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Gnomon

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I suppose the title of this thread is referring to the brief existence of the self-conscious Self : non-being . . . being . . . non-being. Which is a ...
June 25, 2023 at 21:05
Yes. In spoken or written language, Ellipsis is the intentional omission of information. But the intention is indicated by a series of dots, or perhap...
June 25, 2023 at 16:34
I had assumed that's the case, but wanted to get a second opinion. So my problem is not with the general concept, but with the specific terminology, s...
June 24, 2023 at 17:02
Yes. Our different attitudes towards opinions "may explain things". You seem motivated to avoid dogmatic positions, while I'm interested in discoverin...
June 24, 2023 at 16:33
Tom, your unwillingness to commit to at least a provisional position on the Random Chaos vs Rational Cosmos question is puzzling to me. Is it the "emo...
June 23, 2023 at 17:08
Sorry, "Kolmogorov Complexity"*1 is way over my little pointy head. And, while your comments in the quote may have something to do with the hypothesis...
June 23, 2023 at 15:55
What did you mean (intend) by that question? :joke: Courts of Law often spend thousands of attorney hours in trying to prove or deny Intention --- aft...
June 22, 2023 at 22:20
Sounds like you are being evasive. Barring divine revelation, how else would we know anything about the world, except as they "seem to us" : via our s...
June 22, 2023 at 21:29
I suppose, in order to avoid the historical slavery of political/religious Spiritualism (soul more important/essential than body, and ideals worth dyi...
June 22, 2023 at 17:15
I suppose you are referring to the problem of determining if a string of numbers is random. In judgments of randomness, there is always a degree of do...
June 22, 2023 at 16:11
On the TPF forum, this a no-win argument. Both Physicalists and Metaphysicalists typically agree on the details of physics, neuro-chemistry, and cosmo...
June 22, 2023 at 00:07
The causal role of information in the world is of interest to me, both scientifically and philosophically. Can you provide a link to a site or publica...
June 21, 2023 at 23:19
Granted. The word "Time" has many shaded meanings, depending on context. But they all seem to refer to discernible Change of some kind. So I was talki...
June 21, 2023 at 16:19
Since I have no formal training in Philosophy or higher Math, my comments on the notion that "deductive reasoning produces no information", may not be...
June 20, 2023 at 21:29
Yes. That's why, although I lost faith in the bible stories about a father-like Creator, I couldn't deny the reverse logic --- from effect to cause --...
June 20, 2023 at 16:51
A coy response. But not having empirical knowledge of the cosmic Agent hasn't stopped philosophers from describing its necessary properties, based on ...
June 19, 2023 at 22:16
Yes. His version of Panpsychism is Idealist, and assumes that Consciousness is fundamental to reality. My alternative version could be called Pan-Info...
June 19, 2023 at 16:24
I'm currently re-reading Peter Ells' 2010 book, Panpsychism, because he discusses in detail many controversial topics that arise in philosophical meta...
June 18, 2023 at 21:48
OK. Who or What is the bottom-line Agent/Agency? : Matter, Energy, Evolution, God, First Cause, "Idiosyncratic Causality", John Barrymore, Other? Agen...
June 18, 2023 at 16:53
Yes. The concept of "something from nothing" is radically counter-intuitive. But scientists, such as Gleiser seem to be using the word "nothing" with ...
June 18, 2023 at 16:41
I get the impression that is not a fan of Agency in any case, especially top-down agency. So, just for you, here's some ideas from a new biological mo...
June 17, 2023 at 21:54
Sounds like you've got it all figured-out, while I'm still working-out the bugs in my own little homely theory of causal information. Therefore, I bow...
June 17, 2023 at 16:11
Apparently, the status of Energy is still debated by physicists. For example a mathematician might assert that "Energy is a derived quantity, not a fu...
June 16, 2023 at 17:39
This thread --- on a philosophical question --- is beginning to devolve into a political or religious debate instead of a dispassionate dialog. Some i...
June 16, 2023 at 16:56
Although the basic idea of Positive vs Negative (absential)*1 Causation makes some abstract sense, I'm not familiar with the notion of active "Prevent...
June 16, 2023 at 16:42
This seems to be another one of those threads where posters, who are well read in certain areas of science & philosophy, end-up talking past each othe...
June 15, 2023 at 17:03
I see. My lack of authoritative credentials is a stumbling block for you. But that's why I link to people who have credentials in relevant areas. I ev...
June 15, 2023 at 15:10
Is it possible that your "understanding" is out of date? Not wrong, just outmoded. I expected posters on a philosophy forum to be well-informed about ...
June 14, 2023 at 23:47
I was hoping you would tell me where you got the idea of Causation without Energy : "Energy is not a cause". Philosopher David Hume discussed the myst...
June 14, 2023 at 23:21
You're not the only one having difficulty following the reasoning behind the emerging "Information-based worldview". But it's mainly the Quantum Physi...
June 14, 2023 at 16:55
Yes. What's logically missing from the Big Bang theory is a pre-existing Causal Agency of some kind. Most BB theorists just assume as an axiom (withou...
June 14, 2023 at 16:07
Apparently, something about my information-based worldview is discomfiting for you. Perhaps you feel that it denies a belief system that makes sense o...
June 13, 2023 at 16:49
From a Materialist perspective, the concept of "Potential"*1 is not just counterintuitive, but unreal : either a thing is real, or it's not. But Plato...
June 13, 2023 at 16:11
Good question! All of the examples gave in the OP are not real things, but ideal metaphors of a substance necessary to prevent particular atoms from m...
June 12, 2023 at 22:05
Apparently, you are talking about material Form (substance) that is visible to the eye, while I am referring to immaterial Form (meaning). The philoso...
June 12, 2023 at 20:45
You are talking about Physics, while I'm talking about Philosophy --- on a philosophy forum. That may be why we are not communicating. Physical Cosmol...
June 12, 2023 at 17:01
I suppose you are restricting the term "cause" to some particular traditional definition. But and Gnomon are simply including a modern term from physi...
June 12, 2023 at 16:46
Your snarky responses sound like you think Enformationism is contradictory to Biosemiotics or to Biophysics*1. But in my thesis & blog, I have referre...
June 11, 2023 at 21:34
FYI, is not interested in Philosophical opinions, only Physical facts. :joke:
June 11, 2023 at 17:47
Do you agree that, for pragmatic reasons, most humans act as-if Matter is Reality? If so, how do you explain the behavior of a few feckless philosophe...
June 11, 2023 at 17:35
Plato and Aristotle used the term "First Cause" to explain, without hard evidence, what causes a physical cause in the world. Apparently they simply t...
June 11, 2023 at 16:42
Yes, but for metaphysical (mental) questions, I prefer to use the more philosophical term "Cause" instead of the scientific notion of "Energy". While ...
June 10, 2023 at 21:37
No. Inches & miles are conventional measures of space, not space itself. If you want the details behind the Energy is Fundamental concept, you'll have...
June 10, 2023 at 21:33
Interesting post! But I apologize for ignoring your warning, and getting-in over my head. I'll only comment on the quoted line, which corresponds to m...
June 10, 2023 at 20:59
In my experience, most people act like Materialists in all practical phases of life. Only a few brain-washed nuts actually attempt to walk through wal...
June 10, 2023 at 17:35
That criticism may also accurately describe Panpsychism, which is a philosophical generalization, not a detailed scientific account of mind. It simply...
June 10, 2023 at 17:01
I didn't intend to get into a technical argument about Dialectics or Biosemiotics or Triadics. I have no expertise in those arcane fields. Following y...
June 10, 2023 at 16:14
Wolfgang seems to be talking about "self-organization" in a cosmic sense, to raise the question of how living creatures could be assembled out of non-...
June 09, 2023 at 22:06
Yes. "To Conflate" means to combine two or more separate things into one concept. That's the job description of philosophical inference and holistic t...
June 09, 2023 at 16:18
Ironically, a "holistic view of substance as the emergent product of a structure of relations"*1 *2 is a good summary of the Enformationism thesis. So...
June 08, 2023 at 16:25