Wayfarer

You say: 'I say that consciousness is identical to physical stuff' But you also say: ' I'm talking about identity in the sense of logical identity, no...

Trump is an embarrasment because he seems like a loudmouth know-nothing who is driven only by egotism, and yet millions of people can't see through hi...

Right. So when you say that 'an experience is a brain state', you mean they're identical, they're the same. Is that what you mean by 'identity'?

How about, first, you say whether you agree with the dictionary definition of what 'identity' means. After all you said that I don't know what it mean...

I'm with you, McD. What appalls me, is the total disregard for fact. Trump routinely lies - every single day of the campaign, including lying about Hi...

But you don't. The implication being, you understand it, and I don't, which I don't accept. Forums are for arguments, you express a viewpoint, and the...

I'm not 'trolling' you. I have an undergraduate degree in philosophy and a Master's in a related subject. Every time I post an article or a reference ...

I'm not referring to anything unusual by identity. We can simply talk about objective definitions and usage. Definitions are different than meanings. ...

That is a statement of belief, or should we say 'un-belief'; because, according to you there is no God, so there must be a 'natural explanation' which...

I understand it, and I think it's mistaken, and furthermore that your purported explanations don't add up. That's all there is to it. The article on b...

It's an empirical argument, because it is based on data and observations of recorded cases, over several hundred years. In each of those cases, the ve...

Ah, OK - so it can't be an epistemic standard, because it's Catholic, and you're a nihilist, therefore it doesn't make sense! I can follow your reason...

Do you mean the kind of talk that is in this article? — Wayfarer No. I mean the general concept of identity period. You mean your concept of identity ...

Do you mean the kind of talk that is in this article? http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mind-identity/ Perhaps if you could point to somewhere in that...

I have studied the history of nominalism, I understand what motivated it. But in itself that doesn't justify what you're arguing. I don't think it wil...

But this is why I am saying that your argument doesn't make sense. When something 'makes sense', then we both agree on what it means. Furthermore, in ...

That stands to reason. It is just what Nietzsche correctly predicted all those years ago. If they're authentically religious, then they're not amenabl...

That's what I am trying to explain! I think your problem is not peculiar to you: after Cartesian dualism, philosophy tried to reify the concept of 're...

OK, I will try in good faith. Consider a sentence, like the one you're reading. Now in one sense, that is a physical thing - it is a pattern of pixels...

But you said, in the post I was commenting on: then then So, what I'm finding hard to fathom is, what is the basis for the assertion that 'experiences...

The concluding paragraphs of the BBC article:

I really like the theory of panspermia. This was originally suggested in a coffee-table book, called The Intelligent Universe by cosmologist Sir Fred ...

The 'other standard' would be - what? What do 'naturalistic moral standards' amount to? Which school of philosophy, or what philosopher, represents th...

The trouble with your reply is that it is self-contradictory. It's your argument that brain-states and experiences are the same, but as soon as you're...

The idea that thoughts are simply brain states is called 'identity theory'. I think in formal philosophy, identity theory is no longer well regarded, ...

Now I understand what you're saying. No, it's not a double standard, it's a judgement. Have you heard the expression 'the devil's advocate'? That offi...

I'll leave you to your musings, Rock Thrush. X-)

I don't know if I can cope with such polemical fire-power, but I might start up a thread on the subject.

Or, I reject naturalistic explanations of such experiences, because they are among many examples of the kinds of things for which naturalistic explana...

Cases of what? Cases of persons who murder children because of some purportedly religious reason? If what you're asking is, what is done for supposedl...

well, pardon me, but I think that is nonsense. Because Mengele was a doctor, therefore doctors are evil. Scientists create weapons, so science is evil...

I think in the case of meeting persons who are esteemed as possessing religious insights, generally they don't appear mad. Some of them might be eccen...

It's sometimes very difficult to tell genius from divine inspiration or from madness. Besides, in Eastern Europe and Asia, there are many stories of t...

After writing the above response, I thought I should add another point, which strictly speaking ought to have gone first: That is basically a psychoan...

But it also might be much simpler than that. Science doesn't know all kinds of really basic stuff about how we actually go about our daily lives. Ther...

It's not 'an hypothesis', it is an entire set of disciplines, literature, and ideas, and one which you show no interest in exploring. Basically whatev...

Well, it's not irrelevant, but it is a large topic in its own right.

I vote that the discussion about brain states be a different OP as it is irrelevant to this thread.

our consciousness, your sense of self, etc. are simply brain states re your particular brain. Actually, that is not at all established - it is the bas...

Simply, there are domains of experience beyond science and naturalism. All I can do on that is express a view, which you have taken issue with. I can'...

So you beieve that nothing that can't be explained by science, is a factor or cause in human's lives? I have tried to analyse the significance of reli...

That's a very good question, and quite a hard one to answer. First of all, in the early Buddhist texts, this is not a question that receives much elab...

And for Buddhism to be a revealed religion, it would have to be that its scriptures were inspired by a god. For the most part, this is not what Buddhi...

Actually not so clear-cut as that. I regard Buddhism as revealed religion - the Buddha's teaching is described as a 'sasana' which is a 'dispensation'...

You don't seem to have the slightest familiarity with the discipline of philosophy, otherwise you would understand that the concept of 'uncreated crea...

If you can write the OP there's no reason you can't read or understand the original and I don't think you're too far off the mark. Actually there is a...

I don't think Prof. Dawkins has any real grasp of moral philosophy or religion. His approach to religion, since 'The God Delusion' anyway, is that it ...

Buddhism is not 'theology' which pertains to theistic belief systems. Furthermore the poster's screen name is a Buddhist term. And finally the questio...

Oh yeah I have that. Sleepwalkers is a better book but it was a good read.