Harry Hindu

Dualistic thinking is the cause of many of the problems of philosophy. You know how to play soccer by knowing that you can't touch the ball with your ...

No, reason is the effort of linking justifications to beliefs.

This is so inconsistent, it can't be philosophy. If knowledge is "an attitude Reason adopts towards some true beliefs", then people have knowledge whe...

How else do you find out what something is, except empirically? How people use terms can be inconsistent with their understanding of what it is they a...

I don't see how you can define knowledge in such a way and then say that a person fits that definition yet doesn't possess knowledge. It's like saying...

I would rather dispense with the use of external vs. internal, physical vs. mental dichotomies and just say that all correlations are causal.

Freedom entails choices. The more choices you have, the more freedom you have. Most animals don't make choices. Their actions are instinctive. They re...

I don't have facts in my mind. I have knowledge in my mind - knowledge of the facts. I recall the facts I know. I ask questions to get at facts that I...

But you already live after the fact. I asked you how do you know the probability of life arising in any universe? Doesn't it depend on pre-existing co...

You didn't answer my question. Statements are about facts. You making a statement is another fact for a different context.

I didnt ask a question about whether or not all facts are historical, yet you still provided that "fact". So is this evidence that facts exist indepen...

Exactly. So life is a certainty in this universe, not a probability, and probabilities only exist as a result of ignorance of what is, can be, or was.

How is this any different than saying that the universe is filled with information/facts that is the answer to some question? Some bit of information ...

I can know facts without having asked a question or trying to solve problems.

Is the above a true statement? It seems like more of a meaningless contradiction, and is therefore false.

How do you know how probable the existence of life is? It seems certain that life exists in this universe, not probable.

I don't know. If there are then move the conversation forward.

Does the correlation between symbol and what is symbolized exist only mentally, or is there an external, physical, causal relationship between the two...

Usefulness. The truth is useful. Falsehoods aren't. What makes something useful? Isn't is a correspondence between what is and how the knowledge of wh...

Re: When is it rational to believe in the improbable? Never. Being rational is using reason and using reason is providing reasons to support some conc...

Logic is a fundamental branch of philosophy - the branch that is used to ensure clear thinking. One might say that if you aren't using logic then you ...

So pleading to authority and the problem of induction, among other philosophical topics, aren't relevant in this discussion? One should ask themselves...

If the answer was in my question, then it wouldn't really be question, would it? Why don't you start by explaining what "meaning" is. Nope. If I did I...

Read the rest of my post. Its not just about future and past contexts. It is about subjective moral contexts that might disagree about what is good an...

Your answer lacks substance. Care to elaborate? How so? I would have expected something to chew on rather than these empty claims and answers you've p...

What if you are a murderer and rapist, then you jumping off a cliff and onto solid ground rather than a lake, would be a good means to a good end. Wha...

The problem of induction stems from our ignorance and lack of any clear definition of what knowledge is. How do we know there is a problem with induct...

Its not circular. If I have the right to own property that I worked for, and you do to, then it doesnt necessarily mean we're working to own the same ...

So the question can be re-written as "Can perceptions and conclusions trust the perceptions' and conclusions' own mind?"? How does that make any sense...

Sure. It has become quite muddled. I will attempt to clarify. I don't believe that power is what entails ownership. They are two separate things. One ...

Re: Can you trust your own mind? What is the "you" that is being referred to in this sentence? Is the mind something that is separate from the "you", ...

Then ask me questions about what I think. I have no comment on impossible scenarios because it is a waste of time and would be a red herring. I have n...

The state is going to want something in return, and the state isnt going to do something that would cause its members to lose faith in the fairness of...

So owning something entails having something and defending your having it. If your defense makes it not worth trying to take what you have from you, t...

An impossible scenario. How does someone walk into a house and start living there? Who owns the keys to the house? Alice's dog doesn't like Bob and bi...

Yes. The only possible outcomes of rolling a six-sided dice is rolling a one, two, three, four, five or a six. Both and person A and B know this and w...

If no one was around to take your stuff it wouldn't mean that you own everything and you can only defend what you own, not what you don't, so being ab...

I never said that probability wasn't real. I said it is imaginary. Our imaginations can cause us to do things - like behave as if some other possibili...

Only an agreement between me and another person with which I am trading things I own for things that they own. No one else gets to have a say in what ...

Just because ownership can change doesn't mean that you never owned it.

and I am part of the state. I then defend my stuff by participating in a limited state. The state doesn't own anything except the power to defend what...

Did you read the rest of my post? They defend their property by being part of a society with a limited govt that defends those rights.

Power to defend what you've acquired. A limited government is necessary to ensure that you acquired it legally - meaning: without infringing on the ri...

Then we were talking past each other? I should add that what is natally given also doesn't define my self in it's entirety. What makes me a unique ind...

Responses to cherry-picked sections of another's post misses the points made in the rest of the post. This seems to imply that there was a me before c...

Something is typing these words and clicking the Post Comment button. I call that something, "I".

I don't see the distinction between "self" and "individual". In my mind, they are synonyms. Languages wouldn't be necessary if we didn't have separate...

If Trump didn't have the power to withhold or release aid, then it seems to me that there was no quid pro quo from Trump. I find it difficult to belie...

What is a "quid pro quo"? It means "this for that". Don't politicians make promises in exchange for votes? Does their election benefit the nation as a...

People are claiming that there is systematic racism in the United States. More federal workers identify as being Democrat than any other party affilia...