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Ciceronianus

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Well, to give him his due he seems to have been a great mathematician. Perhaps the perceived need for absolute certainty worked to his benefit. Everyo...
November 20, 2023 at 17:05
We know by sticking our head in the sand and seeing what happens. Before we do that, though, we'd consider what it is we wish to achieve by doing so. ...
November 20, 2023 at 16:58
Yes. It would seem to me that proposing that certain views are affectations isn't itself an affectation, as it would be to validate what we do all the...
November 20, 2023 at 16:40
Most discussions related to ethics or questions of value would qualify, I think.
November 20, 2023 at 16:33
One may notice problems, but why extrapolate from them the notion that such problems are ubiquitous, regardless of considerations of context?
November 20, 2023 at 16:31
That may well be. And it may be that a desire for absolute certainty is behind the effort. But I still think the fact such skepticism is so contrary t...
November 17, 2023 at 21:14
I intended to refer to Hume, who had been mentioned as doing so, or those who took his position.
November 17, 2023 at 21:03
Not apart from us, no, because we're a part of it. What is called "the external world" isn't external from us; it includes us.
November 17, 2023 at 21:02
As Marcus Aurelius wrote: "The universe is change."
November 17, 2023 at 20:59
Any philosophical discussion which doesn't require us to disregard or consider of no real value how we live in determining the nature of what we inter...
November 17, 2023 at 20:58
I'd never heard of this mechanism. Those psychologists are so clever, with names. How odd, and revealing, it is that Hume thought he didn't exist whil...
November 17, 2023 at 18:08
But there are mugwumps among us, and the number of them is said to be growing. Didn't you know? If we want to know what Stevens thought the real to be...
November 17, 2023 at 17:58
I'm only a servant of the devil, not the devil himself. The demon that Descartes pretended was tricking him into believing what he clearly believed in...
November 17, 2023 at 17:19
A favorite quote of one of my favorite philosophers, specifically addressed to Descartes' faux doubt if I recall correctly.
November 16, 2023 at 23:25
What I conceive is certainly my own conception, but I haven't said anything about what I consider practicing philosophy. I've addressed philosophical ...
November 16, 2023 at 23:23
I don't think Austin was addressing such circumstances. If someone told me the Earth is flat, or the Sun rotated around the Earth, I wouldn't say his ...
November 16, 2023 at 23:16
If we "have to" there's something about it, or us, which requires or provides for its use. How/why is it appropriate to insist it's use must be justif...
November 16, 2023 at 23:06
That's a great idea.
November 16, 2023 at 22:51
I think those like Austin show that in most cases, if not in all of them, the "naive view" starts to "become insurmountable" only due to confusion and...
November 16, 2023 at 22:07
What happens when you wake up?
November 16, 2023 at 21:58
I don't think what I refer to is hypocrisy. But I think there's more involved than a "trial run" by the curious. I do think it's peculiar, and aberran...
November 16, 2023 at 21:56
According to Wallace Stevens, "Imagination loses vitality as it ceases to adhere to the real." I think the same goes for philosophy.
November 16, 2023 at 21:51
I don't mean to claim all philosophy is affectation. Consider this a preliminary inquiry into when it becomes affectation.
November 16, 2023 at 21:48
Interesting that I loved driving through the mountains in West Virginia. Beautiful. But I think some of philosophy may be genuine.
November 16, 2023 at 21:45
Why call it a dream, then?
November 16, 2023 at 21:42
Yes. But I'm wondering what it means when they're not a realist otherwise.
November 16, 2023 at 21:39
I hope your suspicion is correct.
November 16, 2023 at 21:36
Which I think some (like me, maybe) would maintain constitutes a confession he himself disregards the claims he makes in philosophy all the time. One ...
November 16, 2023 at 21:34
Descartes isn't called the "Father of Modern Philosophy" for nothing. Descartes had, and in some respects still has, his followers. It seems to me tha...
November 16, 2023 at 21:17
Method, more specifically, I think (the method of "inquiry").
November 14, 2023 at 20:49
You keep reminding me of Dewey. That's a good thing for me, but perhaps not for others. See his The Quest for Certainty. Analytic and OLP philosophers...
November 14, 2023 at 16:31
Luke 18:11
November 13, 2023 at 16:50
Not sure about James, but I think Dewey would say that context is all important, and the tendency to ignore it, which is to say to treat perception as...
November 10, 2023 at 17:25
Thanks for the clarification. The pie I got hit with was rather tasty, but I'm glad you avoided getting hit by one.
November 08, 2023 at 17:14
I don't recall mentioning "little blobs of color" or their relation to perception. Perhaps you're being deceived by your senses, yet again.
November 08, 2023 at 16:55
He's establishing that as well, to my satisfaction at least. The "pie in the face" moment as I like to call it is when you understand you've been on a...
November 08, 2023 at 16:26
I figured you'd notice the joke and the irony. Perhaps others will now that you mentioned it. The pie has hit your face when you recognize this to be ...
November 07, 2023 at 22:41
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fmiro.medium.com%2Fv2%2Fresize%3Afit%3A656%2F1*X4OCziOUe9xYm1nN06mG5A.png&tbnid=91WtSbFg1eQ_mM&vet=1...
November 07, 2023 at 16:32
It's an example of what Dewey called The Philosophical Fallacy, now that I think of it--simply put, the disregard of context. Whatever is thought in p...
November 06, 2023 at 22:08
It doesn't matter. Think of the loonies and colossi of affectation he savaged, so politely. Well, fairly politely. Reading Sense and Sensibility resul...
November 06, 2023 at 16:57
"Warranted assertibility" is the language he used, in place of "truth" and "knowledge." The idea being to avoid the baggage coming with both terms, an...
November 03, 2023 at 15:17
You're treating a thought as if it's an object, a thing. I say a thought isn't a thing. You merely beg the question when you compare a thought with a ...
November 03, 2023 at 00:23
If you're looking for an answer that would satisfy a neuroscientist, I can't give one. We walk. Walking isn't a thing, nor is it an image. We eat. Eat...
November 02, 2023 at 15:05
No. I knew instead what "a thought of a cup" would mean in the context of our discussion. When I think about a cup I'm doing something, but no "though...
November 02, 2023 at 14:47
"Thinking about a cup" seems to me a fairly good description of thinking about a cup. But thinking about something takes place; thinking is a process....
November 01, 2023 at 22:31
For what? It's interesting that scholars have concluded that the Gospel of Luke was written 10 years or so after the Roman siege of Jerusalem and thei...
November 01, 2023 at 22:17
Sorry, but I don't think there is such a thing as a "thought of a cup." We may think of a cup, certainly, but no "thought of a cup" results; we create...
November 01, 2023 at 20:35
Well, don't be too hard on yourself.
November 01, 2023 at 15:49
Well, philosophy isn't necessarily devoted to questions or issues which make no difference. It's been called the love of wisdom, for example, and wisd...
November 01, 2023 at 15:43
"Fair and square"? Well, the U.S. certainly did it's best to hide its conquest, theft and fraud in the trappings of the law in some cases, though ther...
October 31, 2023 at 22:45