Wayfarer

Right! Like I said, ban toddlers, not guns. If it were a choice, the GOP and NRA would definitely take it.

Point conceded. Willow of Darkness, I have read your words - and yet I doubt them! Seems to me you're simply affirming egotism. But long and hard expe...

But iit is not a story about book-burning, per se. In fact, had I realised that it was, how shall we say, invoking the imagery of 'book-burning', then...

That is where you will differ with the Buddhist understanding, insofar as that is what Nirv??a is. I won't attempt to persuade you, but I think it is ...

The problem with that answer is that, until about .04 seconds ago (in evolutionary terms) we had zero concept that there were either brains or galaxie...

Well, they all think they do, and some of them really do, and it doesn't help at all - as far as they're concerned, that is why they have to own guns!

I did address the paradoxical quality of Zen - that it is 'a tradition that criticizes tradition'. (Although actually, the connotation of 'book-burnin...

I agree. I think Wayne LaPierre has a lot of blood on his hands, but in his dystopian, paranoic vision of the world, it is the 'price you pay for free...

Anything worthwhile about religions relates to the idea of transcending self, which is a lot harder to do than to say. Self is a pattern of habits, as...

Au contraire. 'When you've seen beyond yourself you will realise that you are very small and life flows on within you and without you' ~ George Harris...

I just learned from a video posted on Facebook that more US citizens died from being accidentally shot by toddlers with guns, than from terrorist atta...

So if he had given the book to you, you would have taken it, bowed, and respectfully set it aside.... ;)

Luke Barnes Could such 'fundamental constants of nature' be considered as analogous to universals?

I think what matters about the medieval debates was, as I said before, a fundamental change in metaphysical attitudes, the consequence of which was ul...

'Keeping something' would not really be in keeping with the spirit of Zen, which is basically renuciate in orientation. The legendary founding of Zen ...

Absolutely! That is exactly what it is getting at. Makes for bad forum conversations, though. I know perfectly well what you mean. This story, by the ...

So we can go back to business-as-usual, right? The point of the story was about 'attachment to externals', so if he had kept it, there would have been...

Writing as one who often defends religious belief on these forums, and cops quite a lot of stick for so doing, I had thought that the iconoclasm of th...

Well, that's a shame. I did realise the story was dramatic, but what appealed to me was the idea of cutting through the inessentials. I will take heed...

Can't see the connection, myself, but then, such stories are open to many interpretations.

If it were about an old book, then I would agree! What I took it to signify, was the importance of the inner meaning, rather than the external form. L...

That's how I see it too. I posted that Koan on Dharmawheel forum, and interestingly the first response on there was along the lines of 'what a dick......

Thank you. (Dang, where is that handy little 'internal comments' widget when you need it?)

I get the gist of his argument, as he is coming out of the A-T tradition, whose current notable exponent is Ed Feser. The above comment all pivots aro...

I would be interested in any comment you might have on convergence, posted above.

I think that is an excellent question! In one sense, you can say a great deal about consciousness from the perspectives of cognitive science, philosop...

The etymology of 'intelligence' is interesting: actually comes from 'inter-legere', 'to read between' or 'to choose or pick out'. There is also a Budd...

That is what philosophy is. It is precisely 'the absence of wisdom', which has to be attained - not through believing, not through repetition of dogma...

Right! Well, why didn't you say so! I'm completely with you on all the above. The 'forgotten way of thinking' that I am pointing out, is very much wha...

I think also convergence in evolution could be interpreted in terms of the 'actualisation of forms'. Through convergence, there are traits that develo...

That point was made by William of Ockham - it is closely linked to the principle of Ockham's Razor. But this objection is addressed in What's Wrong wi...

You write posts that look as though they mean something, but they don't. So I'm not going to waste my life responding, do enjoy yours.

For instance? Who would be some of the 'philosophically wisest people'? Any particular school of philosophy? Books or examples? Nietszche, for example...

I should learn to live without it.

No names.....:)

In which case, they're not likely to be troubled by philosophical questions, right? Like most people. But that is what is being discussed here, althou...

Is there an 'ignore' feature, like there was on PF?

What if it is just the case that it makes no sense to you, because that way of thinking has been forgotten? As for 'the world being it's own purpose' ...

But the thing is, once we reject transcendentals, then we're also rejecting the superstructure that supports final causes - the 'why' of things. And t...

I think that there are degrees of reality, reflected in the Platonic epistemology. So the original intuition was that the philosopher, by dint of bein...

I'm convinced there is a reality behind the great chain of being, the loss of which is basic to this discussion and to the subsequent 'flatland' of em...

PF seems totally broken now. I think what has happened is, it has a huge amount of custom code which got built over the period of a decade, now that m...

I think you're actually advocating a subtle dualism here, though - 'ideas' being in a 'mental realm' which is causally inactive, i.e. can't effect cha...

I was just googling entries on 'universals' and I found one at the Internet Encylopedia of Philosophy. It begins with this statement: Now, straight aw...

I mentioned that above. I think an idealist understanding of mind is basic to Peirce's general philosophy, but it's not necessary for bio-semiotics, s...

But that's seeing 'value' purely in terms of sensory pleasure.

Where in the universe does anything occurs that can be understood in terms of signs or signalling, apart from in relation to living systems and minds?

It's because, in the materialist view mind and/or ideas are a consequence or result of material causes - that is all they can be! - whereas in the tra...

It makes sense in the context of philosophy. Besdies, I don't know if it's a false dichotomy. What I'm arguing here is that the very ground of the dis...

Compare to excerpt from my initial Forum post in 2009: