Of course, numbers are the currency of quantification. But I don't think my previous reply to you was 'a cop-out.' I think in all likelihood you skimm...
Actually I'm relieved that there's at least one other contributor more voluble than I :yikes: . The historical theme that I refer to is the long after...
I say it's a real philosophical distinction which has become lost due to specifics of intellectual history. I can make the case for it, but it would b...
Yes, science does that, and science is a human enterprise. Please try to understand this point, I am not trying to be confrontational or arguing for i...
I say there is a crucial but neglected distinction between 'what is real' and 'what exists'. It is found in apophatic theology - the stance of Paul Ti...
Indeed. I think Richard Polt's point is perfectly clear, which is why I often refer to it, although Heidegger's obscurantism can be used to muddy any ...
I was responding to your appeal to 'DNA and evolutionary psychology'. Here, you're appealing to science to account for the faculty of conscience. But ...
I had rather thought that discerning the good was the role traditionally assigned to conscience, and that those who do not do good have a deficiency i...
Always seemed to me that there was never an expectation in Christianity that 'the world' could be other than a 'vale of tears'. The point of the Chris...
So much the worse for the ‘linguistic turn’ in analytic philosophy. Ontology concerns bigger questions, although like metaphysics it’s often regarded ...
I prefer to think of it more as an ontological question. As the SEP article on Platonism in Philosophy of Maths says: Or as Rebecca Goldstein says of ...
As mentioned in the other thread, I have been very interested in this question since first posting on forums (even though I can't really get my head a...
We’re the only ‘tiny fraction of the cosmos’ who know what that means. It’s amusing in the extreme that objective science, which is a cognitive mode o...
What about applied mathematics? The 'unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences'? The fact that mathematical predictions enable...
I have only a terminological question as unlike the other learned contributors here I have no formal training in mathematics. However I'm interested i...
Nevertheless, 'dharma' is both 'duty' and also 'law'. In other words, it's not simply an individual prerogative or obligation, but is inherent in the ...
Yes, not a good choice of links. I was thinking of 'man as microcosm' which is a theme in some philosophies. So I'll try again. The point of a 'cosmic...
:clap: Isn’t that the kind of intuition found in many forms? “Acting in accordance with the Tao”? There’s also such a thing as religious anthropology ...
It’s axial age philosophy, going back to the origins of historical cultures, and their attempt to discern reason, in the larger sense. Of course we ca...
Thank you for your kind words. I will only (gently) observe my view that philosophy proper ought to be concerned with such deep questions, even if out...
Nope. Not at all. It's the signal difference between any living and non-living thing. A crystal does nothing itself to maintain itself or to grow, eve...
Hi Tim - splendid question. In response to the first part, consider this snippet (originally from David Bentley Hart's review of a book by Daniel Denn...
Are different bodies of water ‘other waters’? The theory is, that each individual’s particular memories, proclivities, likes and dislikes is what diff...
Indeed not. Interesting that Dobzhansky also wrote quite a religious book called the Biology of Ultimate Concern which discusses religious and philoso...
So if it’s not random, and indeed these findings are Then what is it that provides ‘direction’? Aren’t we back to orthogenesis, that being ‘evolution ...
Isn't the process which is random the actual mutations? Errors in replication of DNA? Only some of which are advantageous to the organism, and which a...
Right - but isn’t there some sense in which even the simplest life forms act intentionally? Not consciously, of course - but a living thing by definit...
That evolution occured and is ongoing is indubitable, but what it means is another matter. (And I don't buy that it means 'whatever you want it to mea...
No, I don't think that was Bohr's attitude, based on the books I mentioned in the previous post. Bohr felt that his discovery of the 'principle of com...
The Cartesian division of mind and matter, and the fundamental duality of self and world, primary and secondary attributes, Whitehead's 'bifurcation o...
Which actually segues back to the theme of nihilism. As far as we're concerned today, life begins at birth and ends at death. And considering the vast...
It was tongue in cheek, but agree it was in poor taste. Actually, I will respond in a bit more detail. It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the recen...
Of course! Don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Yes you’re right. It was inspired by the expression RIP, a religious sentiment that was incongruous ...
Totally. There's an interesting article from a few years back, Quantum Mysticism - Gone but not Forgotten (and published in phys.org, not some new-age...
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