Wayfarer

An ad hominem defense! But anyway, according to Dennett, charity is really only one of the many devices by which the gene seeks to replicate itself. Y...

That's solely because I go to the trouble of trying to explain it, and you don't understand it.

No, it's about 'the question of the place of science in human life'. It often occupies a de facto role of moral normativity to which it is not entitle...

ALthough I should mention there are quite a few scientists who are nowadays also Zen practitioners. One of them that I have seen speak is James Austin...

Those are fair criticisms, and I need to take those on board. What is the evidence, what is the context, what is the domain of discourse for such a sc...

You’re simply recapitulating Carnap and A J Ayer here. The lessons in respect of the ‘domain of values’ have been forgotten.

I might add, there's a difference between 'scientific objectivity' and 'non-attachment'. Non-attachment is considered one of the highest, if not the h...

Not by much. The salient point still remains. As I said before, the crucial step, if not the first step, in modern scientific methodology, is to ascer...

I don't find the question stupid, but I do wonder about the wisdom of calling yourself Krishnamurti and adopting his photograph as an avatar on a phil...

Yes, I think that's pretty right. I basically agree - I often used to muse on the idea that Descartes really might better have said, 'thinking therefo...

What you refer to as ‘scientific validation’ always requires a separation between knower and known - your ‘epistemic cut’. This is why, to you, quanti...

If you like that, check this out.. I bought it from Amazon, although admit to not making much headway yet, because it’s one of those books in which ha...

I’m sure not. I think Platonic philosophy is oriented around a kind of spiritual awakening, albeit understood in terms very different to the Indian tr...

You said that before, and I said that ‘we’re born alone and we die alone’, which for some reason struck you as ‘nihilism’. It’s not nihilism - it’s ab...

this is an interesting line of thought, but packs far too much in to a single OP. I had started responding in some detail, but just to deal with the s...

I’m interested in the formal study of the Western philosophical tradition. It has an experiential dimension which I think is largely forgotten and is ...

We don't have anyone of that name in Oz. :-*

Philosophy is 'love~wisdom'.

‘Somebody else noticing’ is what gun regulations are for. In case you hadn’t noticed, nearly all of them have been abolished. Hence, the problem.

It's elaborated at length in Greek philosophy, particularly neo-Platonism. As I have explained, much of this was subsequently incorporated into Christ...

What would you be measuring? Not everything that counts can be counted, you know. And not everything that can be counted, counts.

Philosophy is about realising a higher state of being through the reasoned application of philosophical principles and practice (theoria and praxis). ...

One of my very best friends has a very similar attitude. We had lunch yesterday, we talk about politics, current affairs, what we're up to. He's an ac...

I don't agree. I think physics qua philosophy is in a state of complete and possibly terminal confusion. The central question of philosophy as far as ...

He was a complex character, Jobs. I read the Isaacson bio when it came out, although Tim Cook and others didn’t like it. Also saw a documentary on him...

Jobs named his company ‘Apple’ partially because at the time he was a fruitarian. It is true that he postponed treatement very unwisely. I would never...

You didn’t mention this, but a copy of Autobiography of a Yogi was given to every guest at Steve Jobs’ funeral 1.

Looks fascinating. Have a read of Pondering Miracles, Medical and Religious, by Jacalyn Duffin, a medical scientist who was unexpectedly contacted as ...

If you’re Then why say ? Anyway, I too am interesting in mysticism, my orientation is, overall, small-t theosophical. However I’m also discovering an ...

There’s your ‘unconscious modernist bias’ again. In ancient philosophy, ‘the individual’ was hardly a matter of consideration. The subject of debate w...

Indeed, and I think the movement towards process philosophy and the ugly and incomprehensible beast called 'ontic structural realism' are a consequenc...

D'oh! The passage in question explains that quite clearly. It says, again: 'if the proper knowledge of the senses is of accidents, through forms that ...

You know that ‘supernatural’ and ‘metaphysical’ are Latin and Greek for the same word, right? Their meaning is synonymous - something like ‘above’ or ...

You yourself talk in terms of ‘top-down causation’. What’s at ‘the top’? It’s not matter - matter is at ‘the bottom’. ‘The top’ is intentional and cau...

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I touched on this topic earlier in this thread, by referring to 'the indispensability argument for mathematics': Because, says the IETP article on the...

But they're nevertheless real. I am arguing for Platonic realism. Sorry if I was discourteous or unkind.

But, it's real in a different sense to corporeal objects such as tables and chairs, is it not? i.e. Aquinas' ontology allows for the reality of incorp...

However the passage then goes on to say that while the Forms are 'concrete', they're nevertheless not material: So, if what you're saying is true, tho...

This is from earlier in the thread and is the crux of the issue. When you say 'created by the human mind', that is modernist thinking - nearly every m...

The point you're arguing is that forms pertain to individuals, whereas I understand them to pertain to types. I dealt with that issue in this post, sp...

Why thanks. I wrote that song decades ago but don't have a current version, I think I'll fire up Logic Pro and have a go at a new take. I'll post it w...

that might be it, by Jove! @Punshhh - years ago I picked up one of those ‘sun sign’ books that has a page for each day and I have to say I was quite b...

It’s been used more than once. It’s actually a reference to the exile of the Jews in Egypt but is commonly used to denote feelings of not belonging or...

According to my date of birth, I'm supposed to be Libran, but I'm not so sure I really am a Libran. 'Stranger in a Strange Land' was my favourite Hein...

It's more about the inherent unreliability of the physical senses. That comes out more clearly in Thomism as was discussed earlier - the 'corporeal se...

Agree. I looked into 'noumenal' and found that it is derived from 'nous' which is the seminal Greek term for 'mind' or 'intellect'. (Perhaps it means ...

You could adopt a negative version of Descartes’ famous saying, to whit: non cogito, ergo non sum (apologies for any errors in Latin), meaning, ‘I don...