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Wayfarer

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There's an awful lot of unclarity about what Dennett does and doesn't say, what he does and doesn't deny. That is why I included a lengthy quotation f...
October 25, 2020 at 01:01
It’s easy to say that ‘thought is a mechanical process’ but what does it mean? As this is a Buddhism thread, some reference ought to be made to abhidh...
October 24, 2020 at 23:47
That seemed to me the implication of this: I agree the whole issue of religious authority is vexed, that it is often abused, and that appeals to faith...
October 24, 2020 at 22:32
Of course! I too am sceptical of institutional religions. Fair enough! It's just that many of your posts seem to express a hostility towards 'religion...
October 24, 2020 at 22:22
The main point that Dennett is making is that consciousness can be fully understood in the third person. What he is saying is that science can, in pri...
October 24, 2020 at 21:51
I agree that Buddhism is a religion, but it seems in your view, religion is bad, so the point you always seem to laboring is that insofar as Buddhism ...
October 24, 2020 at 21:35
:ok:
October 24, 2020 at 06:22
Qualia is a jargon term that is only ever encountered in this context. The only place in the English speaking world where you will hear the term is in...
October 24, 2020 at 04:08
What I’d like to know is how, in Dennett’s model, there can be ‘an illlusion’ as an illusion is ‘ an instance of a wrong or misinterpreted perception ...
October 23, 2020 at 22:56
Well, one is quite entitled to take that with a large grain of salt. Or at least recognise that it is a methodological postulate, more than a statemen...
October 23, 2020 at 08:25
Ch’an is the Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit ‘dhyana’ which means ‘meditative absorption’. The Japanese version is the more familiar ‘Zen’. Th...
October 23, 2020 at 07:28
Sorry - hadn’t noticed this response till just now because I wasn’t tagged in it. You’re still glossing over the basic conceptual problem implicit in ...
October 23, 2020 at 01:09
I have also noticed the overlapping meanings of ‘information’ and ‘meaning’. But there are many thorny issues here. ‘Information’ is nowadays used as ...
October 22, 2020 at 22:21
Pure Land schools teach the setting aside of all 'self-effort' and simple recitation of the name of Amidha, the Buddha of Boundless Light. There is ac...
October 22, 2020 at 20:37
That's really pretty right, but it's easier said than done. You're no doubt aware of the popular catchphrase of 'mindfulness' which is now very much p...
October 22, 2020 at 11:57
I read Krishnamurti for a lot of years, and he had much to say about 'thought' being 'of the nature of time', on how 'the old must cease for the new t...
October 22, 2020 at 11:21
It’s nevertheless ubiquitous in most traditional philosophy and religion that the human condition is somehow flawed or faulty. The Buddha is sometimes...
October 22, 2020 at 09:27
Q: ‘How do you unmask a zombie?’ A: ‘Ask it “How are you?” ‘
October 22, 2020 at 05:43
I'd like to raise an objection along the lines that your model makes no allowance for judgement, other than in the section on sapience. However this a...
October 22, 2020 at 03:21
In: Bannings  — view comment
part of the discipline is learning not to react to some posts.
October 22, 2020 at 01:18
In: Bannings  — view comment
October 21, 2020 at 23:19
But that is the whole point at issue in the 'measurement problem', is it not? Kumar, Manjit. Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Na...
October 21, 2020 at 22:30
In Christian religions the doctrine of the fall means that humans on the whole are marked by a basic imperfection, 'original sin', the overcoming of w...
October 21, 2020 at 22:11
Is there any 'given electron' - prior to it being measured?
October 21, 2020 at 20:46
We're the rational animal, and that's a difference that makes a difference. Saying we're just an animal, or just a species, is the epitome of biologic...
October 21, 2020 at 10:29
Maybe what it's telling you is that your definition of what constitutes religion is too narrow. :up: With the caveat that it ought not to be 'adapted'...
October 21, 2020 at 10:24
If you posted your OP at physicsforum.com, I'd be interested to see what other physicists say about it. I intuitively feel there's a problem with it, ...
October 21, 2020 at 10:16
But in the popular imagination, heaven and Nirv??a are often equated. In popular Asian PureLand Buddhism, the accepted aim of the faith is rebirth in ...
October 21, 2020 at 03:09
Thanks for the summary! I see what you mean. According to the Copenhagen attitude, the electron is neither a wave nor a particle, but can present as e...
October 21, 2020 at 02:34
I generaly find Kenosha's posts a model of clarity. I often don't agree with them but not because I think they're 'waffle'.
October 21, 2020 at 01:30
This was the context: So I was saying that if he's not in the business of existential plights, then perhaps it would be wise to stick to his knitting,...
October 21, 2020 at 01:25
Didn't run into Rousseau there by any chance? Or Margeret Mead? //sorry - being facetious. I think there's a lot of truth in what you say in that post...
October 21, 2020 at 00:19
In that case they should stick to their knitting and not write books which end up in the Religion section of the bookstore. Dawkins' attitude to what ...
October 21, 2020 at 00:18
I don't think you're out of line - but I also don't think you're fully grasping the philosophical implications of the issue. I'm not trained in physic...
October 21, 2020 at 00:10
Recently published Closer to Truth interview on this theme. They discuss the notion that 'all is mind'. https://youtu.be/gwkCXjRn2NA
October 20, 2020 at 22:18
yet 'the altruistic gene' doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? Dawkins and his ilk are generally tone-deaf to the existential plight of h. sapie...
October 20, 2020 at 21:38
It wasn't meant as a pejorative. Actually what I originally wrote was 'pre-modern', perhaps I should have left it at that. What I'm getting at is that...
October 20, 2020 at 20:52
and as MU observed, this is a philosophy forum, not a physics forum. I do ask questions on that forum also, but they give pretty short shrift to philo...
October 20, 2020 at 20:49
I thought the electron couldn't be 'found' anywhere until it is measured? It is not a discrete entity that exists in some unknown location until such ...
October 20, 2020 at 11:23
Saying it is 'nothing more than feelings' begs the question - it presumes that the notion of final cause can only be a matter of feeing, but that pres...
October 20, 2020 at 10:51
If that was all he did, this thread would never have gotten started.
October 20, 2020 at 09:55
That's true - I was impressed by a TV appearance of Dawkins, in which he said: However, very shortly afterwards, and in the same interview, he says: W...
October 20, 2020 at 09:45
I grew up in the 60’s in Australia, a thoroughly secular culture in a non-religious family, raised on the Time Life books in nature and evolution. Nev...
October 20, 2020 at 08:57
No. It would be good to imbue them with the qualities necessary to understand the problems of philosophy when they are sufficiently mature to plumb th...
October 20, 2020 at 08:36
I read Midgley’s Evolution as a Religion in about 2009 when I first encountered philosophy forums, and found it a pretty clear exposition, albeit writ...
October 20, 2020 at 08:27
Yes and no. A lot of people WANT Buddhism to be 'anti-religious' or secular, but it really isn't. The other problem is, that in Eastern culture "relig...
October 20, 2020 at 08:06
Yes, I did visit Ven. Meido at Korinji, in 2017, on the occasion of the birth of my grandaughter in Wisconsin. Splendid and accomplished teacher. I al...
October 20, 2020 at 08:00
If you have no interest in it, there's no point trying to explain it. Can't you just stick to your threads about Justified True Beliefs and whether th...
September 05, 2020 at 23:46
It makes no sense to you, you show no interest in it or knowledge of it, other than barging into conversations with pictures from popular media and ca...
September 05, 2020 at 23:36
Nothing to do with it. What I'm talking about, is the relationship of natural law and ethical principles, mind and cosmos, humanity's place in the cos...
September 05, 2020 at 23:29