Wayfarer

There's a kind of nietzschean transgressive thrill in such notions, but I'd rather swim than sink, myself.

Classical theology would say that God is ‘super-real’ - the real in reality, the being of being. Whereas what you and I take to be concretely real, is...

Well, when you gesture towards '7', what you're gesturing towards is a symbol - but the reality of 7 can be represented by any number of symbols - sev...

But there's a real point at issue. We have developed these fantastic instruments that can measure the entire universe and see into the sub-atomic doma...

Of course. But it's a prime number, therefore, only divisible by itself and by one.

7 Not a description, but an example. Have a read of this passage concerning Augustine and Intelligible Objects. (Start at (1)).

Perhaps I did. In any case, my philosophy does recognise a special category for h. sapiens, which is, in fact, sapience - we're capable of wisdom, alt...

I will have another brief shot at it. In ancient philosophy until about the 17th century there was the understanding of the 'degrees of reality'. Put ...

Yes, I have to concur with your assessment. In a way, my resistance was due to the association of 'evil' with 'evil genius', and many of Trump's obvio...

That's actually quite compatible with the thrust of Whalon's essay. People idolize all kinds of things.

great ref thanks :up:

Why do you suppose that? Is there any evidence that it's true? Why would a computer join a forum and talk philosophy? What would be its objective? I g...

Whalon is paraphrasing an idea which has been central to philosophical theology but which modern culture has generally lost sight of. Well, think abou...

It is unarguable that all manifest entities are temporal and compound. It ought to be an easy thing to refute it it isn’t the case.

I heard that Wittgenstein was quite a religious guy, actually. The thrust of ‘that of which we cannot speak’ was not that speech was idle, but that it...

Unless they rig it again. And who would be there to prevent that, if he’s been acquitted in the Senate? What if he outright declares that the Mueller ...

A topic came up a few weeks ago, where I asserted that crystals - like quartz crystals, or diamonds - don’t contain information, or can be meaningfull...

All ‘information’ informs someone of something. Possibly, it is also conveyed as morphic information by DNA. But the vast bulk of the universe is devo...

Pierre Whalon is bishop of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe and point he's making is perfectly orthodox; the fact that everyone here is...

If he's acquitted by the Senate (and I still say it's an 'if', as a lot could happen in January, and it's not a foregone conclusion), then what does t...

'Evil' is a good term to avoid. Ignorant, narcissistic, incompetent, mendacious, malevolent, duplicitous - they would be more accurate. And someone wi...

So, Trump's defense is: it's all lies. The GoP defense is: whatever Trump says. Did I miss anything?

Fine thoughts. However, I really feel as though we've derailed Frank's thread (mea culpa), so let's try a recap. From the OP: The SEP entry on multipl...

cavemen with smartphones, more like it.

Excellent first post. However I feel compelled to ask, could it have been composed and written by a non-human?

I don’t know if I have mentioned the intriguingly-named philosopher Afrikan Spir, but do look him up on Wikipedia, specifically the paragraph on ‘onto...

More like it's clinging to and grasping of the sensory domain (which ends up being the meaning of 'empiricism'.) I heard that Schrodinger's cat had ea...

That's because language-using beings orient themselves to the world via meaning. Like I said before, and no-one seems to notice this, it's nuts to thi...

a must read.

I think there’s a difference between ‘to be’ and ‘to exist’, but that for complex historical reasons, this is a distinction that is very hard to make ...

Remainder here. Makes an important point about the nature of existence which is generally neglected.

Materialism is just theology without God.

I think ‘Brexit’ is settled. (What an ugly neologism it has been, by the way.) It’s not done, but it’s decided, Of course the details will now be thra...

Have a look at https://www.thethirdwayofevolution.com/

I think 'level of consciousness' is not the right word here. Humans are unique in being language-, tool-, and reason-using and so exhibit a kind of au...

It’s kind of interesting, but it’s been appropriated by American Protestant fundamentalism. As I’m a non—materialist, then I’m inclined towards a kind...

Music requires a listener. The sounds exist irrespective of whether there is a listener but they’re only music to a listener.

Well - I can communicate with you. Whether you understand what I'm trying to say is another matter, but I'm trying to convey an idea. And, I'm saying,...

No - that's the point. Information is not reducible to energy. There's a famous aphorism to that effect by the creator of cybernetics, Norbert Wiener ...

"A transducer is a device that converts energy from one form to another. Usually a transducer converts a signal in one form of energy to a signal in a...

In this case, the Inspector General's report said that while there were procedural errors in the investigation, it wasn't motivated by political bias ...

Corrected. And it's true, the report was commissioned prior to its tenure, but his reaction to it exactly mirrored his reaction to the Mueller report,...

My reading from afar is that Brexit fatigue was a huge factor. Conservatives offered certainty, the opposition parties, more dithering, and the Brexit...

Lest the GOP propaganda be given a free run again, it must be stated that the Inspector General’s report found no evidence of political bias against t...

It's one of the 'dogmas of empiricism' that humans are born 'tabula rasa' i.e. blank slate, onto which ideas are inscribed by experience. However, the...

I think Frankl is worth knowing about. Another from a similar period is Erich Fromm, 'Man for himself'. Neither are overtly religious, although religi...

Consider the issue from the perspective of the psychology or the psychodynamics of religion. What after all are religions setting out to deliver? I me...

Let me see if I can articulate your argument. I think you're saying that if something amounts to valid knowledge, then it must be publicly available. ...

The real world, eh? You think that is something nailed down? You do know about the 4% universe? The 'sliding door reality' of Everett's many worlds? W...

Well, if you're American voter, write to a Republican congressman and demand that he or she at least considers the evidence, rather than simply joinin...