Wayfarer

True - in theory. But in the actual Zen tradition, koan training is given in the context of the overall 'monastic curriculum' which includes many othe...

There have been comparisons between W. and his 'ladder' - something 'discarded after climbing it' - and Buddhism, which compares it's own teachings to...

It's not - it's the claim that they're not the basis of valid knowledge claims. It is what you're saying. Whether I believe it, is beside the point: t...

That's an implicit criticism of such beliefs on the basis of 'shared assumptions' - again, belief and tradition don't count, or rather, they only coun...

You've made it plain that as far as your concerned, there can't be any. But in Ch'an Buddhism there has always been a way of validating both the linea...

:up:

You start with the assumption of any religious tradition, that the literature and history of that tradition is first taken off the table, on the basis...

But the whole point is that intentionality and interpretation can't be accounted for in neuronal terms, if you've been following the argument. That ne...

Sorry, but I think you’re missing the point. The basis of the whole debate is whether there is an essential difference, something that can’t be captur...

And you're simply assuming the opposite. And, what is 'physical', anyway? What does it mean? This is the mereological fallacy. This is the fallacy of ...

You're preaching positivism.

Well, kind of you to say so! I did do an MA in Buddhist Studies 2011-12, which has not really provided any direct vocational benefit, but I still feel...

I'm not sure what you mean by that. How would you or I 'enclose a space'? The point about my rhetorical question - asking it 'how it is' - is that it ...

OK I'll take you up on your challenge of 'presenting an argument'. This thread started as a question about whether Zen Buddhism was 'based on logic'. ...

But if you say: So if you believe that, then there's no chance that anything said in a forum will be likely to overturn it. As far as 'appeals to trad...

The abstract of Penfield's book says in part 'The central question... is whether man's being is determined by his body alone or by mind and body as se...

Agree. I am not a neuroscientist. The sign on the door says 'philosophy forum'. If being a neuroscientist were a qualification, it would be another fo...

For years, I have tried to answer questions from you, to be told 'you haven't answered the question' or 'you've changed the subject'. What this means ...

That's the perception of those who've read about it but never quite understood it.

It’s simply not worth discussing it with someone whose mind is already made up. It’s a waste of time for both parties.

Nevertheless I think it’s a spurious comparison. Physics evolved from an attempt to understand the forces of nature. Buddhism is not concerned with th...

There’s a couple of things. It is now known that neuroplasticity enables the brain to regain from a lot of damage by re-purposing. In those cases, the...

The Spirituality of Secularity Bolds added. From Terror in the God-Shaped Hole: A Buddhist Perspective on Modernity's Identity Crisis, David Loy. See ...

The reason the zombie idea is so ridiculous, is that a zombie cannot be 'a being'. By definition! A zombie is, therefore, an object, a thing. It has n...

You really should read this review.

I'm tired of being accused by you of 'intellectual dishonesty'. I studied an MA in Buddhist Studies, it cost me $20 grand to do it, and I didn't do it...

if there were such machines with the organs and shape of a monkey or of some other non-rational animal, we would have no way of discovering that they ...

Ask it 'how are you?' If it can answer, it's not a zombie.

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Neither do multiverses or the many-worlds interpretation. Both arise from discrepancies between observation and theory. I would have thought that when...

:up:

It’s more that everything in nature goes through cycles of creation and destruction....why should the Universe be different? (Oh, and I don’t know if ...

I will elaborate an objection to Dennett along Kantian lines. It begins with the claim that ‘experienced reality is a construct or a synthesis’. In Sc...

Do you know any of the literature around this issue? Facing Up to the Hard Problem of Consciousness, by Chalmers? What is it like to be a Bat, Thomas ...

Ski-ing would be one. Having an orgasm would be another. Getting drunk on vodka would be another. Becoming exhausted while cross country running. Lear...

It's something I feel really shouldn't need to be explained. Unless you have an experience, then you can't say you know what it is to have that experi...

That is all described from the third-person perspective. You won't really know what it is like to kick the ball unless you do it yourself.

But, nevertheless, there is a valid distinction to be made between the first- and third-person perspective. In other words, me seeing Alice kick the b...

I can’t comment on the science, but the idea of a cyclical cosmology has an ancient provenance; it’s reminiscent of Hindu cosmology which has always s...

There are/were many such discussions on Dharmawheel.

Oh, and there's also The Buddha's Brain, by Rick Hanson. Saw him speak too. And the neurology of religious belief, by Andrew Newberg. Not to forget th...

Like I said - it has beliefs but it is not about belief. It is nearer to a form of gnosticism than to doxastic religions. In a similar way that Plato ...

:up: Glad there's someone else on this forum who contemplates these teachings.

I don't think you're mistaken, but it's a difficult idea.

'Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.' ~ Philip K. Dick. Is that what you have in mind?

The phrase beginning ‘on the face of it...‘ is Daniel Dennett’s own statement of where the argument starts. So you’re saying you don’t agree with Denn...

Even flat management structures have managers.

Thanks, that's pretty well the only point I was getting at.

:lol: