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Good ! I have found that most mainstream philosophers haven't got a clue.about this stuff Regarding 'fundamental ontic reality' bear in mind that 'the...

...so what I 'mean' by "existence' depends on the communicative context in which it occurs. Philosophical 'discussions' which remove a word from norma...

The difficulty in understanding Maturana stems from his deflation of "thinking' as an epiphenomenon of " behavior'. Thus the very usage of any 'word' ...

Something Thankyou for that thoughtful post.exposing potential flaws. The psychological game we seem to play regarding the word 'existence' is that we...

I'm on vacation and have just scanned the recent exchanges. You appear to know where I'm coming from with the language focus, but in order to avoid be...

You are asking for speculation on the evolutionary origins of 'languaging' as a co-ordinating behavior. Being 'thrown' means we are molded by human la...

Read Heidegger on 'being thrown' ! :cool:

Concepts are not about anything. They are focal nodes which facilitate human mutual communicative projects. Your 'question' is merely an example of na...

Okay. So our different allegiances mean we are going to continue to talk past each other. But thankyou for trying.

By 'focal concept' I mean the cognitive focussing on one part of an interaction and assigniing 'thinghood' to it, aka 'naming'. Perception is active n...

NB. This article containing an account of Heidegger's Dasein gives a backgound to my view of 'existence' being a function of human activity. https://e...

Since what we call epistemology and ontology are well known to be inextricably linked, I can't see the problem.

No, I am saying that 'things existing',only has meaning in the context of language users. Scenarios 'prior to human observers' is an oxymoron because ...

But it is the assumption of no context which fuels the idea that the concept of 'existence' implies 'an absolute state of being', Are you following me...

Do we ever, in real life, utter a single word without a contextual scenario ? Does a stranger suddenly stick his head round your door and say 'dog' ? ...

It includes experiencing a projected context in which 'others or 'selves' might do the uttering.

If a Brit hears a report that "a football player kicked the ball" his experience ( mental imagary) will be different to that of an American hearing th...

Yes they are expecting potential 'experiencies'.

Concepts are 'expectancies of potential events involving the conceiver'. The concept 'dog' (represented by that word ) brings to kind either a general...

Your second sentence does not follow from the first. 'Things' are focal interaction events (or predicted interactions) by current users. And the conce...

As a matter of interest, of your 9000 or so posts here, how many of them are negative ?:smile:

Anyone arguing from the pov of traditional dichotomies such as 'realism - idealism', 'subjective -objective', 'fact - conjecture' etc.

Wide reading which includes related subjects like psychology and anthrooology, and of course, a beard !

I've just come across this thread and entirely agree with you. The substantive issue to me is that no metaphysical debate can rely on classical (binar...

Instead of talking about 'exhibiting' why not talk about 'expectancy of physicality' or otherwise...'physicality' being merely one form of relationshi...

Sorry if I missed your Q about 'fact' vs truth'. My own position is that all words, including 'fact' 'truth, and 'existence' denote concepts , not 'th...

Well...its a comforting assertion, especially when I bring to mind that crazy 'I' from last night's dream, which was pewrfectly happy with itself at t...

Ah...maybe you have not spotted that even the thing you are calling 'I' has 'existence' evoked by this transient communicative context. Like the 'tree...

Interesting but perhaps blinkered discussion above. Surely you guys are missing the point that human word 'existence' implies 'functional for human pu...

Okay. He is not going to announce the thesis directly. His reinforcement of the Nietzchseian view of ' description' versus 'realism', and his dismissa...

Check out the Rorty clip above. The relativity of 'existence' thesis renders 'things in their own right' meaningless i.e. Kant's 'inaccessihle noumena...

Ah...the "Tis so/No it aint game" !:grin:

There is a pov (Maturana) wwhich would view 'awareness' to be anthropomorphic. But from now on, I will not be continuing a conversation which is tange...

I did not use the anthropomorhic word 'aware', you did. The empirical 'evidence' is that the frogs starve to death surrounded by a potential food sour...

The problem, as I see it, is that what we call 'dead insects' do not 'exist' for starving frogs because their mode of interaction is not attuned to de...

Are you saying that my assertion about 'existence' is not supported by Rorty ?

Sorry if I triggered the reply button inadvertantly. Heckling is boring don't you think ! I suggest that anybody actually interested in my position sh...

I agree with your analysis which places 'value' of the concept of 'alive' at the centre of the debate. And since that 'value' tends to be negotiable, ...

.....because 'evidence for existence of God' is taken to be the primary issue for debaters, not 'utility of belief'. I have characterized the primary ...

That's right...on the basis that 'existence is relative' is an usual or counter intuitive assertion.

I think you are talking past yourself !:smile: The continuing cacophony of views that you have reported about complexity should be sufficent 'evidence...

I'll throw that one back at you. How often have you come across debate about 'the utility of theism' ? Other than Marx's 'opium of the masses' or Puti...

No. It means that subgroups of 'believers' have there own parochial observational criteria including, for example, 'the complexity of the life process...

I don't need 'evidence' to identify that arguments about 'evidence for God' are futile, anymore than I need 'evidence' for the futility of the claim t...

The reason for the futility of the 'evidence for God' debate, is that The 'properties of God' remain disputed, even amongst believers, hence the choic...

Sorry Harry, I don't do words chasing words round infinite regresses. The short answer to your question is 'no' I don't..

Correct Frank! We know when to use it , but nothing can be said about it except for its social signification as to agreement about ' what is the case ...

No. That word game doesn't work. It is the DEBATE based on ' evidence ' which is futile. There is no debate about 'utility' except where the social im...

On the contrary all I would argue that ' truths ' are relative except perhaps 'religious' ones. 'Truth ' is a word like any other whose meaning is emb...