alan1000

I think you should just go with the flow for the next year or two at least, Daniel. Let's face it, your intellectual life is currently a dog's vomit a...

Other than the subjective experience of feeling powerfully attracted to some object or person, can you suggest any additional properties of 'love'? Hu...

"One molecule of H2O is not water." I'm sorry, but you are wrong, H2O is precisely the definition of water. A single molecule of water can, in fact, a...

This has nothing to do with circular arguments in the traditional sense. What you are asserting here is 'Sartrean' consciousness - the -awareness of c...

Euclid's Elements epitomise an enormously important insight of Greek philosophy: firstly, you must agree on the definitions of the key terms you are g...

Hi Lif3r, I think your post is perceptive and thought-provoking, but why on earth do you think blockchain is the answer? There is nothing LESS transpa...

Not really sure. Love is the irrational faith that selflessness properly produces selfishness, and that reciprocally, selflessness properly produces s...

"there a moral obligation to contribute to organizations working to alleviate poverty until doing so involves sacrificing something of comparable mora...

With regard to this question, if you run a search on the noted works of "Gongniu Fenbian", I think you will find some interesting results.

Nagel, the general drift of your question is clear, but you cover a thousand kilometres of philosophy in every paragraph. I seriously recommend you un...

Interesting point, with many ramifications. I need some time to think it through.

Please summarise your argument in a couple of hundred words (or less). If possible.

First things first. "If everything in the universe stopped moving in an absolute sense..." Point: "Since motion in the universe can only be defined in...

Bertrand Russell, An Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy. The definitive introduction to Peano arithmetic and set theory. In this book you will fi...

Mr Phil, my remarks were meant to be an endorsement of comments made by DingoJones.

Ram, has it occurred to you that your opinions are leftist?

All I know about the universe that I live in is that the sun is shining today. Everything I think I know beyond that is guesswork. That was Richard Fe...

Hi Maureen, From your messages so far, I presume you don't believe in life after death? Don't good people expect to live forever after they die?

There are actually some interesting points raised here. Can God have accidental properties? Well, clearly, God COULD have created Eve first, rather th...

Perhaps what your own post makes clear is that the definition of "life" is arbitrary. Is "life" defined in terms of reaction to the environment? I don...

I take it, from the way this post has developed, none of the contributors is actually familiar with the Peano Axioms of arithmetic. Firstly, the fact ...

"Personal preference" is a deeply unscientific frame of mind, Joseph. You use the method which is most appropriate to the context, as determined by sc...

In what way does all of this differ from Hobbes's theory of psychology?

In logical terms, if you seek certainty, then religion is for you. Alternatively, you could limit your mind to those areas of science which deal in ce...

I chuckle when people assume that morality is impossible outside of christianity. Did Socrates and The Buddha lack morality? Did Confucius?

I think it would be a good idea to use genetic engineering to make ourselves more intelligent. Donald Trump is my main supporting argument. As to maki...

Fortunately, God willed that Mercy is a virtue. "Go and learn what that text means, I require mercy, not sacrifice..." (Mathew 9:13). You should consi...

There are only two ways to answer the question. Either ask God, or ask the patients in a palliative care ward.

"An apparatus is a way of intervening into nature, a way of bringing about a change," I'm sorry, why do you think that? If I observe the motions of th...

The initial question reminds me of a Tom Sharpe novel. "How often do you masturbate each day? a. Twice b. Three times c. More often?"

Presumably, whether a required proof is logical/theoretical, as opposed to empirical, will depend upon whether the original question is essentially lo...

Not at all; I am trying to tread a delicate line between "mathematics" and "mathematical philosophy". Most non-mathematicians, and even many mathemati...

"Limiting processes" tend to have a somewhat uneasy relationship with the axioms of Set Theory and Peano Arithmetic which underlie damn near everythin...

I'm not entirely sure I follow. The numbers >=10 from set A can be mapped exactly onto the corresponding numbers in set B. Both sets are infinite, but...

Thanks for your reply, BlueBanana. You understand, I guess, that the arithmetic of the countable infinities does not follow all of the same rules as c...

Arguments?

Good question. Offhand I would say that, at least in its very broadest logical sense, an "entity" is any object of thought which can be differentiated...

Just now saw the moderation standards poll - a good idea, for sure. Look forward to reading that thread.

Hi Goldenverse, Please do not ask your readers to examine lengthy references, and give "their thoughts". I can buy a book in a charity shop and do tha...

Please explain the distinction between "Platonist" and "Logician".

PS don't say that you reject an argument because "you don't like it". You must have a rational counter-argument. If some amateur in an internet forum ...

Trestone, You present too much argument at the beginning. State your main point in a short paragraph, in terms which are plausible and provocative, an...

Thank you for your comments, Srap. Much for me to think about there. Your clarification of the distinction between "subset" and "member of a set" is p...

Sorry Srap, I posted that last message accidentally while in draft. I was working from Russell's articulation of the axiom, which says (Introduction T...

I am not sure I can agree without further clarification, Srap. The key word is "implies". What does it signify exactly? Does it mean "logically entail...

Bear with me, everybody, if I'm always about six replies behind; I'm trying to keep up... I understand the points made about the cardinality of the nu...

One other question, if I can test your patience a bit further, The Peano axioms (at least as we have them today) tell us that the series of cardinal n...

Thanks for that, chaps, you have certainly cleared a few points for me there and given me something to think about. I didn't know about the spellcheck...

Thanks for your reply, Michael. I accept its validity, but how does one express this in set theory? Within the context of this discussion, at least, i...