Wayfarer

That's how it struck me. If you look at the thread, you will notice I chose not to argue the case. But what it seems to me is that, as soon as I ventu...

But if it's a wave, how can the rate NOT matter? Remember, the phenomenon at issue is interference. And interference implies interaction. You're prepa...

So, you wouldn't have agreed with Francis Crick, when he said that '“You,” your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of...

Well, my question is quite specific. To recap, on the Physics forum, this was the sequence of questions I asked: Q: So you could set up the experiment...

Thanks for your suggestions here, but not really what I was trying to understand. I mean, the fact of there being paths and interference is not at iss...

It sounds very near to my understanding of it, also. I think it's an admirable way of seeing it. What struck me about the fact of 'rate independence' ...

Thanks, that is pretty much how I would have understood it. What seems to be the challenging philosophical issue is, however, the ontological status o...

What’s vastly different between the way the modern physicist sees the stars and the way the ancients did, is that the modern knows what is physically ...

Meh. Feynmann is a legendary character, and probably more brilliant at physics than I will ever be able to fathom. But what I mean by ‘merely biologic...

It’s interesting that you’re so utterly adamant that David Bohm’s theories of quantum physics are the correct ones, whereas in all other regards you a...

I have never understood myself as 'the sole source of consciousness', but as an instance of it. As for the 'consistency' of the shared reality - I thi...

The problem with materialist explanations is that they are without any notion of cause in the sense of the reason why something exists, other than the...

Although I will add that I think a lot of what is described as ‘instinct’ is not really that well understood. In that respect, I agree with @Rich abov...

...with the practical effect that humans are no longer animals as such. Whilst biologically their kinship with animals can’t be disputed, it is just t...

All philosophical arguments, no matter how deep or complex, can be expressed in a sentence or two. This is the internet.

I can infer that there are other minds, but we only ever know mind in the singular and in the first person. And even then, we don't know it but mind i...

Fair enough. Of course I agree that 'mind' and 'brain' are not the same (unlike the hardcore materialists, who insist is no difference.) But the epist...

I think what intuitively bothers me about these ideas is the treatment of 'consciousness' - why not use the word 'mind'? - as something that can be kn...

Do you see any specific analogies for this view in previous philosophy? Or do you think this is something that is only now just being discovered?

Some Platonist ideas are common to all Western philosophy. All the comment was about, was the distinction that Schopenhauer recognises between ‘truths...

One background factor in this discussion is provided by the statement of Schopenhauer (given by @Agustino above): I think the distinction 'pure and no...

They'll wish we had done more to prevent global warming.

There's such a thing as 'squatters rights', which is persons claiming ownership over vacant land they occupy for some period of time. Squatters rights...

and they’re in an absolute schemozle for having done so.

On a lighter note, I have read recently that the presumed hair of the Himalayan yeti has been subjected to DNA analysis, and conclusively found to hav...

Friend of mine lived in Shanghai from late 1980s until 2005. When he came back, we had a BBQ. About halfway through, the conversation took a strange t...

Well, it's not. It's a very big argument, and it is exactly a metaphysical dispute, as it's about the nature of reality, the nature of science itself,...

It was in response to the remark that science ‘gets along quite well without metaphysical truths’ How are we to judge in what sense it is ‘getting alo...

In actual fact, current science is plagued by an enormous metaphysical dispute, specifically, whether string theory actually is scientific, or not. Cu...

As I understand it, it is assumed that the discovery of non-Euclidean geometry undermines Kant’s understanding of a priori truth. However, Kelley Ross...

I think that this has really only been the case for the last several centuries. The term 'consciousness' was coined in about the mid 1700's (from memo...

‘To have pleasure in everything, seek pleasure in nothing’ ~ John Yepes

Hi, welcome to the Forum. Your post is quite poignant, really. I obviously don’t know anything about your circumstances beyond what you’ve written her...

I would also have said Copleston. There’s also a series called New History of Western Philosophy published by OUP (details here). I don’t think there ...

Well said. I am a 'baby boomer' hence have some affinities with the 60's generation which wanted to rebel against Western culture, on these grounds. '...

One would like to think that evolution develops towards higher levels of intelligence and awareness. Alas, that is actually not at all part of evoluti...

a.k.a. ‘the unconscious?’

DB, I got to say, you are ‘most improved poster’, compared to what you were writing two years ago. (Y)

In relation to David Hume, the answer was developed in great detail in his book, A Treatise Concerning Human Understanding. I did study that formally,...

There was an Irishman who found a lamp that had a genie in it, in an Old Wares store. He was polishing the lamp when the genie appeared. 'Make a wish'...

The initial quote I provided was indeed from an article called ‘Brief arguments for dualism’, but Edward Feser’s dualism is not Cartesian, but ‘hylomo...

What you’re not seeing here is that the argument is that the nature of meaning, and the nature of physical processes, are two entirely different and e...

(Y)

One of 2017's philosophy books I've been reading is Defragmenting Modernity, Paul Tyson: I think you would find it congenial.

I did try to study existentialism as an undergraduate (having studied The Plague at high school). Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness' stumped me - I lite...

update on Clive Hamilton’s book. Kudos to the Australian Parliament for taking a stand.

Anyway I recall an anecdote, which is the last thing I’ll say on the subject. The Dalai Lama once recounted a story of talking to an old monk, who had...

The same can be said for anti-vaccination or climate-change denial. It’s like saying that the murderer and the victim were ‘two participants in a tran...

But only if all participants recognise it as such. I mean, if you’re arguing about public health against anti-vaccination activists, then do they get ...

No apologies necessary, or rather, I apologise to you for becoming so heated.