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Right. To amplify that a bit: I don't think 'constituted by ideas' is quite it. Recall that Kant always claimed to be an empirical realist, i.e. if yo...
September 29, 2016 at 08:20
Isn't it the case that, once you can conceive of numbers, then imaginary number systems become possible? This doesn't really contradict the idea of th...
September 29, 2016 at 06:56
I think the rebellion was a dreadful idea, although that's another thing that's easier to say in hindsight. But, again, remember that when the rebelli...
September 28, 2016 at 22:55
Recall the so-called 'Arab Spring'. That was when Tunisia and Egypt had popular revolutions and a wave of unrest flowed through the Middle East. It wa...
September 28, 2016 at 21:07
It's that numbers and ratios are permanent, not subject to change, constant, and only visible to the intellect. So they're in a different category - a...
September 28, 2016 at 11:26
duplicate
September 28, 2016 at 11:18
Please note, Big Bang is not the assertion of a zero-dimensional singularity of infinite density and temperature, nor is it the assertion of a definit...
September 28, 2016 at 11:17
I think your understanding is more aligned with the 'embodied cognition' approach of Maturana and Varela - that we're embedded in the 'umwelt', and we...
September 28, 2016 at 10:15
It's also a matter of how you're defining 'mind'! The notion of 'mind-independent', in the sense being used here, is very much a product of scientific...
September 28, 2016 at 04:43
thanks, splendid reply!
September 28, 2016 at 02:07
I'm not entirely sure about that; I think I am inclined to take issue with 'Platonia'. I often notice that in debates about Platonic realism, that the...
September 27, 2016 at 23:39
I had a very simple epiphany once, which is that natural numbers (1) don't come into, or go out of, existence and (2) are the same for anyone that can...
September 27, 2016 at 22:44
It might have been, but I didn't use the term 'cosmic atom'. I said that Georges LeMaitre introduced the theory of the primeval atom, which he did, in...
September 27, 2016 at 10:04
But nevertheless, it was George leMaitre who first introduced the concept of the Big Bang, it wasn't introduced by Einstein. According to Wikipedia, t...
September 27, 2016 at 08:50
If it weren't, you would want to check your change very carefully. X-)
September 27, 2016 at 06:28
I don't know about equating 'anti-realism' with 'dependent on the mind'. I think anti-realism would be better expressed as 'a matter of individual jud...
September 27, 2016 at 04:15
true, but I think these have bearing on the subject, because it underscores the fact that it is not the straightforward question of causality that it ...
September 27, 2016 at 03:19
In: Mysticism  — view comment
It deserved to be put out of its misery.
September 27, 2016 at 01:22
Besides which, the points mentioned in your last paragraph are in accordance with classical theistic doctrine, but then, it is obvious that many peopl...
September 27, 2016 at 00:46
Well, I am never going to be a Craig acolyte. But if you're evaluating these ideas purely as philosophical propositions, or as kind of quasi-scientifi...
September 27, 2016 at 00:16
No kidding. I personally drive a car and am employed on a computer. So, I don't spend my days driving sheep around stony paddocks with a staff and sli...
September 26, 2016 at 23:24
Quantum physics was discovered because of a false prediction, i.,e. Planck's investigation of 'black body radiation' indicated that it should have cul...
September 26, 2016 at 22:26
Science doesn't 'describe reality', it describes phenomena and their causes. Science doesn't explain why nature exhibits regularities called 'laws'.
September 26, 2016 at 21:00
The point I'm making simply is that science doesn't explain scientific law, which many seem to assume it can. So if you're looking for a 'first cause'...
September 26, 2016 at 11:03
That is what I would describe as dissimulation. If someone demonstrated that the rate at which some object fell varied from the prediction it would cr...
September 26, 2016 at 09:54
Actually I think the key here is the collective nature of culture - is 'mimetic' the right word? We're immersed or embedded in the medium of language,...
September 26, 2016 at 04:29
There's a very similar verse at the conclusion of the Diamond Sutra, which is one of the main scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism, recited daily in temple...
September 26, 2016 at 02:25
What is "scientific causation"? When you look at the fundamental laws of nature (the ones whose constants you claim we can't inquire about scientifica...
September 25, 2016 at 21:12
Re the above read David Albert's review of Lawrence Krauss 'Universe from Nothing'. Basically any appeal to scientific laws begs the question as to or...
September 25, 2016 at 21:06
Not true, because causation 'as we know it', if scientific causation is the yardstick, which it appears to be, based on your definition, this doesn't ...
September 25, 2016 at 10:22
Good presentation. 'Anatta' is one of the 'three marks' of all existing phenomena, the other two being 'anicca' (impermanent) and 'dukkha' (unsatisfyi...
September 25, 2016 at 07:17
Obvioualy, but I wasn't referring to prophets.
September 24, 2016 at 22:18
I'm sorry if I misunderstood, I interpreted the below as amounting to 'all opinions being equal': Perhaps it's more like saying such judgements are a ...
September 24, 2016 at 08:58
...or wallow in, being hedonists....
September 24, 2016 at 06:49
Just out of curiosity, what age was it when everyone could be right? Well, probably never, but it wasn't long ago that nobody had the means of broadca...
September 24, 2016 at 06:48
Incidentally, one of the core tenets of Buddhism is 'rejection of asceticism'. Sure, Buddhists might LOOK ascetic to our middle-class Western eyes, bu...
September 24, 2016 at 05:50
I think one of the difficult things about modern life is that not everyone can be right. There are well-intentioned people who are arguing on behalf o...
September 24, 2016 at 05:45
No Andrew that's why it's called a 'slippery slope'....
September 24, 2016 at 05:35
'Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission' ~ Eleanor Roosevelt.
September 24, 2016 at 04:18
In: Mysticism  — view comment
September 24, 2016 at 04:17
I went back and starting reading that chapter of the book after our exchange yesterday, and then began to realise (with a sinking feeling) what an und...
September 24, 2016 at 02:21
In: Mysticism  — view comment
I was responding to 'God's dick' and your subsequent foray into psychoanalytic analysis. I mentioned Freud and Marx, and said those kinds of analyses ...
September 24, 2016 at 02:13
In: Mysticism  — view comment
I don't get all that modern Euro philosophy, it's basically psychologistic, but without any actual spirituality about it. It's either Freudian, or mar...
September 24, 2016 at 00:47
In: Mysticism  — view comment
I think we're kindred spirits.
September 23, 2016 at 23:24
That passage I quoted is very similar to a passage in the Meditations on the Tarot on page 212. I had assumed they were from the same source, but I th...
September 23, 2016 at 23:16
One suggestion that came out of the 2008 fiasco was that if an institution is too big to let fail, then it is too big, period. Let's see someone act o...
September 23, 2016 at 10:58
Sorry I got the threads mixed up, I thought I was in the Mysticism thread. I think it is from that book, but I would have to retrace my steps to find ...
September 23, 2016 at 09:56
In: Mysticism  — view comment
It deserves a different thread, none of this has much to do with the OP.
September 23, 2016 at 09:37
In: Mysticism  — view comment
Badly worded on my part. I generally do agree with the idea of the 'evolution of consciousness'. and, as I said, I have had recollections from a previ...
September 23, 2016 at 08:27
In: Mysticism  — view comment
Well, put it this way, at a young age I had vivid recollections that seemed to originate from an earlier life. I couldn't recall any of the specific d...
September 23, 2016 at 06:46