Gnomon

Yes. Most scientists avoid speculating on what preceded the Big Bang. And with good reason : that would go beyond the self-imposed limitations of the ...

Yes. Just like UFO sightings, there are alternative natural explanations for all of the "preternatural" items on your list : Auras, Visions, Synchroni...

Yes. I have been forced, by the philosophical implications of modern science, to accept "some form of Panpsychism", and the necessity for a creation a...

OK. When you find it, let me know, and I'll use a different allegory. :joke:

Actually, the Yin-Yang model does "recognize" gradients of dichotomies. That's the meaning of the black spot in the white lobe, and the white spot in ...

I wasn't there at the beginning, so I don't know from personal experience that our world suddenly began to exist about 14 billion years ago. But the b...

That's OK. If you are not a scientist, the fuzzy logic of Quantum Physics won't make much difference in your life. Philosophers, especially, have exto...

I assume you are referring to the Benjamin Libet experiment, which detected indications that a subconscious choice had been made, a fraction of a seco...

Dan. This is an afterthought or postscript to your question. The existence of a Yin without its complementary Yang would be like finding a Magnetic Mo...

Yes, yes, yes! Yes Virginia, there is a Soft Determinism. Your "hard" either/or distinction may have made sense in Classical Physics, but since the di...

No. My imaginary friend is Randy, who is the Programmer's unpredictable servant. The Programmer's name is not "Will", but "I am". Get it? :joke: Yes. ...

No. My "agent of randomness" is Randy, my invisible friend. :joke: And no, Randomness is a mathematical property of the world, and not a "self-conscio...

That is indeed the ultimate opposition. That's why I say that BEING (power to exist) is the ultimate Truth. But, apparently, absolute BEING somehow be...

I can't speak for Taoists. But in my worldview, the natural world is inherently dualistic. It's as-if the Big Bang Singularity was a fertilized Ovum, ...

I haven't studied Taoism or Yin-Yang in depth. My definitions are tailored to fit my own personal philosophical worldview. I was not intending to adop...

That's OK with me. I read Pinker for the science, not the philosophy. My worldview is compatible with Neo-Darwinian materialism, up to a point. Beyond...

Are you referring to Pinker or Singer meddling in Philosophy? Both are guilty, but that's what makes them interesting to me. Philosophy picks-up where...

I see the distinction you are making. But the observation that some people voluntarily run red lights, does not diminish the punitive power of the law...

Sorry for butting-in. But . . . :naughty: Yin Yang : Taoism is China's indigenous religion. It's also a religion of unity and opposites, as evident in...

Apparently, you haven't looked at the links. The connection between Holism and bottom-up creation is much too complex for a forum post. Instead, I hav...

Where's the fire? Here's an extinguisher. :cry: :lol: :rofl:

Again, we butt heads over specific vs general terminology. In human societies, governors (kings, congressmen, parliamentarians) make the laws, and the...

Since I have no personal revelation from G*D, all I can say is that the Creator of this world necessarily had the Potential for Life, Intelligence, an...

Yes, our space-time universe is indeed a dynamic system of oppositions, with a historical pattern similar to Hegel's zig-zag Dialectic. The Multiverse...

That wasn't my classification, but a definition of "Law" as used in different contexts : Scientific Laws (observed regularities, with no inference of ...

Yes. But I try to avoid religious or anthro-morphic preconceptions about the Psyche behind creative Causation (Evolution). That's why I prefer to use ...

Energy is a general name for Change. And change occurs when a whole is divided into parts, that are then attracted to each other as positive & negativ...

I don't have a problem with that as-if usage of "rules". It's no worse than atheist scientists referring to observed regularities in nature (Laws) as-...

Sorry to disappoint you. I only refer to Infinite Potential as "no-thing" to indicate that -- as Pure Potential -- it contains nothing Actual --- just...

Maybe the unpronounceable polysyllabic term "Panprotopsychism" scared-off some posters. :joke: Apparently, you find that intersection in various forms...

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "existential pressure". Your implication seems to be that "infinite existential potential" works like a bal...

Yes. In my creation story, BEING is simply No-thing, except infinite Potential. Hence, nothing is Actual . . . until Actualized or Realized or Enforme...

The paper makes a good point : not all "influential" theories are "confirmable". :smile: Watkins : "There are two other kinds of existential statement...

:up: Absolute and Relational Theories of Space and Motion : Since antiquity, natural philosophers have struggled to comprehend the nature of three tig...

The "easy" answer to the problem of Life, Consciousness, & Everything is Dualistic, hence too complex to be a final answer, a singular solution. All p...

That's why I have concluded that the explanation for the existence of our world, is not just eternal Energy or persistent Matter, or even creation ex ...

Apparently, in your strict vocabulary of technical terms, that might be the case. Since I'm not a professional scientist, I tend to use such jargon mo...

Thanks for finally revealing the missing piece of the puzzle. Your reasoning is exactly why I defined my hypothetical "First Cause", not as an empiric...

The OP requested "philosophical" theories, not "fictional" stories. Unlike Physicists, philosophers can indulge in Meta-physical theorizing to illustr...

Yes. I don't use that particular term in my Enformationism thesis, but it's the same basic idea. The "fundamental entity" of my theory is Generic Info...

OK. I can see that this thread is way above my pay grade. Sorry for butting-in. :smile:

I think I'm beginning to see your objection to the notion of "rules" in communication. Apparently you are thinking of imposed "explicit" formal rules,...

Yes. Most of those theories are meaningful, but non-empirical. That's why I say that Quantum Physics has inadvertently crossed the line into Meta-phys...

Since I am not an authority on the subject of Semantics and Syntax, I was referring you to some authorities that do see evidence of commonalities, if ...

So, you have your own private definitions. As do I. But I don't reject the common definitions. I just look at Information from a different supplementa...

Yes, but the digital system is just one facet of the whole system -- the Universe. Our world is a two-sided coin. You can't see both sides at the same...

Perhaps he is referring to the rules of Syntax, which are conventional, and the rules of Semantics, which are mostly intuitive. :smile:

I assume that by "excluded", you are referring to "discarding, all that meaning which falls in between, as neither 0 nor 1". But that's not how I unde...

It's not just me. See the link to Universal Language in the previous post. I'm making a broad general statement, that you may be interpreting in a nar...

Yes. My Enformationism thesis can be viewed as an update of Spinoza's worldview, in light of Quantum Physics, bottom-up Evolution, and Information The...