T_Clark

Although I have some interest in the subjects you describe and have participated in discussions related to them, my primary interest is in metaphysics...

I trust my brother to know what's what better than your sources.

As I said, I won't use the word oppression. Beyond that, I strongly disagree, but this is not supposed to be a discussion of race.

If you don't recognize that black people are treated differently, worse, than white people, there is no reason for us to have this discussion. Also, t...

Yes. Exactly. Science needs materialism to work. Are there aspects of life where a materialist view is not helpful? Sure. Metaphysics is a toolbox. Yo...

I intentionally didn't use the word "oppression" in my post because it has all sorts of meanings hanging on to it. I've told the story of one of my fr...

So I've heard.

This has been a really useful and interesting discussion. Thanks for starting it.

I've had to work at being less confrontational and more respectful as I've gotten older. As you can see from some of my posts, I still have a ways to ...

I was with you till the last phrase. I think to say white people as a class do not mistrust, disrespect, and fear black people as a class is wrong. I'...

Except that my big toe is much bigger than my penis.

Thanks for looking out for me. I appreciate it.

It's true. From the outside, the mind manifests in behavior. That behavior includes self-reporting, which I think gives valuable insights about other ...

I don't know much about feminist philosophy beyond what gets out in public, which I'm sure is not representative. What I see on TV and read about is a...

I've had a lot of trouble with my big toenail over the years. It comes from wearing bad boots while working outside. I bought these and they work real...

Yes, I've noticed that the expected tip has gone up. As I noted in my response to @"frank", service is a shit job. I don't begrudge a generous tip. Al...

My son was a bartender for 10 years in San Francisco, Detroit, and New Orleans. Service work is really hard - low base bay, no benefits, very chaotic ...

My brother goes to Europe a lot and knows his way around. When we went there together he told me that waiters don't expect tips. He generally just lea...

Agreed. They are what R.G. Collingwood called "absolute presuppositions." If that's true, they are metaphysics - ways of looking at the world. The que...

I read the post you linked. It doesn't really say anything about what the mind is, only what it isn't. The whole blind spot argument doesn't make sens...

"Shoal" can also refer to a shallow place in a body of water.

I don't really know much about panpsychism, so I won't comment on it. When I talk about materialism, I mean pretty much the standard meaning - the uni...

I found out the difference between a school of fish and a shoal recently. A shoal is just a bunch of fish, not necessarily all the same species, hangi...

I think there's a lesson to be learned. It's probably the most important in philosophy and the one that causes the most arguments and misunderstanding...

No, I didn't think you suggested you knew him. I didn't either, but he was important to me. He seemed like a cool, albeit prickly and pugnacious, pers...

You might consider me a materialist, depending on the time of day and the weather. I'm certainly not a dualist or a panpsychist. There is nothing in m...

I think you gave at least part of the answer in your OP. Studying the history of ideas helps you understand that things that were once seen as true bu...

Yes. As an engineer, I would have to be able to document and justify the decisions I made in a design. If something went wrong, I'd have to be able to...

I have not read a lot of Kant, but I was struck by his views on space and time. These Kant quotes are from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's a...

But then, if you look at those trucker shows on TV, where big trucks and cars are driving, and passing, on narrow roads in the Himalayas or Andes, you...

As I noted in my response to @"Tom Storm", I don't think the differences are all that significant. I had struggled while I was trying to come up with ...

Yes, this is important. One of the most important things to know, to be aware of, is how well you know the things you know, how uncertain you are.

Intuition does not provide justification, it identifies knowledge that needs to be justified, brings it to our attention. If it's something not import...

I don't think there's any need to postulate processes other than mental ones, e.g. the Force or fields, in order to understand intuition.

Yes, it was the "or..." part that always bothered me. Intuition, or whatever you call it, is not something occult or supernatural.

I don't think we are. These are good examples. I've had similar experiences. When I would start a new project as an engineer, I would quickly scan all...

If I remember correctly, Kant understood space and time to be things not manifested by the exterior world, but imposed on the world by our minds a pri...

I was working at a site in Alabama. The road to the site was single lane each way, big drop offs on the side with no rail, few straight sections, narr...

Gould is one of my favorite writers. I learned a lot about science and writing from him. I still pull down his books of essays and read them and I've ...

To the extent I understand the distinction you are making, I don't agree. As I've said before on the forum, I spent my work life knowing things and kn...

In my experience, intuition is much more than a recognition of a priori or logical truths, it's a fundamental way of knowing. An example - when he was...

I guess I don't see that difference, or at least it's not one I pay attention to. For me, social morality is a method of social control, although it's...

Stephen J Gould wrote, "In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.'" Does ...

This exchange started with me saying that we can observe more than seven billion minds from the outside. Those minds are objects to us, or at least we...

As I just wrote in my previous post to @"Wayfarer", most of what we know is not based on our own direct observations. People tell us things. We read a...

We infer things all the time without seeing them directly. We know that two black holes collided eight million light years away because of some squigg...

Not to be a smart ass, but a process, or a group of processes, is a thing. I don't think the mind is a physical thing, if that's what you're asking.

Of course I can. Here I go. Watch me. Hey, Javra, what are you remembering right now? So, right, I'm being funny. But I'm also being serious. And you'...

I would define "mind" as the sum total of an entities mental processes which include thinking, feeling, perceiving, knowing, remembering, being aware,...

I think the people who sincerely say "I'll pray for you" believe that God hears their prayers and might intercede. I'm not a theist, so I wouldn't say...