Wayfarer

Quite so. I understand that Aristotle's 'hyle' was originally 'lumber' or 'timber', signifying the kind of generic material substance from which any p...

Sorry about that, wrongly transcribed, here it is again https://www.gornahoor.net/library/ThinkingBeing.pdf I am mainly interested in the chapter on P...

No problems at all. I think I understand what that passage is saying - again it has parallels in Eastern philosophy, for instance in the contrast betw...

Yes, I suppose I can see that.

Birds and other animals surely exhibit intentional behaviour. What they don’t exhibit is the rational, abstract and meta-cognitive awareness of h. sap...

Interview with Friston on Curt Jaimungul's Theories of Everything.

And let’s not forget the Congressional Oversight Committee which spent, or rather wasted, several years trying to dig dirt on Joe Biden, only to see a...

I only made the remark about medical factors causing Biden to retire, because I think he ought to retire. Like a lot of people, I think the public per...

And I don’t believe that for a minute. Biden was quite capable of executing his first term, and did so with distinction.

Whatever side represents the rule of law and upholds the constitution. The side which didn’t attempt the overthrow of the Government and the subversio...

I think the answer will be: many abstentations, and that this will favour Trump, as his voters are enthusiastic. It seems clear that Biden can't be fo...

I take the term ‘philosophy’ to denote, not just the general definition as ‘love of wisdom’, but also the state ‘loving wisdom’ (akin to loving kindne...

Quite a few straw people, I suspect. :up:

I wonder if I might elicit a comment from you about a previous OP of mine, which I believe might be closer to the point of your criticism of positivis...

Sure. I’ve always rejected positivism, although for different reasons. I see positivism as being a kind of undercurrent in modern thought. But I don't...

'Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts' Any examples of those people come to mind?

I said before, it seems an inevitable implication, but perhaps this is because of the theistic history of Western culture which seems to force itself ...

To even express any kind of insight requires language. But then, consider the Flower Sermon, the apocryphal origin of Zen, wherein the Buddha holds up...

There's a distinction made in Buddhism between realisation and experience. Likewise in Zen training, students are generally admonished from either see...

:ok:

Nothing I can do about it, I’m not even an elector (although my son lives in the US and is a dual citizen.) I’m still holding out hope that Biden will...

I sometimes think it might be that the ancients simply assumed there was a reason for existence and that the universe was animated by purpose. The mea...

Notice the difference between ‘Every thing has a purpose’ and ‘Everything has a purpose’. A space that actually makes a big difference! Might be an ex...

Maybe, but it's all grist to the mill from a layman's point of view. I've gotten halfway through Deacon this year and it is one book I really must fin...

Apropos the debate about purpose in nature and the lack thereof. From John Vervaeke's lecture series, Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. In lecture 6,...

You also have to assume that Kamala Harris would *want* to be the Presidential Nominee. And I don't know if that's gauranteed. Reading between the lin...

I don't think she's The Candidate, but she's also not as terrible as the media tends to depict her. I said upthread, from where I sit (outside the US ...

I'm convinced he will reliquish the candidacy. That's what he must do - it can't be taken from him, he has to pass it on, and I'm sure he will. And as...

The most depressing thing about the ABC/Stephanopolous interview was indeed that final sentence. Not nearly good enough. "Trying my best" and "Promise...

There is a strong revival of classical philosophy around right now. I’m subscribing to a couple of feeds on Medium and Substack about stoicism and oth...

:chin: Is there half of an intentional act? Tornadoes have no internal means of continuing to exist, which organisms do. Actually, there’s a question ...

Strongly recommend a 1955 book, The Central Philosophy of Buddhism, T R V Murti, which has extensive comparisons between Kant and Buddhist philosophy....

For sure. But, ‘there would be no fool’s gold, were there no gold’, says Rumi.

Really interesting thread. I hope you stick around to respond to it this time.

I admit that I'm a one-trick pony. Might be a good time to log out for a while, I've been intending to do that.

I don't really understand what you're asking of me. I'm not conversant with nor particularly interested in the minutae of scholarly interpretations of...

Thanks for that post, it helps me understand your approach. As I've explained, my background was syncretistic - I studied comparative religion and var...

You have your answer: pragmatism says that what is good, is the well-adapted, what survives. That extends beyond living organisms to the whole cosmos.

Understanding your posts requires none. You fall back on positivist declarations whenever metaphysics comes up, but then deny that you're doing so.

I'm not saying it's an illusion. To try and put it in more modern terms, my understanding is that most of our ordinary thinking and emotional reactivi...

This from a self-described "non-positivist" :lol:

By the way, and as we're now discussing science, have there been any updates to the declaration from CERN some years back that the Universe shouldn't ...

No. It simply doesn't meet the criticism. All of what you're saying may well be quite accurate from a scientific perspective, without amounting to a m...

That's because in Western culture, it is construed that way. Buddhist culture, for instance, draws no such conclusions. Same with various schools of p...

The fastest route to non-existence is not a teleological explanation, sorry. You select from Aristotle and C S Pierce those elements which suit your n...

Look, I didn't intend it that way. I will try and elaborate. I've been a particpant in many discussions about interpretation of Plato's texts on this ...

So, again, where do teleological explanations come into it? Those being, explanations in terms of the reasons for the existence of particulars, as dis...

Some popular history: a seminal event in the history of this particular cultural moment, was the Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago, 1893 (l...

Perhaps you might elaborate.