Unless you are the Buddha, philosophical Enlightenment is a process, not a sudden revelation. The light-bulb insight is only the beginning of an ongoi...
No. I think that defining the Mind as the Function of the Brain is a pragmatic explanation. Epiphenomenalism is a kind of Property Dualism, while the ...
Yes. I like to say that "Mind is what the Brain does" --- its function. Just as the function of your computer is to process input information, so you ...
Yes. I appreciate their pragmatic worldview, but not their religious practices. I find it to be similar to Buddhism, as a practical psychology, but no...
The fragmented American health care system is both empowered (medical entrepreneurs) and limited by the laissez faire (hands off) economics of our "fr...
I'm not an expert on Stoicism, but I get the impression that traditional polytheists would have considered them Secular --- if not Atheists. The diffe...
Great analogy! This is essentially the Buddha's (and the Stoic's advice) to those who are treading water in depressing absurdity and existential angst...
The Buddha recommended cultivating the non-perspective of No-Self. Although some are put-off by the paradoxical notion of Nirvana (extinguishment, non...
You might want to clarify that the Stoic deity was Pantheistic, and essentially what we now identify with secular Nature, complete with natural laws. ...
I think that Metaphysics is all about Abstractions in the human mind, and Mathematics is about as abstract as you can get. So yes, "mathematics is met...
Yes. Stoicism is enjoying a modern revival in the US. This forum recently had philosopher Massimo Pigliucci, as a guest speaker on the topic of Stoici...
Yes. Idealism is an ancient philosophical worldview that never went away. To me, Hoffman's theory seems to be an update of Kant's Transcendental Ideal...
Yes. "Acceptance" is a basic doctrine of Buddhism and of Stoicism. In meditation, if doubts arise, you simply observe them non-judgmentally and allow ...
Hypostatization is the fallacy of Reification : ascribing reality to abstractions. But recent neurological studies are finding that what we humans tak...
By "overboard" do you mean he goes beyond current materialist doctrine into speculations on quantum queerness? If so, I agree. And I find it to make a...
That may be true, but it's also why civilized people need some kind of ethical principle that is not based on primitive urges. Utilitarianism was inte...
I won't get into that tangled can of worms. The ambiguous meaning of such notions as "pleasure", "happiness" or "wellbeing" have been debated for year...
That's OK. The new paradigm --- that all is Information --- is a radical departure from the conventional scientific worldview of Materialism, and the ...
Perhaps the ethical theory you had in mind is the one called Hedonism or Epicureanism. Both rely on the "pleasure principle" as the arbiter of good & ...
Sorry you don't like my "style", but the links are intended to be the "explanation" of terminology in the post, for those who are interested in more d...
That reply is odd only because we are not used to thinking of tangible Matter in terms of Qualia (properties, fields). Instead, we typically think of ...
Covid-19 is officially a Pandemic by definition (all people) and by declaration (WHO). Like the Spanish Flu of 1918, it affects the whole (pan-) world...
Most quantum physicists have reluctantly abandoned the ancient theory of Atomism : self-existent particles at the bottom --- the rest is all Void. Ins...
I don't know what flavor of ethics you are referring to, but one alternative to Bell Curve Ethics and Duty Ethics, is Virtue Ethics, as espoused by So...
If Sisyphus was a Stoic or Buddhist, he might just focus on the job at hand --- rolling the rock --- and not worry about the secondary issue of keepin...
It's true that mental phenomena --- ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc --- are products of brain processes : Mind is the function of Brain. But I was talk...
"Mass" is not matter per se, but a measure of a quality or property of Matter (i.e. inertia). Aristotle's "Substance" is also an evaluated quality (wh...
I coined the terms Enformationism and EnFormAction to serve as a modern indication that Information (mind stuff, psyche) is universal (pan-) throughou...
Aristotle was uncomfortable with Plato's notion of supernatural Forms, yet he still applied the same term to natural things. And the distinction is mo...
Several recent science writers have used the analogy of an Algorithm (program, Logos) to describe the inherent logic of Evolution. They don't usually ...
For most people, the words "substance" and "substantial" are referring to solid matter (Quanta -- tangible stuff). But Aristotle's Primary Substance w...
Does empirical statistical evidence count as rational? This intelligent "fluke" seems to be built-in to the mathematical foundation of Nature. :smile:...
In case you missed the sidebar, here's a little more detail on the concept of positive Enformy, which is called "Negentropy" by physicists. They proba...
The phenomenon of many guesses centered on the right answer may be called "The Bell Curve" or The "Wisdom of Crowds". Chaotic randomness has been foun...
Howard Bloom reached a similar conclusion in his 2010 book, The Genius Of The Beast : A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism. In contrast to pure Capitalis...
Information is my thing. It's the subject of my thesis website Enformationism. The thesis touches on all of your questions, and the BothAnd Blog goes ...
Actually, I have discussed both sides of the something vs nothing dichotomy. In unlimited Eternity-Infinity all things are possible, but in our constr...
Yes. That mental image is what Hoffman calls an "icon", by analogy with the symbols on your computer or phone screen that represent the low-level func...
Some people think Wittgenstein invalidated the concept of definitions, by noting how definitions vary depending on context. But that's all the more re...
Empirical science is indeed validated by its pragmatic results in the real world. But Theoretical Science (philosophy) can only be validated if & when...
That is also a "key insight" of my Enformationism thesis. :up: Creativity -- Freedom with Constraints : The process of evolution can be construed as a...
Here's a link to a mathematician's concept of Absolute Infinity. What that limitless notion implies is usually posited, in the Judeo-Christian-Muslim ...
Yes. In practical Reality, what you see is what exists. But in theoretical Reality, what you see is a mentally constructed image (icon) of abstract en...
Absolute Infinity does indeed imply that all things are possible, and all possible things are actual. But the Multiverse is not timeless or changeless...
Yes. Patterns are not random, they are caused. And the "finality" is the First or Final or Ultimate Cause. The "larger process" is a Teleological Syst...
Oh, but the naughty parts are the best parts. :wink: Anyway, some 21st century scientists are finding (non-biblical) evidence for Teleology (directed ...
Are you familiar with "black hole" physicist John Archibald Wheeler's "It From Bit" hypothesis? In Hoffman's theory, Icons are what we believe to be r...
Comments