Wayfarer

I started on Deacon in earnest in January this year but stalled at around chapters 5 or 6. I see him more as trying to extend the scope of naturalism ...

Indeed, but in my view much of the ‘Christianity’ that is professed by Americans is bogus, like the ‘prosperity gospel’ nonsense that proclaims that t...

A recent survey of academic philosophers shows that slightly more than 50% ‘accept or lean towards’ physicalism, presumably they don’t. (Another surve...

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Arche-fossils, you mean?

Thanks for that elaboration, but I’d like to return to the interpretation of the passage you quoted previously. I was rather thinking that ‘what is at...

I would say there is no physical basis. As someone remarked in a philosophical essay I once read, ‘there’s no such thing as a thing.’ Things or object...

But such constraints are not considered in reductionism. Mechanistic materialism still prevails in or underlies many naturalistic accounts. I’m not ‘a...

It is also worth mentioning:

‘Physical reductionism’ is generally taken to mean ‘explainable in terms of the laws of physics and chemistry.’ It is the kind of attitude which says ...

This post could benefit from a clearer thesis, more structured argumentation, and substantial references to support its claims. As it is, it’s a grab ...

Homeostasis is a technical term from biology. ‘Stasis’ is a more accurate description of the normal state. Which leads us to the etymological root of ...

Face it 180, life would hardly be worth living without Christians to bait. :rofl:

Organisms not only react to stimuli but often do so in ways that are adaptive and goal-directed, suggesting a form of intentionality. This is seen in ...

'Miracles are not against nature but against what we know of nature' ~ St Augustine.

How is it not clear? That every organism acts intentionally (although not with the conscious self-awareness that characterises higher organisms.) And ...

The philosophical point lurking behind this is the question of 'randomness'. There's a lot of heat generated around the idea that evolution is a 'rand...

That's correct: teleological explanations explain phenomena in terms of their purpose, rather than in terms of their antecedent causes. It seems a min...

What do you think is at stake in that passage you cited from The Sophist? Anything?

Of course he's no 'voice in the wilderness', he's a highly-respected scholar in his field. But don't you think that his declaration of the incompatibi...

:100: That's where science, philosophy and culture are all going through massive changes. Science is becoming self aware! :party: The zenith of 'scien...

I've been upfront about my motivation and background, which is that I came to philosophy from a counter-cultural perspective, the quest for philosophi...

:pray: That's getting close to the point that I've been pressing all along. And the reason for my interest in Gerson: he's a dissenting voice in the m...

But don’t you see a distinction between legitimately empirical questions that are answerable in terms of data and measurement, and philosophical quest...

Beauty, like love, is a very unfortunate word in our culture. Think ‘beauty queens’, the Hollywood icon, the poster girl or boy. I’m sure in times pas...

That’s the question I was exploring above: As for the purpose of ‘nature as a whole’, I think that indeed frames the question in such a way that we co...

I did compose a lengthy response. I pinned the Forbes article because of its particular focus on the subject of the OP, and also to indicate that the ...

Not for a minute. The ‘nature of purpose’ is the question posed in the original post. I feel that article I linked at least addresses it. The Aristote...

Hey Art - now I see your name on that Youtube preso (which I haven't got around to viewing yet) I realise we corresponded in the 1990's. Right. Scient...

From here: But doesn't it reduce it to a matter of opinion? The assumption of Greek philosophy, generally, was that reason, logos, animated the univer...

I've responded to your post in a thread about purpose

I'm sorry if it came across that way. It's more that, 'this is a deep and multi-faceted topic, which is extensively treated in this book.' As the thre...

I took it to be implied by your earlier declaration that 'modernity is our cave'. Of course. Materialism is as ancient as philosophy itself. The C?rv?...

Well, I don't want to enter into a long dissertation on Buddhist philosophy, other than to point out that the early Buddhist texts insist that: But th...

I agree that everything is contingent. The Buddha’s dying words were supposed to have been something like ‘all compound things are subject to decay’. ...

I haven't been contributing to this thread, but I'd like to pitch in here. The question is the criterion by which one decides what is true? Plainly if...

Yes, I thought it a good article. Ray Monk wrote a highly-regarded biography of Wittgenstein, which is on my 'I really must get around to reading' lis...

You’ll notice I deleted my remark before you replied. I thought better of it. But do peruse the article from which it came to see more context.

(on second thoughts.....)

My view also.

I quite agree that the the 'fixing of doctrine' becomes a problem with many interpretations of Platonism - that is the source of dogma, I would have t...

Isn't the difference that one is consciously intended, and the other isn't? Isn't there a valid distinction to be drawn between conscious purpose and ...

On second thoughts - I do try to defend a form of platonic realism, which is that numbers, logical principles, and many other constituents of rational...

Of course, the least wise thing one can claim is to be wise. But it's another thing to claim that the only form of wisdom is the knowledge that one do...

Socrates' assertion in the Apology that he knows that he knows nothing can be seen as a statement about human, as distinct from from divine, insight. ...

I read a few chapters but it's been a long time. But I was very impressed by the author's grasp of the idea of the self as a real 'space' and the nove...

A bit early to say that, on the basis of a jacket cover, don't you think?

Actually it's a consequence of what Maritain diagnoses as the cultural impact of empiricism, in an essay of that name. An example I've often given is ...

As far as the relationship between Plotinus, levels of being, and psychology - let's not forget the Greek name for the soul is translated as 'psyche'....