Wayfarer

Surely one of the astounding, if often taken-for-granted, aspects of the human imagination is the ability to peer into the realm of the possible-but-n...

The legendary (probably apocryphal) origin of Zen (Ch'an) Buddhism was the 'Flower Sermon' of the Buddha. The assembly of monks was gathered to hear t...

I've been reading a presentation of Whitehead's bifurcation of nature, from which: This is the very point at issue. What I'm arguing in 'the mind-crea...

You are seeing the point I’m making, which is good. Yes, cognitive science illustrates the sense in which the brain constructs the world by synthesisi...

Of course computer hardware is physical, but I would dispute that the software is. In fact the computer chip manufacturing process echoes Aristotle's ...

The fact that almost everything we do, insofar as it is mediated by technology, as this conversation is, is dependent on the effectiveness of mathemat...

:lol: If you want to bake a rabbit pie, first catch your duck.

I couldn't manage without anything physical - food, for instance - but it in no way describes everything about existence. Like numbers, for instance: ...

Nevertheless, that said, the fault for the degree of escalation lies wholly and solely with Trump and Stephen Miller. They're itching for this kind of...

Incidentally, I don't regard the view I'm arguing for as necessarily skeptical, in the sense that I don't take issue with established scientific hypot...

:ok:

I didn't think that you would. My point was that the view that Russell expresses in that essay, is what Kant's form of idealism was a remedy for. I've...

Surely is. I discovered Vervaeke's material in 2022 (whilst visiting the US as it happened) and have worked my way through a fair amount - often on th...

It's an unfortunate fact that there are criminals and opportunists who will pile on to these protests and begin to burn cars, throw projectiles, attac...

D M Armstrong is strictly materialist - thoughts are the output of brains, and brains are purely physical. Mental states are nothing but brain states....

Hence the importance of understanding such themes and ideas in their historical context. The unfolding of geist, in Hegelian terms.

It's not a matter of being carried away. It's an antidote to having been carried away by the belief... The mistake is to situate, or confine, 'the sou...

Meh. 'Physical' is just a catch-all term that people paint things with, so they think they know what they are or mean.

One of the process theologians I really like was John B. Cobb. His book Beyond Dialogue: Toward a Mutual Transformation of Christianity and Buddhism w...

Like this. (Closes eyes, adds two and two). While I agree we’re not born able to do mathematics, we’re born with the capacity to learn to do mathemati...

I think that’s exactly what’s happening. Urged on by Stephen Miller.

You're correct that the distinction between how reality appears to us (phenomena) and a supposed reality in itself (noumena) is central to Kant, and I...

whereas here's me thinking it something that gentlemanly toffs fired at with shotguns.

something to bear in mind in all this, is the way in which the rules of the debate have been set by philosophical theology in ages past. All of the te...

I agree with you, of course, but I've had some discussions with an advocate of Armstrong's materialist theory of mind, and he's pretty formidable. I d...

I've written an OP on it, The Mind-Created World. Here, I'll point out that the empirical facts to which you refer, and which science discloses, are t...

Materialist philosophy of mind would probably account for that in terms of the well-adapted brain's ability to anticipate and model the environment. I...

I think the interesting philosophical question, is why objectivity is tacitly regarded as the sole criterion of quality. Objectivity generally refers ...

So it turns out Putin's retaliation is the murder of more Ukrainian citizens and general destruction, which appears all they are capable of.

Didn’t stop him from spending, or wasting, 50 years talking about it.

I think there's an unreasonable equivocation between 'subjective' and 'private'. The subjective qualities of experience ('qualia') are not objective (...

'qualia' is academic jargon. You will notice that the only time it is ever usually mentioned is in relation to discussions of a certain clique of acad...

Agree, but because of the fact we're similar kinds of subjects. We know what it is to be a subject, because we are both subjects. I think, as @"Pierre...

Thanks, Jamal, appreciated. I did go looking for the explanation but overlooked that it had been made there.

The fact that Sabine feels the hard problem 'is bullshit' - her words - indicates to me that she hasn't grasped the point of the argument (and many do...

I really do get that, and often consider it, although even if I decided to stop posting, I wouldn't have all my posts deleted.

I noticed my grandson watching an animated Christian feature as a ‘children’s introduction to God’. I didn’t spend any time watching it, beyond noting...

Incidentally, apropos of the Godel discussion in this thread, I heard John Vervaeke remark the other day that practically all postmodern philosophers ...

Yes, took me by surprise. We were debating the possibility of there being philosophical absolutes but it was hardly what you'd call a blazing row.

So, Tim Wood has departed the forum.

It is something quite well documented (paradoxically!) in Buddhist and Hindu sources. Thomas Metzinger whom you quote is quite the expert in scientifi...

Pure mathematics would come close, wouldn't it? Aside from that, there are states known to contemplatives that are devoid of sensory content - known a...

What I say is that the claim that ideas are themselves material - that appears to be the claim - must necessarily be circular, as 'the material' is it...

Shameless plug for my original post The Mind Created World which is all about this topic.

As mentioned above, I requested a research report from gemini.google.com on the question: Gemini churned through tens of websites and research reports...

I would have thought that scientific materialism is the default for the secular mainstream, even for those not familiar with the term, and who wouldn’...

Makes a lot of sense. I suppose it’s just a sense of dread on my part. As each day passes you wonder if Putin really has the means to launch a large-s...