Wayfarer

I don't know if I agree. Yes, there is an ineffable truth, but within the specific domains of discourse which have grown up around that truth in it va...

I don't think 'eclipse' them, as much as viewing them in a wider context. As I said, many will say here, and I've been presented with it many times, t...

An explanation comprises explanans and explanandum. The explanandum is what it is that needs to be explained, and the explanans is that which provides...

I'm aware of Armstrong, that he is author of Materialist Theory of Mind, which has always been anathema to me. 'Miracles are not contrary to nature, b...

I see. Thanks for clearing that up. Descartes' form of dualism, in particular, does posit res cogitans, literally 'thinking thing'. I think it's a pro...

I get that. I don’t mean mechanical technology but advanced bioengineering. Although I don’t know if it’s relevant.

I don't understand what you're getting at here. Let me try and re-phrase it. You're saying that in this example, there's a p-zombie truly indistinguis...

Odd reasoning, it seems to me. There is only one form of being that has 'the same neural structures as humans', that is, humans. If one were able to a...

why, thanks! Nice of you to say so. I'm afraid I'm rusted on to this forum :love: (I'll take in what you have to say and may come back with more later...

I don't think that's the point of Chalmer's thought-experiment. Previously my view had been that you could catch a p-zombie out with a simple question...

Hey no problems, it's a discussion forum, we're here to kick ideas around. I have an aversion to the kind of evolutionary naturalist accounts of mind ...

One of the characteristic views of today's atheism is that all faith is blind faith, that faith can only ever amount to 'belief without evidence'. The...

Well, glad to have come across someone who actually knows who John Hick is. (And Paul Knitter.) But I don't necessarily agree that he's guilty of the ...

There is a subject, philosophy of mind. I believe you referred to David Chalmer's homepage the other day, that's his main subject matter.

Isn't that 'biological reductionism'?

The element that is generally absent in many of these discussions is the element of cognitive transformation that characterises the kinds of insights ...

See this interview. His theory of morphic resonance posits that there is a kind of collective memory accessible to individuals, which can manifest as ...

I recall an article about how geometry began in Egypt - obviously the construction of the Pyramids required advanced geometry but well before that it ...

From the naturalistic viewpoint, the answers are to be sought in terms of evolutionary development, a pragmatic philosophy and a utilitarian outlook. ...

I think the confusion revolves around the equivocation of the term 'object' in 'mathematical object'. Numbers are not actually objects in any sense bu...

So, if there are anomolies in the movement of galaxies, they can only be due to matter, even if it is of a kind we have no knowledge of. Because, what...

The brutal fact of the matter, Jack, is that as far as mainstream science and academic philosophy is concerned, 'mind is what brain does'. In the main...

That is one very deep and dense OP. I'll acknowledge that I'm not a mathematician and that many of the concepts you're discussing are beyond me. I thi...

Yes, that's generally what I was getting at. Added to that, the difficulty involved in vaidating or falsifying accounts of anything so-called 'superna...

Trump Criminal Trial Is Set for April 15 as His Attempt at Delay Fails

Go back a few steps - you asked: To which I responded: because accounts of Biblical miracles, and miraculous events described in other religious liter...

Not ego speaking. The ‘I Am’ is the ‘I AM’ of Exodus - the ‘I am’ of the Cosmos. That is something imparted by the Advaita guru Ramana Maharishi. Not ...

That is the subject of David Chalmer’s 1996, paper, Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness, which has triggered a lot of debate. The gist of the ar...

The article this thread is from distinguishes science per se from physicalism:

My observation was simply the resemblance between that passage from the Republic, which talks of ‘honours’ that the ‘cave-dwellers’ receive for ‘whoev...

Good question. I suppose it’s analogous to compatibilism in some ways.

But how would you find out? In the absence of that kind of data, what criteria can be selected? Recall the original point of Popper’s falsifiability w...

Well, given the tendency to reject every account that is found in the world’s religious literature of such events, then probably not. None of those ac...

I don’t think that would be terribly difficult in a controlled situation - like science, or architecture or engineering. You would find out you were w...

:ok:

When you demand evidence for belief in God, I think a perfectly rational theistic response is 'look around you, you're standing in it'. From a theisti...

Of course. To say otherwise would be stereotyping. Scientists come from all kinds of cultures and backgrounds and have a huge diversity of views.

There are arguments against naturalism from perspectives other than the theistic. But from a theistic perspective the problem with this argument is th...

Odd, that. I would have thought with all his musing about sin and despair, that it would seem a self-evident truth to him. My personal belief is that ...

I know all of that. Furthermore, they were forced to drop a motion to firewall off any Party finances from Trump's enormous legal expenses. He complet...

Well, I might chip in. I did a bit of research, and found a blog post by Edward Feser (representing classical theism) critiquing William Lane Craig: S...

There is, however, little doubt that Descartes did believe that animals were essentially no different to machines. He identified 'the soul' as the rat...

Here is passage that is particularly relevant. Socrates and Glaucon are discussing what happens when those who have passed through 'the difficult pass...

I still refuse to believe in Trump. Believing that he will win feeds the demon. In reality he’s leading what used to be the Republican Party into obli...

No, but I have, and I’ve referred to that saying before in conversation, so she must have remembered it. It’s a vivid metaphor. Oh, and that Lovecraft...

I don’t write the rules.

Scholastic realists believe that, as I understand it. ‘Voluntarists’ believe that God is in no way constrained by logic. And, of course, to spell that...

That poem is really very beautiful, poignant, even. And that verse really stands out. It would make an excellent lyric. I started reading it to my dea...

Maybe Bill is a heavy sleeper…..

It’s possible he will have been convicted in one of the felony cases he’s facing. While it’s true that (inexplicably) this doesn’t disqualify him, it ...