Wayfarer

But according to evolutionary theory, those same 'senses and cognitive abilities' are the sole consequence of the evolutionary processes - which are h...

I fully accept the facts of evolution, scientific analysis of the age of the cosmos, and the rest. But theories remain mind-dependent in the sense tha...

The contradiction comes from stating that we can't get outside our perspective to say what the world is like without us, and yet very important and su...

Splendid entry Glahn and welcome.

Even though Kantians make a strong argument, the big problem with it is that our best scientific theories say something very different. They describe ...

Saying that the whole issue is one of law-enforcement is also problematical. The police know that the bad guys have guns, and are obviouslly only too ...

It is NOT the case that "really American society thinks that murders ... are OK". It doesn't. 'It' is represented by the Houses of Congress. And the H...

'Things in the world' obviously obey physical laws - hence physics! But it's a long-standing conundrum as to why this should be so. Einstein declared ...

Plato was an 'objective idealist'. What that means would take an essay to define, but suffice to say it *does not* mean 'mind-independent'. I would ar...

For universals to be real, they must have a mind-independent existence. That's what realism essentially means. That's what scientific realism means. W...

I think the question you're exploring is, what is the meaning of 'is' or of 'equals'. When we say A = A, how do we know this is the case. So the argum...

My experiences of my neighbor ? my neighbor. There's my impressions of my neighbour. He might turn out to be something very different to what I though...

I'm not actually trying to argue the case that DNA is actually an essence. The question that I asked was, does the idea of essentialism live on in the...

The cliche saying is that science answers the "how", philosophy answers the "why". Not only do I find this too simplistic, but it may be blatantly wro...

It is interesting, though, that many criminal cases are nowadays solved by DNA evidence. The point about that evidence is that once a particular DNA s...

Doesn't essentialism live on in the workings of DNA? Or, put another way, isn't DNA itself very close to the ancient idea of 'essence'? It's also wort...

Actually, I think the 'loss of meaning' is ah historically traceable phenomenon in Western thinking. It is explored in books like Max Horkheimer's The...

Well, as I said already, I have been investigating such issues through Buddhist meditation. If you're a Gen X or Gen Y, you might find something of in...

I think what you're not seeing is that the kind of nihilism that you're advocating, is a reaction against something. It's part of the centuries-long r...

Platonism with respect to mathematics is the view that 'number is real'. That is usually taken to mean that numbers, or numerical systems, are 'discov...

Right. Well, that's because everything has a telos, a purpose towards which it is striving. That is its 'final cause', its reason for being. (It was t...

Thanks for your thoughtful reply, I'm sure that the opportunity for further discussion will present itself.

Aristotle was a long time before the medieval debate - which is when the realist v nominalist debate occured. So the answer probably is that he was ne...

Well I can tell you the mode of existence of common objects; that they can be seen, felt, are publicly available to perception and so on. Everyone can...

so how are things?

(why can't a concept be an event?) For the reasons given immediately after my assertion, obviously! You might say 'a concept' is 'a neural event' - 'y...

I don't think concepts are universals; I think they are particular events and are real as such. A concept can't just be 'an event'. But I am in agreem...

If you look at the history of philosophy, attempts at nominalism or anti-realism or whatever form a sea of shipwrecked theses that never went anywhere...

Again, a great deal hinges on the meaning given to 'exist'. The root of the term 'ex-' outside of, '-ist', to stand, so something that 'exists' is by ...

Not all explanations are given in 'material terms' - only the explanations which materialism will consider. '"I suppose it is tempting, if the only to...

I read your post and part of what Mr. Feser wrote... Prof. Feser.

Well, that is progress! I think the reason they seem so hard to understand is historical. The big debates between realists - medieval, not modern - an...

I can't see how it makes any more sense to say that three is real apart from groups of particulars that instantiate it, imagined instances of it or ma...

A general characteristic of generalities is that they are general. (Sorry, couldn't resist.) I am having trouble thinking of anything which 'instantia...

Yes, but that is the exact opposite of the 'realism' that accepts universals. Medieval realism, as understood by the scholastic philosophers, was the ...

Not likely. I am opposed to nominalism. But I'm not materialist, so I believe that the natural numbers, for instance, are real, but not material. We c...

However: Think, McFly, Think

A very good essay on the historical background to the 'realist vs nominalist' debate is What's Wrong with Ockham? Reassessing the Role of Nominalism i...

It's a word that is severely over-used in English as it pertains to very many different kinds of things. There is of course the love between friends, ...

I am pretty sure that abstract objects (such as natural numbers) and many other kinds of abstract universals are real. But to say they are real, isn't...

You have already declared 'All explanations are given in material terms, including subjective explanations of experience, whether they be accounts of ...

I guess it depends on whether you conceive of Deity as a jackboot on your neck. Because of religious authoritarianism it has often seemed to be that, ...

The idea that meditation can put you in touch with a 'wisdom of the ages' is pure romantic fantasy, in my view. Well, it worked for me.

that was the point I was making when I said that culturally we don't know how to think about it any more. Notice this very point is made in your respo...

I don't think it is that simple. I remember learning the idea that the Universe is finite but unbounded - it has a finite size, but you could never re...

So, do you yourself think there is anything that is not physical?

(don't mention the war'....) I can see this is an apposite time for one of my favourite quotes, namely, the passage by Thomas Nagel, in his essay Evol...

When I went to Uni, a mature-age student, late 20's, I was intent on finding out about whatever 'enlightenment' was, pursuant to which I enrolled in p...

3,000 cheers.

Of course. I understand many people think that way. I've been debating on Philosophy Forum since 2009, how could I not understand that? And I disagree...