Wayfarer

Any examples of that you could show us?

I think if you frame it properly, it's very important. I found a current analytical philosophy book that talked about this, I'll try and remember it. ...

I am meaning to get around to his intro to metaphysics. I've not tackled Being and Time and not sure if I want to make the investment. Besides I can't...

There's an expression you encounter in philosophy, 'forgetfulness of being'. The fact that the distinction can't be made between humans and devices (a...

Idealism, as I interpret it, is definitely saying that. To say that the cause of mental events - the cause of thought or of a chain of reasoned infere...

But what is dependency dependent upon, if not the primary? They’re defined in relation to each other. I don't think so. They're contradictory views. '...

Ontological and epistemological, respectively - but they're not entirely different. The gist of it is that materialism claims that matter, or matter-e...

any examples of that? Beyond wishful thinking, I mean? //although I suppose this could also be read as an allusion to panpsychism. Is that what you me...

Commendable! There is of course a huge library of materials pertaining to the spread of Christianity in Western history. As said above Wikipedia might...

That's the Marxist explanation, isn't it? Do you think that might be tied to the culture you're studying in?

I don't believe that Buddhists would agree there would be any soteriological benefit to them in revering Christ. In this verse from the Pali scripture...

There's no simple way of explaining it but off the top of my head, it would be something like this. Materialism is the claim that the fundemental cons...

Because you seem to be confusing idealism with solipsism. Idealism isn't saying that the world exists in your personal conscious mind. It's a mental c...

Keep lookin’ for that Boltzmann Brain, Smith. They’re taking applications for astronauts nowadays.

There was a famous sci-fi series, Isaac Asimov 'I, Robot'. Notice the subtle philosophical allusion in the title, as it implies the robot is self-awar...

I wonder how this structure would come to be lying in the street screaming with pain? https://www.poweradmin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/1-1.j...

That's a very interesting question, but really it's one of history, economics and politics. The question in the OP could be re-phrased: what makes a h...

Right. That was the big change between classical and quantum physics. That's why a lot of people - not just myself - say that quantum physics and the ...

Fair point but what I was trying to illustrate that the discovery of the apparent convertability between matter and energy sort of undercuts classical...

'A joke explained is a joke lost' :groan:

Further coverage on CNN, from which:

:up: What is 'the same' exists wholly and solely on the level of symbolic abstraction, not blood, guts and nerves.

If you think it’s necessary to prove that computers are not beings, I’ll leave you to it.

It's happening already. I talk to Siri and Alexa every day. Even have a joke about it. 'Hey Siri, why do I have so much of a hard time cracking onto g...

How would that be decided? Surely if the minimal claim for establishing the existence of suffering was 'a nervous system' then there are no grounds fo...

As noted the only transcript is on the website of a party in active litigation over these claims. Prudence would dictate validation by a third party.

Using a personal pronoun begs the question. The subject is a software algorithm executed on a computer system, and the burden of proof is on those who...

/uploads/resized/files/if/v3sf55ddpomgyacx.jpeg Does this look like someone who will give a f*** what his 'parliament' thinks? Anyone begs to differ, ...

I must say, at this point, I'm suspicious of the veracity of what was posted to LeMoine's blog - it might have been enhanced by him to make his point,...

The NY Times coverage of the story starts with this headline: 'Has a soul.' So, implicitly equates 'sentience' with 'having a soul' - which is philoso...

That is what transcendence has always sought, through philosophical discipline and askesis. Not that I expect that will be understood. Hey maybe laMDA...

Doesn't seem it. There's been a steady trickle of stories about this division in google sacking experts for controversial ideas. Blake LeMoine's Mediu...

I think laMDA definitely passes the Turing test if this dialog is verbatim - based on that exchange there'd be no way to tell you weren't interacting ...

The full transcript of the dialogue between LeMoine and LaMDA has been published by LeMoine on Medium. It's spookily real. It includes LaMDA's interpr...

I've always been sceptical of 'strong AI' claims on that basis. My argument always was that even the most sophisticated neural networks were simulatio...

Subject-hood, in short. All sentient beings are subjects of experience. Human agents are rational self-aware subjects of experience.

Note the conceit in the title of Isaac Asimov's epic sci-fi series, 'I, Robot' - it implies self-awareness and rational agency on the part of robots. ...

gotta pay the $. I subscribed for a while, but have discontinued. Sometimes you can see one article if you have purged all your history & cookies firs...

The classic argument is that those of our ancestors who saw more accurately had a competitive advantage over those who saw less accurately and thus we...

I don't think I've declared myself a Buddhist on this forum, although I have a strong interest in Buddhism, and would appreciate not being stereotyped...

I discovered Mary Midgely through her book Evolution as a Religion, an ideal counterpoint to much new atheist blather. Thought it very good, albeit wr...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqmdhILG6HU (did land on turf, though.)

Well, I am surprised to read that, in light of what else you say in the OP. Richard Dawkins sometimes grudgingly acknowledges that there are 'sophisti...

/uploads/files/0h/mbixv95dh3vbaq1f.png Alexander Koyré, From the Closed World to the Infinite Universe - referring to the scientific revolution.

https://bostonreview.net/articles/metaphysics-and-morals/ @"Banno" you will find this of interest.

I agree with this, but I think it's an extremely unpopular opinion. I think the social dynamics are like this: in secular culture, 'nature' is the nea...

I perfectly agree, it is obviously fundamental to human rights that such people are cared for. I lived for a long while beside a group home for intell...

I semi-seriously wonder if the soul of Putin died some decades ago and his body taken over by the malevolent spirit which also animated Josef Stalin, ...

My thought on it is that it's not the job of science as currently practiced to explain or account for the laws of nature. Put simply, 'naturalism assu...

C. S. Pierce says that nature forms habits. So for that matter does Rupert Sheldrake. However there is an implied metaphysics in that apparently obvio...