Harry Hindu

What empirical difference would that make? That question does not make sense. If there is empirical evidence, then there is something. If not, then th...

Thank you for showing that it is arbitrary - which has been my point all along. If the OP intended the title to mean the way you interpreted it, it wo...

But that isnt relevant to the title of the thread. Does being better at the 100 meters make you a better person? Doesnt it depend on if one values run...

I would like to know how it follows that anything humans do is better, or superior, when it is possible that we just might become extinct like the din...

Better, greater and superior are all value statements and as such are subjective. It is nonsensical to ask a subjective question as if it has an objec...

Define "better".

The only difference between physics and metaphysics is that claims made by the physicists are falsifiable, while metaphysical claims are not. Eventual...

You seem confused. Are you saying that what we call the "universe" simply would not exist if we were not here to call it that? What we call the "unive...

This is something that I've talked about many times here. What seems to be missing in this thread is "Natural Selection". Evolution is the effect of n...

You should have asked Mr Chomsky, "What are words, if not sounds and visual scribbles? You think in sounds and visual scribbles." We all think in the ...

You're still appealing to popularity. I'll ask a different question: Why do people say that the decision to tithe or not is a moral one? This is actua...

That's not what I meant. I wasn't talking about the actual string of symbols we use to refer to things. The fact that we have different languages (dif...

You mean like infants? Mothers seem to know what their infants want, though new mothers have more trouble than experienced mothers in understanding wh...

So you're saying that tithing is a moral issue because others say so? It's arbitrary? That doesn't seem to help your argument much. Exactly. No one's ...

Heh, yeah you're missing the point because you're jumping ahead of it. Be patient. How is tithing a moral issue? Why would you choose to tithe, or not...

Like I said in the post you just cherry-picked. If they claim that they are woman in a man's body - that is claiming that you have a physical defect -...

Just think of the things that women can do that men can't and vice versa simply based on their anatomy. Many species have sexual dimorphisms where the...

Okay, so give me an example situation that represents a moral dilemma. What do you mean by the environment and our genetics producing the concept of w...

Somatic: An individual believes that he or she is experiencing physical sensations or bodily dysfunctions, such as foul odors or insects crawling on o...

Then they are confusing their mental state and/or behavior and their sex. Again, how do they know what it feels like to be the opposite sex?

Do transgenders have a problem with their hair color, eye color, skin color, etc.? Is it only their sex organs? It's not that they want to belong to a...

Believing that you belong to another body is saying that your body is wrong.

What is a moral dilemma, and why is it a dilemma? Let me ask you this: Did Sam Harris provide the name of the scientific field that studies what is ri...

Simone de Beauvoir herself was probably confused about her own gender/sex by how she developed. This particular line in her Wikipedia article is telli...

Like I said, science can tell us what morality is. Morality is the subjective perspective of another's influence on one's personal and group goals. Ar...

With more time to think on it. It really isn't any different. They both believe that something is wrong with their body, which falls under the umbrell...

Huh? I'm willing to have whatever conversation you want - anywhere - at least until the mods start deleting posts for being off-topic (like they have ...

Then it comes down to my question of how they know that their body is something other than it should be. How do they know what the opposite of sex fee...

I did - in the sentence after the one you quoted.

You don't know what you are talking about: DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA To be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa according to the DSM-5, the following criteria mu...

Yes. You learn to expect that from Wayfarer. Science isn't suppose to address what is moral. Morality is subjective. Science gets at the objective. Sc...

A particular wavelength of light enters the eye and is modeled by our mental activity (brain) as the color red. We should also consider that the brain...

Strange that it isn't consisered anorexia phobic when we tell an anorexic that they aren't fat. You sound dangerously close to committing an ad homine...

Can't people be wrong in identifying themselves? Can't people misinterpret their mental states? I gave the example of the Italian-American believing t...

Why would it be an either/or with the cat being either dead or alive? Why would the "cat" not exist in an infinite number of states until we look at i...

You would have thought that he would have done so by now, if he really could. :wink: I have found that many people on these forums tend to engage in a...

You need to learn how to use words to express what you mean in a coherent way.

Then you need to learn how to use metaphors. Why would you use a term that implies that you don't have choice as a metaphor for the sense that you do?

Okay, then there is no choice. Thank you.

So, transgenders have a choice in what they are, or the way they interpret what they are? It seems to me that society determines how they interpret wh...

No. The model is the brain. What you experience is a process - mental activity. When you look at others' mental activity, you experience a model of it...

I was responding to this line of yours: None of your multiple senses of "gender" can be chosen.

If you plan on actually answering all questions, each method of answering cannot contradict another. All knowledge must be integrated into a consisten...

This reminds me of the "Crying Native American" PSA, where the Native American cries as a result of seeing pollution everywhere. The actor wasn't real...

Well, that was the point in asking those questions.

Social roles are things like sons, daughters, students, teachers, etc. How can someone choose their social role when it is a physical relationship wit...

Consciousness is not an illusion. It is a model - a representation. This means what we see is a model of what is there. This means that the brains we ...

Einstein should have asked Bohr how he can prove atoms exist because no one had ever seen an atom. We infer their existence by the effects they have o...

I understand philosophy all to well (at least the kind used here on these forums by many of the posters, like yourself and SX). It is the act of being...

That's your problem. You don't want to change or learn anything. You just want to keep beleiving what you believe. What is learning? What learns? What...