city. https://68.media.tum...
August 30, 2017 at 19:37
As the Mad Fool noted, zero free-will is self defeating. World peace, where everyone is satisfied by their share of the good, requires a static enviro...
August 30, 2017 at 19:05
No. Time is nature's way of preventing everything from happening at once.
August 30, 2017 at 03:45
Portland has done some good things like their bicycle promotion, light rail and traffic management. They also (I've heard, never been there) avoided b...
August 30, 2017 at 03:36
Houston was a mess before the flood, but lots of cities have failed to do any strategic planning for their growth. For instance, large developments ge...
August 30, 2017 at 01:21
Has the Enlightenment/modernity resolved anything? I don't think it is a simple question. You were expecting the epiphany, perhaps? Yes, of course. We...
August 30, 2017 at 00:59
The drug was introduced in 1953. It's patent would have expired several times over. It has been, by definition, generic for quite a while. The demand ...
August 29, 2017 at 23:32
Might be true, might not. A lot of companies have "compassionate donation" programs where they reserve a certain number units for those who can't affo...
August 29, 2017 at 22:23
Good idea. But if you are immunocompromised (like when the cops catch one at a very inconvenient moment) best to have somebody else do it. Airborne pa...
August 29, 2017 at 19:40
Sigh. You are an advanced case. Quite beyond my competence, I'm afraid. You are waves of desire breaking on the jagged rocks of meaninglessness. Find ...
August 29, 2017 at 19:39