Wayfarer

That's not exactly correct, and with such big statements, exactness is called for. Certainly, Nirvana is, among other things, the abandonment of self....

I think the Descartes of the quote I provided could have anticipated something like Siri. You're taking a lot for granted, and in such matters, that i...

So, how to test for a P-Zombie: ask some questions, like, 'how do you feel right now?' 'what is the most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?...

One of the common atheist criticisms of religious philosophy is the question: if God made everything, then what made God? (Richard Dawkins and Daniel ...

Honorable exception for this essay on Hegel’s philosophy of religion, which I find congenial:

Meliorism: an idea in metaphysical thinking holding that progress is a real concept leading to an improvement of the world. It holds that humans can, ...

The problem with Hegel is that his writing and ideas are so complex, that they admit of no consistent means of interpretation. You could gather a room...

What would be the difference between a life well lived, by philosophical lights, and one that was not? If philosophy is indeed 'the love of wisdom', a...

I think that should read 'beyond existence' as I believe there's a metaphysical distinction between 'being' and 'existence' which is not generally rec...

There's an SEP article on Kant's 'answer to Hume' - as SLX already pointed out, to really understand the whole issue of Hume and causation, that is to...

Notice the emphasis on the passage you have quoted from Plato on aesthetics, beauty and music. Whilst I certainly agree that the Greek heritage is fun...

:up: I think if Hume was wrong in the way that Ron Cram is claiming, then nobody would remember his books. What he's casting doubt on is based on his ...

Another thing to notice is that many of these discussions, especially on Internet forums, are conducted as if there is simply no indication or evidenc...

Just because it's something that can't be validated scientifically, doesn't mean it isn't real. Just because it's something that can only be known in ...

With what matters to you, what you think is really important. In my case, there are certainly elements of those philosophies I take seriously and lite...

Well, if you pick something like 'papal infallibility' as an example, then of course it will be impossible to take issue with you, unless I wanted to ...

Indeed, and as we have both also agreed, i seem to recall, that this is the subject of cognitive science, which is indeed a fascinating and rich subje...

That's because you insist that the insight aspect of religious traditions is private, subjective or personal in nature. Whereas I say that in various ...

didn’t have a mystical bone in his body. Thomas Nagel put him forward as an exemplar of ‘serene indifference to the spiritual’.

I studied Hume under David Stove, who drew attention to the famous concluding paragraph of the Treatise: But, he would ask - if you take a copy of Hum...

If there is a potential bad habit somewhere in the universe, something will evolve to indulge in it. It’s one of the lesser-known consequences of the ...

The early Buddhist texts are full of passages exhorting the listener to ‘hasten and strive’, to make great effort, to ‘work out your own salvation wit...

Steady on. If karma is actual, then the quality of the intentions behind your actions will always have consequences. And that is not arbitrary but act...

That is one of the rationales behind mindfulness meditation. A large part of the benefit of that, is getting clear about what it is that’s driving you...

1. Y 2. N Did you glance at the OP I linked? Very good on this.

A long while ago, I used to edit a newsletter for The Australian Transpersonal Psychology Association. The term has fallen into disuse nowadays, but I...

I generally associate 'transhumanism' with the attempt to artificially augment human capacities with technology, medicine and genetic engineering. I t...

And now one is President. :sad:

And learning wisdom is how we come to be something more than an evolved hominid species. (Which reminds me - only got the symbolism of Planet of the A...

You will like this clip. It features several philosophers making exactly this point (and also a really talented young jazz pianist who has sadly passe...

They’re not burdened by the requirement to make choices. See this.

Although I thought this was a pretty cool answer, leaving aside the fact that it's a bit snide.

Well, it is a philosophy forum although a lot of the time you'd be hard-pressed to tell.

It's significant in this thread, few considered the question from the perspective of the actual subject of philosophy - philo-sophia, love~wisdom. I t...

But that's typical pragmatism, right? Whatever works - whatever is well-adapted. But at the end of the day, the only criterion for that judgement is a...

I don't think that habit qualifies as 'wisdom'. Plenty of creatures have instinctive behaviours, which are essentially a form of habit, and indeed nat...

The defining characteristic of ‘wisdom’ has been forgotten. Here’s a long and complicated article that I frequently refer to in this context.

My thought it, language relies on abstraction: ‘this means that’. No capacity for abstraction - no language. When h. Sapiens appeared, so too did cave...

I know I’m courting danger .... :razz:

WIsdom is ‘sapientia’ It is of course part of our species name, Homo sapiens. Which should, arguably, be now changed to ‘homo faber’ - ‘man who makes’...

No - not ‘plant life’. The other question in the (rather complicated) OP was a much broader one about the relationship of language and meaning, life a...

Craig Venter is working on sythesising living things de novo. ‘Vitalism’ is generally regarded has having been definitively shown to be wrong, but I d...

That would be the view of scientific materialism. 'Vitalism' is associated with the philosophy of Henri Bergson, who posited an 'Élan vital' in his bo...

Possibly because this is a 'philosophy forum', mainly concerned with the nature of reason and life in a philosophical sense; not a biological sciences...

‘‘President cavorts with porn actor, pays hush money, lies about it on TV, is caught out.’ Electorate: ‘So, what’s the problem?’ The world really need...

You left out: I was going to say there's probably a genetic resemblance to Animaxander's 'apeiron' and the Buddhist 'unconditioned' - in fact the 'unc...

I think apparent contradiction is a consequence of the inability to imagine such a state, which is not simply non-existence or non-being.

Customarily, Nirv??a is said to be inconceivable, but it is sometimes imagined as being stasis or quiescence. And traditionally Buddhism has been more...

Except that 'stasis' is not the end towards which Buddhism strives. Sutra of Neither Increase nor Decrease There were actually three. C. S. Peirce, 18...

No worries. Mahayana Buddhism most certainly does conceive of an over-arching purpose - that is 'the awakening of all beings'. It is not historically ...