T_Clark

Just finished Konrad Lorenz's "Kant's Doctrine of the A Priori in the Light of Contemporary Biology." It knocked my socks off. I've been looking for s...

I've made my case, you've made yours. Neither of us has been convinced. I think we're down to un-hunhs and nuh-unhs. If I knew what that meant, perhap...

I don't agree, but we've probably taken this as far as we can.

All your ideas likely would lead immediately to an all-out war with a good chance of proceeding to nuclear. Your naivety, if echoed by people with pow...

Sure. This has been a good conversation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGQeqPbAYeE

It has had a big impact on my understanding of the Tao Te Ching. Whose translation are you using?

One of the reasons I like Kindle so much is that I can link directly to Wikipedia and GoogleEarth. It's become almost automatic. I often find myself g...

I was born in Easton, Maryland and grew up on the Eastern Shore and in nearby Delaware. My grandfather's farm was on the Chesapeake Bay about six mile...

@"Jamal" A while ago, you and I had a discussion about punctuation, specifically the em-dash, here in the Shoutbox. Ever since them I find myself usin...

Another thought - I wasn't trying to sell either of the metaphysical positions I described, although I think they make sense. I was only using them as...

I guess the world as it is would be the Tao and the world as we know it would be the 10,000 things in your formulation, similar to Kant's noumena and ...

But if neither is true and either false, there is no problem. Again, I favor the neither true nor false position. Again, no problems arise. I have sta...

As I understand metaphysics, it consists of the underlying assumptions, what Collingwood calls "absolute presuppositions," that provide the foundation...

I would judge them based on usefulness.

Again, I don't agree. We can leave it at that. I don't think we'll get any further here. Maybe in a separate thread sometime. Sure it does. Feudal lor...

I don't say metaphysical positions are true or false, but they are unavoidable and can be useful at particular times in particular situations. I see t...

I neglected to respond to part of your post. As I've said elsewhere, I need to reread the Critique.

Maybe we can talk about this some other time. Well, I disagree with this - strongly. Kant's discussion of noumena is, for me, the most interesting par...

I wasn't thinking of any particular metaphysical position when I wrote that, I was thinking that believing any metaphysical position is truth apt, as ...

You have chosen an uncharitable interpretation of what I wrote.

I guess skepticism says "I don't have enough information to know." Pragmatism says "It doesn't matter, just pick one that works.

Again, I think the idea comes second, after the fact. I vote no on all three. So, for me there are no moral facts. Fun and play are not exactly the sa...

Yes, I think human thinking is naturally drawn to dichotomies. I agree with this.

Do you believe this is true? I think this is right, although I think it's more than just "meditators and contemplatives" who see it that way. I am nei...

Is this from Bradley? Do you have a reference?

I have a strong interest in Taoism and I was surprised, when I finally got around to reading the "Critique of Pure Reason," how much common ground the...

There is not only one world-theory that works he said definitively. They all work, more or less, for better or worse, sometimes, in certain situations...

I agree with this. I'll have to go back to the "Critique of Pure Reason." I'll also take a look at Bradley.

I forgot to respond to this in my last post. As you know, non-dualism goes back much further than the New Age movement. The Vedanta, Buddhism, and Tao...

Do you believe that one metaphysical position is true and all the others - materialism, realism, anti-realism, idealism, physicalism, existentialism, ...

An interesting OP and some interesting responses. I have been meaning to get involved in this discussion since it started, but it kept slipping my min...

As a grumpy old man wise elder I agree.

I don't think this is true, but I don't think I have the ammunition to shoot it down. If by common knowledge you mean something known by most people, ...

Good post.

Ha!! I like that. On the other hand, much of philosophy is exactly that.

Some thoughts. An overall comment - a really thoughtful and well-written post. Another overall comment - you make a lot of definitive statements about...

I've been thinking about posting to A Reversion to Aristotle and I've even read it, but it's real philosophy!!! As I've said before, when you finally ...

I always turn to the Shoutbox first, even when it is being overrun by pigs.

Suddenly there are a bunch of really interesting threads on the forum.

It's a long thread. Read back and you'll find hundreds of recommendations. More come just about every day.

Welcome to the forum.

This is an interesting way of putting it. I'll have to think about it.

Actually, I like it a lot. It seems perfect. Problem is, it doesn't really fit into what I have been describing. I said this to @"Frank" in an earlier...

As I've tried to make clear, when I talk about "personal morality" I'm talking about how I, myself, come to what might be called "moral" decisions. I ...

This is a bit more cynical than the way I see it. As I say over and over, humans are social animals. We like each other, want to be around each other,...

I agree with this. I've been surprised at how many respondents have been sympathetic to this way of seeing things, although many others have been stro...

I agree with that too. I'm not a cynical person, although I am annoyed by philosophical muddy-headedness. I've tried to make it clear that I recognize...

Sorry. I missed your comment the first time around. I'm not sure about this. Chuang Tzu and Lao Tzu specifically identify the behavior of young babies...

I think both Banno and I smirked in exactly the same way when we read this.