Pantagruel

Exactly. Any metaphysical system that can describe both the empirical and the subjective in criticizable (rational, intersubjective, reasoned) terms e...

:up:

The sacred is not open to the review to the extent that it is used as the basis for normative authority, and therefore not subject to rational critici...

Not according to Freddy Mercury.... It's hard to imagine anyone saying, doing, thinking anything other than with the assumption that whatever it is "m...

There are some really interesting cases in physics around physical entropy and large-scale structures. For example, for any given volume in a state of...

Would he not? "the sacred principle is nothing but society hypostasized....it should be possible to interpret ritual life in secular and social terms"...

Durkheim's characterizations of the sacred and the profane are couched in the context of early or primitive levels of social development. In a more ge...

I went through an Intertheoretic Reductionism phase, and it is tortuous stuff. I recently came upon Popper's writings. He maintains that this type of ...

So I used to be much obsessed with the mind-body problem (Chalmer's hard problem). I favoured a kind of idealist-cartesian perspective as it suited my...

The mind could be strongly emergent, in a systems theoretic sense, for example, without postulating a separate immaterial entity such as a soul.

This is very much in contention and , given your usual thoroughness and scope I'm very surprised you would slip this in in such an offhanded yet appar...

Ironic that objectivity is one of those "foundational" concepts that essentially never emerge in ordinary practical contexts of discourse. It seems li...

I think too that the external property (property?) of objectivity is probably related in a significant way to the subjective quality (ideal?) of objec...

Exactly so.

In general, the systemic approach treats "systems" as the fundamental units, so right there, subject and object always exist in a functional context. ...

If anyone is interested in Habermas' take on this, objectivation is the result of the interconnection of systemic and psychosocial mechanisms. In othe...

I would say that the manifestation of particles is a process for sure.

Yes, I used the term particles consistent with the accepted model of physics. It in no way constitutes or represents an atomistic ontology. Technicall...

Everything from a purely physical standpoint is a process. Particles cling together for finite durations then proceed on their way, in the "direction"...

"There is thought now" is an updated version of Cogito Ergo Sum.

Someone better tell Jurgen Habermas this, because his theory of communicative action explicitly evaluates the emergence of rational thought in the con...

I thought the OP was speaking metaphorically, so not a literal exposition of the epistemological status of the dream-state was intended.

I like this notion. I would like to add to it the idea that there really is no such thing as "true understanding". As examples, Socrates', to know is ...

Finished Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action, Volume 1 so probably a good time to start The Theory of Communicative Action Lifeworld and Systems,...

I was actually the second person to respond to the OP, ahead of yourself.

I guess it contradicts it.

If someone intends to be made a martyr, for example.

This is a perfect example of the fallacy of equivocation by persuasive definition. It's only 'real' torture if it conforms to my definition...for whic...

Hello handalf. I think that aspects of culture could be said to be limitations on freedom of thought. For example, being a member of an academic commu...

Not sure that it implies that anything requires an explanation? Heavy metals are "rare" due to the way that they are formed (with respect to the rest ...

Heavy metals are (relatively) "rare" and they are also "significant". Are they significant because rare? Certainly organic molecules could not form wi...

There are non-religious versions of the "rare earth hypothesis" based on the accumulation of unlikely events that had to conspire to result in the evo...

We have a much wider milieu now in which our awareness/understanding of reality can unfold. Descartes was a genius of immense proportions, but he live...

:ok:

Finally finished the Critique of Dialectical Reason; not an easy read. Now for the really big project: Capital, Volume I. I have been keen to start th...

I think it is an a fortiori situation. If people cannot be bothered to challenge their own fundamental beliefs, why would they every think that that s...

And yet the "mechanistic nightmare" is part of the real dialectical process whereby serialized praxes condense to form the groups and institutions tha...

I think an equally interesting question is, can/do people change their own deeply rooted beliefs?

Just entering The Old Curiosity Shop now.

Dickens' Hard Times It's a very cool "Longman Cultural Edition" I found on a recent trip. It has a huge section called "Context" covering the social, ...

Exactly. I would act morally whether or not legislatively required to. I internalize normative authority, as I'm sure do many people. Traditionally, t...

I like this characterization a lot. This sounds like a philosophy of "enaction," which I very much espouse.

Here's the problem I have with your position in general - it is too ideo-centric. You don't seem to have a healthy sense of cultural/normative relativ...

What you are describing is the situation in which social-normative ideals shape democracy. What in fact has happened is that democracy has become assi...

Your position smacks very much of the social problem that is criticized in the book I just started reading, Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action. ...

"Truth" is not necessarily applicable to all types of belief. Normative beliefs don't need to be true, they just need to be effective.

I wasn't advocating faith, per se. Merely pointing out that why someone believes something is not as important as what and how one believes (ie. enact...

People's reasons for believing are ultimately their own business and their own responsibility. What you do with your beliefs is the measure of their m...

Firstly, that isn't even close to any definition of democracy that I have ever seen. Secondly, it isn't about what democracy is or isn't, or what reli...

The irony is that, in your devotion to democracy, you are prepared to defend the abstract ideal of democracy, despite the shortcomings of its implemen...