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Gnomon

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I'm not sure what ticked off, but I suspect he doesn't appreciate my references to fundamental Information, and other sub-physical notions that might ...
April 05, 2024 at 16:30
That's true, but the OP asks if knowledge is merely belief. Apparently, it's implying that the difference between knowing and believing is empirical v...
April 04, 2024 at 21:48
Speaking of literal non-sense. How do you define Time, apart from metaphysical Measurement by a Mind? Time has no physical properties to measure. http...
April 04, 2024 at 16:42
Yes, but what is the source of organic Biogenesis (Negentropy ; Enformy) on all the other "rocks" in the system? Pure Energy alone is neither positive...
April 04, 2024 at 16:37
Unobserved Change is not Time. I think you missed the point of the "red rock" example. The dry river bed is evidence of physical Change in the environ...
April 04, 2024 at 16:02
Yes, but, "could" is counterfactual. Are you aware of instances of Life & Mind anywhere except on the third rock from the sun? :wink:
April 04, 2024 at 15:46
Yes. Time is a concept formulated by sentient observers of Change, for whom Difference is the essence of Sentience*1. But presumably, Change continues...
April 04, 2024 at 15:39
I agree that, for insentient matter, there is no concept of Time, just meaningless Change. For a world without thinking & feeling persons, the univers...
April 04, 2024 at 00:03
I do have a philosophical hypothesis of abiognesis (life from non-life), but it's a complex argument, involving quantum Uncertainty, Information theor...
April 03, 2024 at 17:34
I think you are correct, because both terms are subject to varying definitions, depending on the context. Philosophically, knowledge is "justified tru...
April 03, 2024 at 16:36
After centuries of debates on the provenance of Consciousness, I doubt that you will find a slam-dunk argument either way. In most such discussions, t...
March 31, 2024 at 16:44
Good deal! That's another way of saying what I mean by : "Consciousness*1 is the function of brain activity". In math or physics, a Function*2 is a re...
March 30, 2024 at 21:54
That's a good point --- if you want to distinguish Physics from Philosophy. Academic (fundamental) physics is only concerned with mathematical correla...
March 30, 2024 at 16:29
That's why I started this spin-off from the depleted First Cause thread. But most respondents, so far, seem to have missed the point of this new threa...
March 29, 2024 at 22:13
In some circles, Panpsychism has recently become a popular philosophical worldview, due in part to suggestive but questionable interpretations of Quan...
March 29, 2024 at 16:58
In a later post, you replied to : "what do you expect from me?". As a survivor of many of his Either/Or broadside attacks, I will presume to guess wha...
March 28, 2024 at 16:53
I'm afraid that most respondents to "Mind" questions will divide themselves along the lines you mentioned. My personal worldview --- and mindview --- ...
March 27, 2024 at 22:56
I was intentionally a bit vague in my title and OP, in order to avoid putting my pre-conceptions into impressionable minds. But, I did give you a hint...
March 27, 2024 at 22:27
I assumed you would know that was a rhetorical question. :cool: I'll ignore that off-topic question. :wink: I didn't define the topical term because I...
March 27, 2024 at 22:09
Of course, in the absence of empirical evidence*1, it's scientifically impossible to specify the origin of ideas. But this is a philosophical forum, s...
March 27, 2024 at 22:02
If you want to continue the never-ending dialog about First Causes, please go back to the A first cause is logically necessary thread : https://thephi...
March 27, 2024 at 17:03
Infinity is not an empirical feature of reality. Like the concept of Zero, it is a sort of imaginary anti-reality. That's why scientists try to weed-o...
March 27, 2024 at 16:51
Yes. Aristotle, with no telescopes, had no reason to imagine a Big Bang beginning of the material world, so he assumed it was eternal. But then, his "...
March 27, 2024 at 16:20
The premise that "the chain of Cause & Effect is infinite" is also an ungrounded assumption. Where's the empirical evidence for Infinity? "Vanity of v...
March 26, 2024 at 21:27
Are you inferring that there is no beginning or end to causation . . . or just to argumentation? On what basis? Did you participate in the First Cause...
March 26, 2024 at 21:09
Who you callin a fool, fool? :joke: Mirror reversal. That's why the famous philosopher Michael Jackson advised us to "talk to the man in the mirror". ...
March 26, 2024 at 20:38
Not I, but the estimable David Hume*1, said that Cause & Effect is based on an unprovable assumption that there is a causal connection between Before ...
March 26, 2024 at 20:32
What empirical conclusion do you infer from the open-ended question of First Concept? Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to provide the empi...
March 26, 2024 at 17:06
No, "it" refers to the name of this thread. Don't overthink "it". Aristotle's summation of causation was not presented as the first attempt to make se...
March 26, 2024 at 16:48
Along with any reason for doing philosophy. :smile:
March 26, 2024 at 15:40
Aristotle's Four Causes : https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-causality/
March 25, 2024 at 21:52
Ho, ho, ho! Apparently, the answer to my rhetorical endless-dialog weary-query is "?". Some philosophical questions, once borne into being, just won't...
March 25, 2024 at 20:53
Plato's cave/shadow analogy distinguished between noumenal Ideality and phenomenal Reality, but some philosophers debate which is really real. Persona...
March 23, 2024 at 21:42
This is the old "Something-from-Nothing" argument. Raising the old "Why is there something instead of nothing?" head scratcher. 43 pages and counting....
March 23, 2024 at 21:25
Apparently, by snarky implication, you are trying to put words in my mouth. Below is my original reply to 's question. Do you have a better method for...
March 19, 2024 at 17:00
If you are a sensitive feeling person, I doubt that you will find comfort in Analytic Philosophy. And you are not likely to find the feeling of certai...
March 18, 2024 at 20:09
It's not a magic incantation. Bayes formula requires that you take the first step, with your best guess. Then you have to do the work of finding new e...
March 18, 2024 at 15:53
Probability, not Certainty : Bayesian inference is a method of statistical inference in which Bayes' theorem is used to update the probability for a h...
March 18, 2024 at 15:33
Your description of Causation sounds similar to my own thesis of Enformationism. It takes the Power to Transform (EnFormAction : energy + form + actio...
March 17, 2024 at 16:39
The linked article in my post describes the procedure for calculating the statistical probability of a personal belief. Other than objective evidence ...
March 17, 2024 at 15:38
In the 18th century, Thomas Bayes developed a method for quantifying Certainty : it's called "Statistics". :smile: Bayesian probability : Broadly spea...
March 16, 2024 at 16:44
Hey, I'm just accepting David Hume's reasoning, about the universality of cause & effect. I'm not an expert in these matters, so you can argue with hi...
March 16, 2024 at 16:37
The phrase --- "Do you reject the belief causation resides within dynamical systems of self-organization phase-shifted across ascending levels of orga...
March 15, 2024 at 17:13
I would prefer that you quote the assertions you are responding to. I don't remember exactly how I worded the comments on Hume's causation. But I woul...
March 14, 2024 at 21:48
Yes, but not just ideas. The point of Hegel's (Plato's) dialectic is that logical & physical contradictions (competing ideas & forces) --- in isolatio...
March 13, 2024 at 16:27
According to the worldview of Materialism, "nothing" is non-sense. And, since the physical world does exist, it must have always existed in some form ...
March 12, 2024 at 21:26
Gravity (pulling action without material connection) was a mystery to Newton, and a mathematical/logical concept to Einstein. His immaterial notion of...
March 11, 2024 at 22:03
seems to be reasoning from the assumption that the physical universe --- space-time, matter, energy --- could possibly be self-existent, hence no need...
March 11, 2024 at 21:20
Exactly! What we call "Causation" is not a physical or mechanical Force, but a logical inference from observation of sequential physical changes. Your...
March 10, 2024 at 16:31
What kind of "proof" --- for a "metaphysical issue" --- would you expect to find, as a philosopher? Can we send a philosophical space-probe back in ti...
March 09, 2024 at 18:02