Ciceronianus

"Entangled with and participating in"--yes. Well put. But I have problems with the use of "interpreting." I think it implies a degree of intent or ref...

Bah. I'M not the one who believes in the unknowable, lurking beyond us, forever a mystery. You throw a blanket between us and the world.

OK. I can accept that there are factors arising from our being a part of the world which may affect the accuracy of our perception and judgment.

If that's true, in what sense, and to what extent, should we be doubting ourselves and our ability to understand and interact with the world in which ...

So the chair I see (and sit on) isn't or may not be the chair I see (and sit on)?

Feel free to question it. I know some history fairly well, but only some. There has been and always will be disagreement. I don't maintain otherwise. ...

You're quite welcome. It's just something that baffles me, and has for some time.

Well, maybe I misunderstand you. Are you saying all moral realists do that? If so, why is that the case?

It may be that what I call this "strange belief" is the result of mind-body dualism or some remnant of it, but I think it comes down to a kind of refu...

I don't see how someone who maintains that a chair has four legs, or that it is reasonable to believe what we see when we see a chair is, in fact, a c...

Naive in believing that our perception of the rest of the world is valid enough for their to be no concern, because our perceptions are valid enough t...

Money and rough sex seemed important to Rand. There's another such scene in Atlas Shrugged. As you might expect, the woman being portrayed actually en...

You should read the lengthy speech she gives her "John Galt" character in Atlas Shrugged. If you enjoy being lectured on the "virtue" of selfishness y...

As parts of the world, though, we're active participants in it. We aren't mere observers. As products of evolution, we're even in a sense are created ...

If we are parts of the world (universe) along with everything else, including (as I believe) our thoughts, values, feelings, culture, conduct, societi...

What an effort is needed to deny, or render questionable, what our day-to-day conduct establishes we reither deny nor question! There's something fant...

Verily. Verum est factum. What peculiarity of ours leads some of us to claim otherwise? Though of course we don't actually "see" potential uses; we co...

If I understand you correctly, then, you're speaking metaphorically when you claim we each live in different worlds. If that's so, well and good, but ...

I've always preferred Aristotle to Plato, if only because Aristotle was less mystical, less totalitarian.

I see a mouse. You see a mouse. What is the different appearance I see, compared with the different appearance you see? Do I see if from the side, and...

Well, I think there are better uses of your time, but by all means try to understand it if you would like to do so. As to wisdom, I think you'll find ...

I wonder to what extent these views, if accurate, matter to us in our day-to-day lives--what Goodman calls our "everyday world." There may be instance...

I try to imagine saying the same thing regarding other philosophers. Does Aristotle come across as deliberately unclear if we haven't read Plato; does...

As John Austin said, legal positivism merely provides that: The existence of law is one thing; its merit and demerit another. Whether it be or be not ...

A wise man once said, and keeps saying: Ayn Rand is to philosophy what L. Ron Hubbard is to religion.

Not all of them, no. I think there are conditions which must be met to acquire cult status. Not all of them are satisfied by the philosopher alone. Ob...

We were both raised Roman Catholic, and it seems in similar economic circumstances. He stayed with the faith quite a bit longer than I did, though, an...

I'm happy to grant them cult status as well. The study of the "nature of being" doesn't fascinate me, I'm afraid. You're welcome to it, however. I don...

It's true, alas, that I'm only a lawyer, though not the sadly stereotypical lawyer you evoke, and so can't aspire to be a real philosopher like yourse...

I see. You're impressed that some his best friends were Jewish. I know he, when 36 and married, was pleased to seduce his young Jewish student, Hannah...

Ah now, you've hurt my feelings. And why? I've already acknowledged that I haven't been initiated in the cult of Heidegger, and so you should expect I...

I've been told more than once by those who've been initiated into the mysteries of Heidegger that it's incumbent on me to learn what he's saying (what...

Don't know enough about Quine, but would agree with Susan Haack and others that Rorty and other "neo-pragmatists" do pragmatism a disservice.

I quite agree. I think it's spectacularly silly to study or treat being as if it is a thing, and so am silly in doing so.

Well, when has that mattered? Being need merely be; it need not say or show anything. Like ontology, it merely is.

Just as the Nothing nothings, Being, being Being, itself beings.

I wonder whether we can know how prevalent mental illness was in times past, which is to say, any time prior to creation of the internet, or earlier. ...

It's good to know the Porch and the Garden have some views in common.

For a Stoic and even an aspiring one, that we will die is beyond our control, and so should not disturb us. We may be able to control the manner in wh...

What definition are you employing, then? If you define "interpreting" as "seeing" you certainly may do so if you like, of course, but it seems misguid...

When we way "all is interpretation" we misuse "interpret" and "interpretation" as they're defined in dictionaries and ordinary use. When we interpret ...

What is it you interpret vision to be interpreting? I believe I understand what you're saying, but I think that there comes a point when insisting all...

I think we're saying different things, or perhaps I'm being unclear. Christians, Hindus, Moslems, Romans, Vandals, Han, Mayans, all humans, now alive ...

And that, essentially, is my point. "What does it mean to be a human being?" is not the same question as "What is a human being?"

I'm merely suggesting that what prompts a person to ask "What is a human being?" isn't any confusion on the part of the person. The person has no doub...

The "REAL truth" isn't at issue. Your point as I recall was that we humans ask ourselves (among other things) "what we are" (I paraphrase). My content...

I'm uncertain what this means. They're as much a part of the world as we are. We're peculiar animals, certainly, but animals nonetheless. It's a natur...

This is part of how we interact with the rest of the world, or universe (which for me is the environment in which we exist). It's part of how we live,...

Essentially and in short, a living organism in an environment, trying to survive as well as as possible given the characteristics we have and the reso...

A very hairy elephant, I believe, though not a mammoth.