Wayfarer

A word on the cultural sensitivities of the hard problem of consciousness. David Chalmer's 1996 essay on that topic touched a nerve, because it had th...

The problem with this OP is that the 'model' is not well expressed. The phrase "absolutely anything you could think of" is a place-holder for "whateve...

Swap you, I’m on grandparent duties :scream:

Precious little is done on an online forum. It’s all talk.

it’s that there is the suggestion of something important ‘over the horizon’, so to speak, in those pregnant concluding aphorisms, such as: You can see...

Don't forget that God plays dice. Always annoyed Einstein, but there it is.

An example being.....

I think much more could be said, but I won’t press the point,

It might be worth mentioning the penultimate paragraphs: Any insights on what 'surmounting these propositions' means (discounting the logical positivi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSUyhEpNd1c

There's a crucial point behind this, which is the meaning of what exists and what is, are not necessarily synonymous, whereas it is usually assumed th...

:lol:

Early days yet. I'm sure 2023 has many surprises in store.

I think you could plausibly trace the lineage of an argument of that kind from traditional philosophy (not saying I know how it would be done, but som...

:pray:

Buddhism generally doesn't accept the existence of any ultimate substance (in the philosophical sense of 'substance'). But interpreting that is quite ...

Alvin Bragg files 'shoosh' order.

Again, the key in such discussions is to refrain from objectification or reification: there is no ultimate thing, substance, entity, or anything of th...

all water under the bridge, apparently.

I would have nominated the first three, the second two I have heard of, but would not have thought of them.

Of course, but again, the point that I'm making is that there's an association of metaphysics with a kind of religious attitude - you see that even in...

Yes. And having discarded everything that used to be understood as metaphysics on account of its association with religion, then it verges on the impo...

Predictions work perfectly well. Recall that Kant’s theory of nebular formation (slightly modified by LaPlace) is still considered current science and...

What I think you've sensed is about the distinction between contingent and necessary facts. In philosophy, this is explained in terms of the differenc...

I think that is a summary view developed over a long period of time which needs to be re-analysed (which I will come back to later.)

The salient points in the article and those which are particularly salient are the anxiety over contingency and the breakdown of what Lonergan means b...

All scientific work presupposes an order.

Other way around Banno - it’s the fact that the world is at least in part intelligible that science can get a foothold. Intelligibility is a presuppos...

I’ll come back to this thread later but meanwhile an article from my reading list which you will find relevant https://www.abc.net.au/religion/the-met...

There is not. What you’re describing is a philosophical attitude, not a scientific hypothesis, known as brain-mind identify theory. There are many cog...

Any examples come to mind? I can only think of China, Russia (and satellites) and Iran, but they’re definitely repressive. So far.

(Note that Plaque Flag is taking one of his regular breaks from Forum participation.)

No, the USA not a one-party state. If it were, dissidents like Chomsky would have to seek asylum away from the country. As it is, he, like anyone, is ...

See also The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics

However, as is well known, correlation is not causation. It is obviously the case that a functioning brain is a requirement for consciousness, but the...

Right. But it also applies to your contention of a causal connection between brain and mind, no less than any other causal relationship.

But you’re the one who keeps insisting on the absolute indubitability of the causal relationship between the brain and the mind. Why is this instance ...

Would he include in that the subconscious and the unconscious? (I realise, of course, that Wittgenstein was a philosopher, and that those are terms fr...

The self-evident conflict stands despite your attempt to deny it. First you say that By which you are asserting a causal relation between the brain an...

That’s what I was getting at.

The bot nailed it :yikes: (I’ll come back later, busy with domestic matters.)

As I also am inclined to do. Perhaps what I meant is, even though nothing is hidden, this is also not something that everyone can understand. Philosop...

Twice. Maybe I didn’t understand it.

So as a corollary - if nothing is hidden there is nothing in need of discovery? Sits rather uneasily alongside:

Thanks, very interesting!

None of those continentals - Deleuze, Badiou, Derrida, Lacan - have ever been part of my curriculum, and at this stage in life it's probably too late ...

that says a lot.

It was Christianity that offered salvation for all. Philosophy never made such promisses.

And how to arbitrate that, hmmm? Peer-reviewed double-blind lab studies? Questionnaires and surveys?

The Debt Ceiling Debate Is About More Than Debt The debate is nothing more than shameless extortionism by a Republican Party that has been unable to a...