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That applies to pure maths, also. And actually it's a very idiosyncratic definition of metaphysics as such. I think the starting point always ought to...
March 30, 2020 at 05:38
Not sure I follow, but I'll leave it for now, as I think it will digress into one of the interminable arguments about AI.
March 30, 2020 at 03:04
A note about no-self - anatta - in the early Buddhist texts. It is always applied adjectively. The typical formulation is that 'everything' (i.e. all ...
March 30, 2020 at 01:57
It's an important topic in philosophy, although that doesn't necessarily make it useful in any other sense. ...through the process of apperception whe...
March 30, 2020 at 01:17
Short answer - because he's critiquing, and improving, Aristotle's form-matter (hylomorphic) dualism. Bear in mind that Kant makes considerable use of...
March 29, 2020 at 23:29
The nature of numbers, the nature of logic, the ontological status of scientific laws, and a host of conundrums arising from quantum mechanics, such a...
March 29, 2020 at 22:44
A lot of people would say that, but read this post again. There's an intuition in some religious philosophies (or philosophical religions) that realit...
March 29, 2020 at 02:37
I’m not that cynical. If that makes me a believer, so be it.
March 29, 2020 at 02:05
My interest in religion was never centered around 'holy books', as such, it's certainly not bible-centred. I'm interested in philosophy of religion an...
March 28, 2020 at 23:28
Thank you. :pray:
March 28, 2020 at 07:29
The first, and most vulnerable, member of my extended family circle has been diagnosed - an in-law, aged 99, lives in residential care in NY. So far, ...
March 28, 2020 at 01:28
there's also a mountain of secondary material on Aristotle's Metaphysics -almost too much, actually, in the case of this particular text, which is arg...
March 27, 2020 at 23:49
Religions clearly become corrupted, no doubt. When much younger, I generally regarded mainstream religion as being the fossilised remnants of once-liv...
March 27, 2020 at 22:00
I think it's a popular myth. It's part of the 'conflict thesis' that I mentioned. The Trial of Galileo and the Scopes Trials are held up as examples o...
March 27, 2020 at 04:54
That is a shallow caricature if ever there was one. The entire university system of the West, not to mention the hospital system, and science itself, ...
March 26, 2020 at 10:43
I notice that Trump's approval rating is at an all time high. Hey, the bullshit sessions about a deadly virus, on prime time TV, are working! Selling ...
March 26, 2020 at 06:31
Right - very difficult situation, I agree. But I think the principle would imply that it is ok for the Governor to offer a personal exhortation to pra...
March 25, 2020 at 23:16
what if 'the ancients' did actually realise that, though? And then, culture forgot it, or abandoned it. That would be an account of nihilism, wouldn't...
March 25, 2020 at 05:05
I think it transgresses the church-state boundary, as he’s an elected official and seems to be using his office in a call to prayer. The point of the ...
March 25, 2020 at 03:33
agree - I rarely participate in discussions of the trolley problem, for that very reason. But now, actual people are really having to grapple with sim...
March 25, 2020 at 01:54
Just going off the trends which seem to be indicating that the pandemic is going to hit a peak in April and May. I don’t know if it will peak and then...
March 25, 2020 at 01:52
Speaking of the Trolley Problem - one of the ghastly things that happened in Italy was doctors and medical staff having to allocate respirators on the...
March 25, 2020 at 01:44
Yet, still wants to declare the crisis over so everyone can go back to work after Easter. Germany, meanwhile, is reporting a death rate of < 1%, becau...
March 24, 2020 at 22:23
that's exactly what a vaccine is. Trials are underway, but it is expected to be 12 months out, at least. Imagine if you started using something and it...
March 24, 2020 at 21:16
New York is looking extremely ominous. Remember the photos ten days ago of the 4 hour queues at US airports? There’s going to be queues like that, but...
March 24, 2020 at 20:57
In our experience, only others die.
March 23, 2020 at 23:57
I was responding to a declaration by you. - IN ALL CAPS - which I think is a central and important point in philosophy. It was not an ad hominem argum...
March 23, 2020 at 21:14
It is not discourteous to examine fundamental philosophical presuppositions, although it is sometimes uncomfortable.
March 23, 2020 at 21:05
That would sound very impressive, were you the only sentient being in the Universe - but then, you'd lack an audience, so I guess there wouldn't be an...
March 23, 2020 at 05:37
I think one political consequence ought to be a reflection on the utter nonsense of the 'small government' propaganda of the right. I mean, here in Au...
March 23, 2020 at 04:27
Here in Australia, we're going into what amounts to partial lockdown - from midday today pubs, restaurants, meeting halls, will be closed. So far nobo...
March 22, 2020 at 22:32
In: Science  — view comment
Not so much an instrument as foundational to science. All the branches of science depend on mathematical reasoning.
March 21, 2020 at 00:11
Boy, big question. I will talk about that through the lense of cultural history and history of ideas. In classical (i.e. pre-modern) culture, it was a...
March 20, 2020 at 00:55
I agree with a lot of what's been posted above, but wanted add something about the nature of reason. Reason is clearly a multi-faceted ability but one...
March 19, 2020 at 22:27
But you're not comparing like with like. When a human catches, then the action consists of muscular reflexes, hand-eye co-ordination, and on a micro-c...
March 18, 2020 at 11:30
Textbook example of putting the cart before the horse.
March 18, 2020 at 08:44
I'm the first to agree that there are many things that can't be quantified, but I can't see how this is one of them.
March 18, 2020 at 07:43
I don't think it's that hard to see. Remember the mathematization process is a method - that's why I mentioned its history. I mean, before Descartes c...
March 18, 2020 at 05:51
Excellent post. But I've seen some of those spooky Boston Dynamics robot videos, and they're pretty darn good at freestyle running! Nope. I'm sure mat...
March 18, 2020 at 04:41
I’m telling ya, watch this: https://youtu.be/vgqG3ITMv1Q
March 17, 2020 at 09:27
BTW, the share market (and modern banking and insurance) were all the product of the Spice Trade. It was the British and Dutch trading companies - the...
March 17, 2020 at 09:01
of course it is. Shares are traded in public companies and every transaction is a matter of public record. If you watch movies, try The Big Short, or ...
March 17, 2020 at 08:58
Not at all. It's the requirement of computers - they process binary code, and anything they're programmed to do must be coded. But it's a way of model...
March 17, 2020 at 07:39
IT'S A MARKET. The selling price is determined by what people will pay. Hope that's direct enough for you.
March 17, 2020 at 07:35
It's a market.There are buyers, but shares are changing hands at much lower prices due to the loss of confidence and the fear of economic downturn. Wh...
March 17, 2020 at 03:05
Hopeful story out of Australia - Coronavirus treatment: Australian researchers ‘within reach’ of cure. The principal researcher is a professor of infe...
March 16, 2020 at 22:29
Nothing illustrates the fundamental interconnectedness of all mankind more vividly than a pandemic.
March 15, 2020 at 22:24
I wonder how logical laws - the law of the excluded middle, the law of identity, and so on - fit into this template? I mean, such laws are not physica...
March 15, 2020 at 22:00
I don't agree that they're the same, but I am not going to make a detailed argument for that, other than to observe that oftentimes the pursuit of ple...
March 11, 2020 at 10:54