jgill

I think it's really something that you are still in pursuit of nothing! Keep up the good work. To many this means nothing, but they are wrong, it is s...

Am I a seeker after the nature of viruses, or the man who tells you how best to arrange public policy to avoid its spread? — Todd Martin Referring to ...

MG: "I call metametaphysical nihilism the view that there is no such thing as the world such that questions regarding its ultimate nature, essence, st...

Nice presentation, Todd. From Wiki "Contemporary Philosophy": "The end result of professionalization for philosophy has meant that work being done in ...

It takes a special person to explain an advanced concept to a layman. I had a friend, a physicist, who worked with high school students in an impoveri...

The former quite obviously needs an extensive science background, and the latter needs to be very conversant with politics, governmental processes, an...

Motion without time? Look at a photograph. Think of the universe as a dynamical system, forever changing. Time is a way of perceiving change. A tiny i...

I was once told by a practitioner that there were several dogs beneath the thin floor of their meditation building that kept up a racket. They were to...

It's unfortunate there is no one on the forum who has had the Zen epiphany, described in various ways. I did Zen meditation for about a year sixty yea...

I suspect an actual Zen practitioner would be chuckling at all the philosophical positions in this conversation. BBC: "Zen is not a philosophy or a re...

Think: Deep Sleep

Sorry. Am I missing something here?

I think philosophers should talk about the "big stuff". But that stuff is prone to be very technical, requiring knowledge that takes patience and stud...

I'm sure the details are insignificant, so proceed with your investigation of reality! Bully show! :smile:

Can you identify Dora Maar from Picasso's portrait? This is a painting (drawing) of a thing that already exists. Suppose that thing was a photo of Maa...

Since N is an element of A, it is something: an element of A. :worry: I'm so glad you have proven this to your satisfaction. It shows that something i...

The empty set is not nothing. But it contains nothing. At least in naive set theory. :nerd:

Very pleasing and Zen-like. A koan? :up:

You seem to be thinking of the hypothetical pre-universe as something that we can reason about, as if the logic of our world can be applied to what mi...

Why? You seem to assume that whatever meta-reality "programs" our reality is subject to the same laws and processes that occur in our world. Perhaps o...

OK. Thanks for the explanation. Makes sense. :smile:

SEP: "In philosophy, intentionality is the power of minds and mental states to be about, to represent, or to stand for, things, properties and states ...

How true. Up until the late 1800s, magazines like Nature and its predecessors had articles about discoveries in mathematics that were by and large int...

Not necessarily, if I am interpreting what you are saying correctly. My own experience in mathematics belies this statement. I have had ideas pop into...

Sorry if I offended you, but all such arguments seem trivial, so why present them? Of course creativity is not always a good thing, nor destruction in...

I can see a path from construction to geometry and back again in your diagram. But the image of the diagram infers (to me) philosophy is the bedrock o...

So "coming before" simply refers to the existence of a certain piece of biological or mental machinery, which I would not consider creativity itself. ...

And this is your original thesis? I'm amazed someone hasn't thought of it before. :roll:

Existing in some sort of abstract Platonic fashion? I would say, no. And you and others might say, yes. It's an argument devoid of substance IMO.

"A medieval university curriculum involving the “mathematical arts” of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music." (Wiki) Generally, social science i...

Since when is social science a physical science? And your division of mathematics is naive.

Creativity itself has no purpose. But those who create usually do.

I mentioned earlier that having an idea and writing it down can be an act of creation without destruction, and you replied that I destroyed a piece of...

This subject comes up among mathematicians when they are feeling a bit philosophical. A half century ago my late advisor simply stated there is nothin...

Reflection or speculation, but with a bit of pomp and ceremony. :cool:

The word "destruction" has a negative connotation. Try using the word "change" instead. Just a thought.

Of course it doesn't. Your posts are uniformly excellent. That's all I meant.

As does yours. Mine moved us eight hours ahead! Now look where we are. :worry:

When it became apparent that lightening strikes were not Zeus hurling thunderbolts from Olympus.

There is no halting problem concerning this thread.

I see why I didn't pursue philosophy in school . . . :roll:

Be content now. After you pass the word will have no meaning.

I read recently that Dark Energy might be the aether resurrected, or simply what we know as the Vacuum of space. Where science inches ahead, philosoph...

Yes. Off the first page of TPF. :roll:

??? Guess you may not be a professional scientist. No big deal. :roll:

Can you say all that without taking a breath? I maintain that at the present time my form is harmless and non-destructive. :razz:

I disagree with the generality of this statement. As an example, I recently "created" a "form" in mathematics that simply extends a particular kind of...

Famous Introverts A very thoughtful thread, Corinne. As a mathematician I find the quality productive, but in balance with social aspects of the disci...

I agree. Having made that statement you are obliged to supply details. Another gem from this forum. :grin:

Kudos to fishfry and fdrake, resident experts in set theory. Both demonstrate great patience in unraveling the queries on that subject that crop up on...