Wayfarer

Something to bear in mind is that the analysis of living organisms as self-organising structures, etc, is very much an objective analysis, not an exis...

It’s a version of a Zen koan. The original is something like ‘ Before one studies Zen, mountains are mountains and waters are waters; after a first gl...

:clap:

Interesting paper, slowly getting through it. I wonder if there is an analogy between rate-independent symbols and the universal constraints that enab...

I see materialism as an affliction, a persuasive delusion. I am not ‘conventionally religious’, I grew up in the 1960’s, and was very much influenced ...

google the commentary about The Two Cultures by C P Snow. The talk was given in the 1960s but it’s still relevant and is to the point. More recently, ...

Good idea. I’ll try that. I feel an obligation to read more of the Kant opus but it’s very hard work and I can never really tell if it’s time well spe...

the reading of Practical Reason is done in a very strong American accent, which is a little off-putting, although the diction is clear enough. It's to...

Maybe you should think about it a bit more.

It's not a matter of conflicting with belief. A rational inference, for example a syllogism or simple arithmetic proof, is bound by logical necessity....

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-biden-era-is-really-here-and-it-feels-like-a-miracle

I think you have to be fluent in Chinese to read the Tao. Whatever us foreign ghosts make of it, it is filtered through our own linguistic and concept...

:up: I got Kaufmann's book, At Home in the Universe, from Amazon, way back when. Found it hard to understand, but very much liked what I could underst...

Yeah I'm afraid 'dissipative structures' will never provide a philosophical rationale as far as I'm concerned. It's engineering speak. BTW, how do you...

If you really do take into account Aristotle's four causes, then the question of 'how' only addresses two of them.

Oh, and I don't think David Chalmers is some world-conquering genius. I think he makes a simple point, and it's amazing that he's made a career out of...

I found the specific passage I had in mind: I've read that paper about half a dozen times since you first pointed it out to me. I think it cautiously ...

Nevertheless, Pattee acknowledges that he has been unable to solve the question of the origin of life. He says that in the Physics and Metaphysics of ...

Well, greetings, your Hghness! The contributors here are much more inclined to what is called bio-semiotics, which originated with the application of ...

Well, here's the problem: this associates, or reduces, logical causation to a physical state. Whereas physical and logical causation operate on comple...

Australia is doing OK. Victoria and NSW, two largest states, have no or one-three active cases. Trap, track, trace has worked, the Victorian second wa...

This is the only photograph I've seen of Trump genuinely smiling (as distinct from smirking). Maybe because he's dealing with someone who really doesn...

Sorry for jumping in, but by definition - and the reason I don't agree with panpsychism - anything capable of experiencing a subject of experience, an...

I think the problem with that approach is this: that there is no biological difference between criminals and saints. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes...

Be aware that Christian theology appropriated many of these ideas from Greek philosophy, and then adapted them so they would confirm their dogma. And ...

Tantalising hint from ancient philosophy: There is some similarity with the Hindu conception of ?tman: (Note this concept that is denied by Buddhists....

It's highly relevant to the claim that 'perfect knowledge of the configuration of atoms will reveal a complete explanation of the nature of consciousn...

...which is ruled out by the uncertainty principle....

And I see why you say that, too. But i think there actually is a problem, which you’re not seeing - and that if you don’t see it as a problem then the...

I do understand why you would see it like that.

speaks volumes, especially in the context of the question posed in the OP.

What is lacking, is praxis - a way in which this insight gives rise to actual consequences, other than the writing of academic papers for an academic ...

And one question that this throws up for me, is what exactly is being explained when we ‘explain consciousness’? When we explain why water boils or me...

There's another advocate of panpsychism around, named Philip Goff - he actually popped in here once and asked a question in a thread I posted on the t...

I don't buy this for a moment. His 2016 electoral victory was a complete surprise to himself, as much as everyone else. In 2016 he never thought he wo...

Including himself.

Indeed it is. Little-commented fact is that Galileo was very much influenced by the Platonic revival that happened in Renaissance Italy, in which Marc...

That's because it's not language. Bacteria can learn. It's basic to any living organism to be able to respond to stimuli. That's what I mean when I re...

Thanks! You know, I actually enrolled in the very course from which that video is taken, but withdrew because of other commitments. Might consider re-...

This was the case that Giuliani was sweating blood hair dye over, with all the nonsense about Venezuelan voting software. The 30th- yes, you read that...

Agree with your post; this would be as good a starting point as any. Many of the pioneers of quantum mechanics were Europeans and deeply philosophical...

That's because physics has thrown up some of the greatest problems of 21st century philosophy, chief amongst them being the ontological status of the ...

Definitely worth looking at Galen Strawson's Realistic Monism: Why Physicalism Entails Panpsychism in this context. He starts by saying that 'I take p...

OK let's try and unpack some of the back and forth. First, regarding 'models' - I was responding in particular to this statement: What I'm saying is t...

As are many things. Nice chatting, and good luck.

Socrates is the recognisable ‘father of philosophy’; which is why those who came before him are called ‘pre-Socratic’.