Wayfarer

Metaphysical and supernatural are Greek and Latin terms, respectively, which are essentially synonyms. 'Supernatural' is more of a boo word because na...

'Supernatural' is a very loaded word. It denotes the boundary between 'rational, sensible, scientific', and 'obscure, mystical, occult', right? Notice...

Materialist philosophy of mind is that the mind is a product of physical transactions, neurotransmitters, and the like. One of the Enlightenment philo...

I think that is a meaningless expression. It transposes the discussion into an inappropriate frame of reference. Right on. We're made of it.

actually I've found a quote in an old thread from pan-psychist philosopher Philip Goff which speaks directly to this point: But now naturalism has 'fo...

Not at all. As I've shown already in this thread, the hard explanatory problem has scientific validation, namely, that of the subjective unity of cons...

I always preferred to believe that the derivation from ‘re-ligare’, ‘to bind or unite’ was superior to the derivation ‘religio’ as ‘peity with respect...

Some selections from Kant’s View of the Mind and Consciousness of the Self Which accords with what I’m saying.

To whom? It's obvious to everyone, but it's an object for no-one. Very simple. This doesn't beg any question, it just sets an in-principle limit for w...

I've never dared let go, myself. Nope. One of my favourite books about ten years back was Your Inner Fish, which was a fantastic exposition of the evo...

Have a browse of an online magazine called The New Atlantis. Has many thoughtful critiques and reflections on all kinds of issues of technology and so...

When I studied comparative religion, one of the possible derivations, from religare, was to bind or join - as you said. However the other possible der...

I’m hoping that something good comes from it. If the attitude is, we’re lost and the governments can’t do anything, then we’re lost. It’s really depre...

A lot of philosophical analysis comprises questioning what seems obvious to you. You're phrasing the question in terms of an assumed framework of unde...

:up: That's it, in a nutshell.

Here's another snippet from Thomas Nagel on why the hard problem appears for modern philosophy, in particular: Once you understand this, many issues a...

The point of David Chalmer's essay, Facing Up to the Hard Problem of Consciousness, is that first-person experience is not within the scope of objecti...

You're as dogmatic as any preacher, only in the opposite direction :wink:

Just as well the effort doesn't depend solely on him. NSW and Victoria are doing a lot more that he is.

So, what 'position of relevance' in which organisation do you think I attained?

Read something from or about the teachings of Ramana Maharishi, even if just the wikipedia entry on him. He's a genuine guru, I'm not. He's representa...

That particular essay I linked to is concise and well-written. The SEP entry on Schopenhauer is also worthwhile. I think with your interests you shoul...

There's been a very instructive thread on the Phaedo which discusses the immortality of the soul. I think the key thing that must elude, or precede, a...

Some books on Gnosticism. This is one on my to-read list.

I've 'read spiritual books' and gone to very many talks and sessions over the years. I saw Father Bede Griffiths speak in the 1980's not long before h...

Platonism believed that we're a fusion of soul and body. A lot of people will say it's 'bronze age mythology'. But my view is that all of those ancien...

I never had that experience. My experience was, I believed that through meditation, a state of insight would spontaneously arise which would melt away...

I think Zappfe was mentioned a few years back by one of the resident anti-natalists. The problem is the lop-sided development of the human psyche post...

Norwegian, right? https://cdn.britannica.com/32/2832-004-1D1578A0/The-Scream-casein-cardboard-Edvard-Munch-National-1893.jpg Hart's been accused of be...

Agree with you. How could a zombie answer the question 'how are you?' or 'how are you feeling?' I don't see how it could. It could be scripted to regu...

Never been a Hobbes fan. From that period, I'm more with the Cambridge Platonists, not that I'm overly familiar with them.

From which: Help me out here - surely, 'the creatures for which such training might produce a variety of outcomes' simply can't do maths. I mean, whoe...

No, that's not what I mean. We have made astounding technological progress and economic advancement, I'm not questioning that. Generally, I endorse ma...

This has taken a couple of days to come back to, but I will try and respond. I had commented on this post below: by saying: So, I was rather sardonica...

I'm not a Nietszche fan, notwithstanding the brilliant sparks of insight found in his writings. That last sentence is not quite what I have in mind. I...

All very appealing to the consumer. It's the 'spiritual supermarket'. Try typing 'mindfulness' into the Amazon search bar. But that doesn't obviate th...

Well aware of that. Back in the day, early twenties, I used to drive a cab. I picked up some ultra-cool American dude to take him to the airport. Tryi...

We live in a culture of the 'tyranny of the ordinary'. Not for nothing did Alan Watts call his last book 'The Taboo against Knowing who you Are'. Had ...

I think the definition I offered accords with that.

I didn't. Not a well mind.

Actually I think that Zappfe essay is a profound expression of the malady of Western culture.

No myth. The Schopenhaur essay I linked above notes that Schop. reads religions allegorically, as allegorical descriptions of the human condition. Rea...

I've been reading a master's dissertation on Schopenhauer's philosophy of religion which you might find relevant - Schopenhauer 's Philosophy of Relig...

I know next to nothing about Islamic terminology and philosophy. But from a general perspective, the key term in respect of the esoteric spiritual tra...

You might explain how science can convincingly measure first-hand experiences. This would be a hard problem, I would have thought.

I wonder if (for instance) this would cover logical laws, scientific hypotheses, mathematics. Through which many discoveries have been made about real...

But that is what you said: It's not 'human vanity'. It's a fact that humans make artefacts and create languages, and that animals don't. So trying to ...

You're the one who introduced animal communications into the conversation, as if that were meaningful in respect of the nature of language and concept...

Great. See if you can sign one up to the Forum.

But the domain of real concepts serves an important purpose, it accounts for something. If you don't understand that, then, sure, it's all simply sign...