Cultural misotheism. It does push buttons. It was worse on the old forum, if that's any consolation. I do read Feser's blog, and am meaning to read so...
That is the whole point of this thread. The meaning can be represented by entirely different symbols, languages, media types and so on - so 'the meani...
I do indeed regard Plato as an objective idealist, in that he believed the Forms or Ideas were real, i.e. they were not simply the creations of indivi...
This thread is about Platonic realism, about which you show little interest. I have owned up to not being highly educated in that field, but at least ...
But the discussion is about the ability to understand and interpret abstract ideas. It is not absurd to say that animals are not able to do that. And ...
That is interesting, I will consider that. Perhaps there's a distinction to be made between 'information' and 'idea'. However what is required to unde...
The historical process was not so much about atomism, although that plays a role. The key development was the ascension of nominalism, which means tha...
I know this thread has wandered all over the place, but am hesitant to pursue this line of thought here. So I will refrain from responding here, but I...
Greek ship, three masted, arriving after noon. Griechisches Schiff, drei Masten, Ankunft nach Mittag. Navire grec, à trois mâts, arrivant après midi. ...
The starting point of Platonism is that ‘the Forms’ are purely intelligible, i.e. they’re seen by the intellect in an act of pure intuition. Appealing...
How does it work? Is it the consequence of molecular action, as Dennett says? If not, then how is it ‘internal?’ Cosider Bergson’s ‘Elan vital’ - that...
My view is, the physical exists - as I said in that quote on objective idealism, I don’t deny scientific or even common-sense realism - but the physic...
In philosophy, Immanent and transcendent are mutually-defined, i.e. like ‘high’ and ‘low’ or ‘left’ and ‘right’. Been meaning to write an OP about tha...
I know what I wanted to say here. The debate about naturalism comes down to whether the world is 'self-organising' or whether it's 'organised by an ex...
I'm sorry, but humans didn't construct DNA. In any case, it's beside the point. Your initial statement is incorrect, i.e. information does not depend ...
This thread isn't about the immediacy of experience as such. What I'm trying to get at in this thread is the reality of the idea - I'm arguing for obj...
If he had stuck to his biological knitting I would have had no reason to discuss his books on a philosophy forum. It's the inferences he draws from bi...
Welcome to the Forum. Fair points. I think I am inclined towards dualism, albeit not of the Cartesian type; 'mind' is not a 'substance' in the Cartesi...
Hence, the requirement for an argument for the indispensability of mathematics, required because, according to it, ‘our best epistemic theories seem t...
No, hadn’t heard that, although in the current climate, the question ‘who is next’ certainly looms large. *** Dawkins is known for, not only being cri...
Actually that was in reference to the Timaeus, particularly in this section. Plato speaks of a ‘craftsman’ or demiurge who ‘fashions’ the Universe fro...
Well, this is where I think your appeal to the Aristotelian notion of 'final cause' doesn't really stack up. In Aristotle's scheme, final causes work ...
To what does one refer in relation to the nature of God, if not that? It is the background of this entire debate. I've read Dawkins' characterisation ...
I suppose it's a case of abductive inference - arguing from effect to cause. I prefer the traditional belief that 'the heavens bespeak the divine word...
Perhaps you might spell out the end-point of the 'thermodynamic imperative' - what it is all heading towards. This, I presume, will be what you see as...
But the entire point is that Plato was concerned with a real basis for value, an objective 'domain of values'. That is the sense in which Platonist ph...
I recall many prior conversations with your good self about 'the ground of being', in terms of Paul Tillich, Pseudo-Dionysius, the Christian mystical ...
Whitehead and Hartsthorne - I’ve read a little (mainly due to Prothero). I’ve given up on Spinoza - I did a semester on him in undergraduate studies b...
The point of the above, is that the original conception behind the distinction of form and substance, was drawn from Plato’s conception of ‘the forms’...
If they’re not, then how are they theologies at all? Personally I think ‘supernatural’ gets a bad rap, it’s become a boo-word, something which no resp...
This is where you keep getting unstuck. You keep arguing about whether ‘the same’ means ‘the same’, or whether it means something else. Whether your i...
My point is, to insist that religions can be explained naturalistically is obviously to deny their central claim of a reality ‘above nature’ (i.e. ‘su...
Beliefs get their validity because of personal prerogative - individuals deserve respect as they have a right to believe as they wish - but religion i...
Incidentally, speaking of 'definitions of religion' - notoriously difficult though they might be - I found a pretty good start on Maverick Philosopher...
OK, I didn't really start this thread to re-discuss the issues that caused me to quote from the review that I started the thread with, but as we're no...
Well, fair enough. When I read it, around the time of that review, how it struck me was of a piece with all of Dennett's other work, which is invariab...
IN the context of a discussion about Platonic philosophy, the 'higher plane of being' is the domain of forms. Given that there is doubt about whether ...
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