simeonz

The question is about the definition (or arbitration) of merit or entitlement. But for a less ambitious treatment of the subject, I have to agree with...

I will abuse the thread just once more, because I didn't notice csalisbury remark on moral truths, which is also interesting. I wanted to state that I...

I think that some opinions stated here assume that acquisition of beliefs by the subject is through remote observation of consequences. That the facts...

I think there is indeed some overuse of the term, which prompts me to blabber for a while here, to put my current thoughts on record if anything. Feel...

English is not my native language, but I think what @alcontali provided in the first post as the U.K. definition is not accidental. To me, "mean" emph...

Words mediate concepts in our thought process, but they are not in themselves concepts. The interpretations of words require an interpreter and a univ...

I think of the relationship between reality and the personal momentary impression of utility like the direction of water molecules in the path of a wa...

How do you define existence? If you define it relative to the individual experience, then it is relative to that one person. If you define it relative...

Self-judgement can be much harsher than the judgement of a benevolent creator. Most theists that I have known, seemed more relieved from their flawed ...

@OP I haven't read enough, but my personal pet theory has probably been regurgitated endlessly in the relevant literature. Here it is anyway. Our inte...

Out of curiosity, the classification above doesn't say, what one would be called if they disagree with the epistemic approach of believers, and not wi...

Cool. Regarding chiming in later, I am skeptical that I will make much progress, but I may look into semiotics (a good pointer by Wayfarer), and see w...

I will need some time to answer coherently, but I think that the difference between our points of view, about the significance of the subjective, is n...

Ok. Sorry if I overreacted or have been unintentionally inconsiderate myself.

That is fine. People cannot agree all the time. On the other hand. Courtesy is its own argument. Becoming personal can discredit your statements.

I am still thinking about it :) But I don't have the answers. Mutual information, correlation, isomorphism, etc, could help in defining mathematically...

The abstract notions, such as equivalence, causation, correspondence, etc, can be considered predicated by nature's reproducible conditions. For a nat...

That is why I cannot argue that it is true. Only that it is self-consistent and plausible. Which you don't seem to agree to. Edit: What methodology do...

Whatever the originally intended scope was, natural selection can justify the emergence of social order and ethical standards in the social groups. In...

The way I understand it, the real backbone of evolution is natural selection, not biology. Natural selection is determined by some biological traits, ...

The less I try to postulate, the closer I become to the materialist view. Which is not to say, that I am against postulations that are undeniable by r...

Exactly my point. I would have said "necessitates the subject's existence", but the problem is - I am not sure that the subjective (in principle) is n...

I read the article, but I have to say, I disagree with a lot of it. I will present my critique. The evolutionary hypothesis does not mean to guide the...

What I meant was, exceptionalism in its philosophical significance, which wasn't about a degree of accomplishment, which human beings obviously posses...

This seems to be an accurate interpretation of the known facts. Are you hinting that truth implies existence? That any universal statement is implicit...

To be honest, I think that our opinions may be irreconcilable. I feel that the majority opinion is that humanity is entitled to some kind of exception...

Every intellectual labor needs to commit itself to a manageable scope, that is true. But that does not imply, that the assumptions and methods therein...

Or treat objects as beings? Hence - pantheism and eliminativism seem the same to me..

Some hypothetical states might not be empirically verifiable, but the question is - are they epistemically substantive, and if not, why would we arbit...

Not really. I am accepting of the idea, that the plants that I eat, or even the doorknob on my door, may possess some extremely small amounts of consc...

I am glad that the discussion may see some extra use. I should add here, that Spinoza and Leibniz are quite different - Spinoza is a more clear cut pa...

Well, I understand that Mr. Dennett may have overused natural selection as explanative device, and may have run overboard with his derogatory metaphor...

First, I made a mistake above. I meant to say that a materialist would claim that the awareness is a projection of the brain, and not that the brain i...

I just realized that the posters in this discussion may be concerned with the fact that the mind has only partial awareness of its own being. That is,...

This assumes that life can only be realized with a mind-body distinction. That is, that the material world is not capable of being the realization of ...

I generally agree with the attitude of the statement, but wanted to remark, that some positions have assumptions that could actually be falsified expe...

Eliminative materialism cannot prove some forms of dualism or idealism wrong even in principle. But the same applies vice versa. At this point it beco...

If you are eliminative materialist, you do not admit the possibility of zapping the qualia away. The closest thing you would have to that is harming y...

To me - those are not logically unacceptable consequences. I feel obligated to stoically allow their consideration. The only thing I claim at the mome...

I fear that the scope of the discussion will broaden dangerously, if we include epistemology into the mix. My personal opinion, assuming a materialist...

I thought, the mind-body dualism. Which I believe they refer to (obviously disparagingly) as the "common-sense" mind. But not the entire experience of...

I see now. First, let's agree that a vehicle and a vessel have some similarities, such as that they carry cargo and passengers. Of course, their metho...

Actually, you can switch the participants as many times as you want, as long as they keep notes of their neuronal state and pass them to their replace...

You know his propositions better, but isn't he implying that we are self-aware by construction, and not intrinsically? Some free will arguments have a...

I believe that you are claiming some ontological basis for placing human beings (or at least human organisms) in a distinct category here. There are p...

It may or may not be relevant, depending on your angle here, but from a physics standpoint, processes do not recognize an absolute measure of time. Re...

Reading from the quotes that you kindly provided, I am left wondering what "illusion" means in this context. I understand the general sentiment expres...

In this post, I will try to summarize my intuition so far, as to what are the differences between pantheism and an eliminative materialism. The list i...

I understand, but what is the alternative? If anything less then a million neurons is declared not conscious according to some version of materialism,...

But Mars has no analytico-synthetic capacity, just dynamism. Even in its own time scale, it wouldn't appear as sentient as human beings. I do entertai...