Pantagruel

Also the phenomenological method of eliminating or suspending naive judgements in order to see the essential nature of things. Could be likened to the...

So do you think that those who gravitate to socialism have fundamentally different values than those who gravitate to capitalism? If so, are they reco...

Is stability alone a bit of an oversimplification though? Piaget coined the term "equilibration" which is a combination of stabilization and progressi...

What does this have to do with the rapidity of social change and the disemboweling of cultural content?

A lot of cynicism. These might more accurately be described as anti-values.

I'm sorry about that. There are a lot of other valuable dimensions that can greatly enrich one's life.

Based on a massive acceleration of the production-consumption cycle, it would seem likely. Essentially, we have become a monetized culture, drifting f...

True, it doesn't give us the why. Maybe there is no why other than the one we create?

Are you reifying, deifying or otherwise personifying reason?

So then why is reason adopting an attitude towards that belief? (your words). I agree with the first statement wholeheartedly.

Actually it is an emerging scientific methodology. I don't think it is meant to have any philosophical aspects. That being said, I don't see any reaso...

Because it is a fundamental property of systems across every domain to self-organize and exhibit new properties.

Complex-adaptive systems routinely self-organize into stable states that are nevertheless far from equilibrium and exhibit interesting new features. h...

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You could look into areas like encephalization. I have an excellent book entitled "Conceptual issues in Evolutionary Biology"- a few years old now but...

The gravitational constant is a fact. Likewise, so is self-awareness. Just because you cannot explain it you do not therefore have a right to dispute ...

Do you know what I mean by metacognitive? An attitude towards a belief would be cognition about a belief.

I mean, if you say so, ok. But it sure seems that "adopting a certain attitude" towards a judicative mental state really is by definition a meta-cogni...

Ok but this and this seem to be in disagreement?

Why does one have to have an awareness that something is knowledge for it to be knowledge? Farmers know a great deal about how and when to plant, prob...

That my intuitions are sound, that I have taken away good information. I have often selected books from a variety of fields and found strong thematic ...

I always take that as a good sign that I am learning the right things....

In terms of tendency to overemphasize the material/empirical you mean?

It's all good, but everything really converges in the last two chapters, so a very rewarding read.

Finished the R.G. Collingwood. The last chapter, on philosophy as literature, really is world class and worth reading on its own. Finally get to start...

Bertrand Russell says that if a theory predicts something very improbable and it is found to be true, the theory is validated in proportion to the imp...

Something really interesting, and I think it relates to the whole idea of contextualized truth. Also to my earlier question whether masterpieces of ph...

I see. Interestingly, Collingwood's idea of philosophy incorporates both. He says that every philosophy is in part a borrowing of philosophies of the ...

Interesting. What exactly do you mean the POV is outside of the struggle being observed?

I think that is basically the whole premise of the science of "hermeneutics". I just finished a book called "Essay on Philosophical Method" by RG Coll...

This seems like a very subjective definition of "truth". Especially when the classical definition is that it is a belief backed up by evidence, corres...

I think that both those works must contain "truths" within them.

So what criterion or evaluation would apply to works such as Plato's "Republic", or Hume's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" then? Are these work...

True, but this is a mechanistic interpretation of "deserve", if A does X, A "deserves" the consequences of X. Rather I think the question postulates t...

Do you mean are you responsible for things you cause that are beyond your control? Personally, I think if you do something, then you should make every...

Blame is the "feedback" that ensues from those undesired/unintended consequences, and it does reflect responsibility for those consequences. We assume...

Not exactly sure what you mean by function?

I think "ends" most properly does refer to "objectives", while "results" might better characterize the net consequences. The goal being that ends and ...

My perspective: Most of the issues relating to climate change are in and of themselves undesirable. Excess CO2 emissions are pollution, and pollution ...

Aldous Huxley wrote a book entitled "Ends and Means". Basically, he powerfully makes the point that the means become part of the end, so it is mislead...

Definitely the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, as suggested. I would suggest getting the "Portable World Bible" and reviewing the source texts of the variou...

If by "deserve" we mean "is entitled to" then I submit that no one is entitled to happiness. People are entitled to opportunities to make themselves h...

Potentially, the internet has the capability to create a whole new set of polymaths, a re-renaissance of the "Renaissance Man" ideal which rapid advan...

You really need to look at the whole science of Complex Adaptive Systems. It puts the whole concept of teleology in an entirely new light.

Hamlet tells Polonius to be sure and treat the actors well. Polonius says he will treat them as they deserve. To which Hamlet replies: God's bodykins,...

Huxley is careful to distinguish between the group and the crowd: "Groups are capable of being as moral and intelligent as the individuals who form th...

If you pick a ball, you will get some result, and one result is as likely as any other. On the other hand, if you picked 3 in a row and got 22, 23, 24...

There is also interesting legal precedent around gaining ownership of someone else's property by virtue of making improvements to it.

So I would say that intuition is a function of innate capacity and knowledge. Some people are just born intuitive in certain domains. I liken this to ...

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