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Wayfarer

['Member']Joined: October 21, 2015 at 04:45Last active: February 24, 2026 at 22:07104 discussions26078 comments
Location: Terra Australis

Bio

M.A. Buddhist Studies

Favourite Quotations

“If you’re moved by something, it doesn’t need explaining.
If you’re not, no explanation will move you.”
—Federico Fellini

'It is indeed no trifling task, but very difficult to realize that there is in every soul an organ or instrument of knowledge that is purified and kindled afresh by such studies when it has been destroyed and blinded by our ordinary pursuits, a faculty whose preservation outweighs ten thousand eyes for by it only is reality beheld. Those who share this faith will think your words superlatively true. But those who have had no inkling of it will naturally think them all moonshine' ~ The Republic

'The ineffable is not something mystical or mysterious; it is merely that which evades description. But while It evades description, it pervades experience.' ~ Thomas Short

“We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs... because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.” ~ Richard Lewontin





Discussions (104)

About Time

January 06, 2026 at 09:36 232 comments Metaphysics & Epistemology

On Purpose

July 14, 2025 at 09:57 289 comments General Philosophy

Oops….

February 09, 2023 at 06:49 3 comments The Lounge

Good physics

May 01, 2021 at 02:00 199 comments Philosophy of Science

Word de jour

March 12, 2018 at 21:56 46 comments The Lounge

It's a no

May 10, 2017 at 01:18 50 comments The Lounge

Spaceship Earth

September 30, 2016 at 12:08 60 comments Philosophy of Science

Comments

In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
I agree with much of what you say about emergence, normativity, and the transformative power of sentient life. But I’m not convinced that temporal pri...
February 24, 2026 at 05:04
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
There is a lot of work, both academic and popular, on Plotinus-the-mystic, and comparisons with him and Hindu and Buddhist philosophy. There's actuall...
February 23, 2026 at 23:22
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
I was going to say that, but I thought better of it. Samadhi is out-of-scope for Western philosophy. It’s generally filed in the cabinet alongside rel...
February 23, 2026 at 07:26
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
You said it. The only reason I pointed to Idealism in Context, was in response to your statement: I'm trying to show that in a very real sense, they w...
February 22, 2026 at 22:20
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
What I'm trying to say is that you're 'taking an objective view' - treating consciousness as an objective phenomenon, from the outside so to speak. Th...
February 22, 2026 at 21:49
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
But surely, whether and in what sense one is or isn't 'a physical being', is of the utmost import, isn't it? Setting aside religious convictions, it i...
February 21, 2026 at 22:03
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
But again, this is because of the way we've set out the question, appropriating terminology and observation and trying to meld them together into a 't...
February 21, 2026 at 21:56
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
I'm not trying to assert the existence of something called 'pure consciousness'. Go back to the quote from the OP: What I'm saying, is that @"Gnomon"'...
February 21, 2026 at 21:38
In: Direct realism about perception  — view comment
This discussion carried on in the new platform
February 21, 2026 at 03:29
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
Not always. Of course we are always in a relationship of 'otherness' in respect of our regular social existence. But I think the contemplative aspect ...
February 21, 2026 at 03:23
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
February 21, 2026 at 02:13
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
What is fundamental or basic. That from which phenomena arise. Thought to be physical in the physicalist worldview.
February 20, 2026 at 21:55
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
You interpret him as 'arguing against the view that conscious experience derives from a material basis.' He doesn't say that put it in those terms. Yo...
February 20, 2026 at 21:46
In: Can the supernatural and religious elements of Buddhism be extricated?  — view comment
Well as you started the thread with your mind already made up it’s not surprising that it end where it started.
February 20, 2026 at 21:17
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
Cite anything from the original post that makes this claim. What you're doing is trying to paraphrase what you think Bitbol is saying, but in doing th...
February 19, 2026 at 23:16
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
Good! My point is, it is of course true that we can see the Universe as if there were no beings in it, and also that we know that h.sapiens, our speci...
February 19, 2026 at 22:05
In: Can the supernatural and religious elements of Buddhism be extricated?  — view comment
But is ‘identity’ being challenged? A Sanskrit term that you will know is ‘svabhava’ meaning ‘self-existent’ or ‘self-originated’. Something 'self-exi...
February 19, 2026 at 21:04
In: TPF is moving: please register on the new forum  — view comment
:up: I just discovered that. I might subscribe but am no longer earning so am very careful with subs.
February 19, 2026 at 20:53
In: TPF is moving: please register on the new forum  — view comment
Signed up no prob. Call me vain, but would like to update my user avatar, the control seems read-only.
February 19, 2026 at 20:37
In: Michel Bitbol: The Primacy of Consciousness  — view comment
What form could it have, before it had form? :chin: This is obviously a difficult and even a paradoxical question. The question is, how to think about...
February 19, 2026 at 02:47
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
Size isn't everything :rofl:
February 19, 2026 at 01:03
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
OK, I think I understand what you're saying. Let me paraphrase. There is the vast universe, which has been disclosed by scientific instruments, which ...
February 18, 2026 at 20:57
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
[ Sorry didn’t mean to come across like that.
February 18, 2026 at 10:32
In: Is Objective Morality Even Possible from a Secular Framework?  — view comment
I see it as a simple matter - dogs are beings, capable of suffering and afraid of death. We ought to be mindful of that. I suppose you could then say,...
February 18, 2026 at 09:04
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
On the contrary, for some of us, at least, metaphysical questions are pressing. They're not idle or abstract - they matter. Of course that domain is n...
February 18, 2026 at 08:56
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
OK I'll try and give you a brief account of my thoughts on the matter. They all begin with a simple observation. When I first joined these forums, abo...
February 18, 2026 at 01:03
In: Is Objective Morality Even Possible from a Secular Framework?  — view comment
I, for one, can see where you get that idea from. I too have been exploring it, although from a different perspective. At one stage on my spiritual-ph...
February 18, 2026 at 00:45
In: Existence and Reality  — view comment
If you look into the subject in philosophy, it is a major topic in metaphysics and ontology. 'Existence and reality' are often paired with two more te...
February 17, 2026 at 23:18
In: The emergence of Intelligence and life in the world  — view comment
Notice that it assumes the existence of DNA and RNA, and therefore organisms. It's not a theory of how DNA came into existence nor is it a theory of o...
February 17, 2026 at 03:16
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
No physical instance is mathematically exact. But that doesn’t mean circularity is an invention. Natural processes exhibit stable radial symmetry that...
February 16, 2026 at 22:09
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
https://www.theretirementmanifesto.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/drop-gdf464e809_1280-820x410.jpg
February 16, 2026 at 21:45
In: The emergence of Intelligence and life in the world  — view comment
Molecules don't do that - organisms do that. Molecules are acted upon by external factors. But organisms react, adapt, maintain themselves and evolve....
February 16, 2026 at 05:05
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
Whereas I see that as a claim about 'what exists'. I wouldn't use the term 'being' in that way. 'What exists' is external to us, and precedes us, plai...
February 15, 2026 at 23:31
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
I don't see the Husserl passage that Joshs quoted in this post as being inimical to the way I interpret the meaning of Platonic realism. I'm inclined ...
February 15, 2026 at 22:49
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
‘Structure of being’ is an interesting choice of words. We ourselves are distinguished as ‘beings’. If by it, you mean the physical universe — electro...
February 15, 2026 at 21:41
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
:100:
February 15, 2026 at 06:02
In: The emergence of Intelligence and life in the world  — view comment
I'm not saying this as a Christian evangalist, because I'm not one - but this is precisely what 'Creation Ex Nihilo' means. It means, 'created from no...
February 15, 2026 at 04:09
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
I’m struggling to see a real distinction here, though. I don’t see Kant’s categories as being ‘subjective’ in the sense implied here, in that they don...
February 15, 2026 at 03:51
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
Their materialism is monistic: there is only one real substance, and that is matter (nowadays matter-energy.) Everything arises from matter and return...
February 14, 2026 at 23:02
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
The symbol is a human invention. But the value isn’t created by the naming of it, any more than Mt Everest came into existence by being christened. As...
February 14, 2026 at 22:26
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
I find that hard to disagree with. I think what you’re describing maps against Kant: empirical realism combined with transcendental idealism. Empirica...
February 14, 2026 at 20:42
In: Seeing Wittgenstein  — view comment
Right - unlike many of his acolytes, he is concerned with reality as lived, not as a set of abstractions. Real questions of meaning, not just semantic...
February 14, 2026 at 20:41
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
You say we ‘built’ mathematics to find patterns. But that gets causation backwards. We discovered mathematical patterns were already there, and then d...
February 14, 2026 at 09:51
In: The emergence of Intelligence and life in the world  — view comment
You would be lucky to find a copy of The Intelligent Universe, the last printing was, I think, 1989. But have a look at https://www.panspermia.org/ - ...
February 14, 2026 at 05:36
In: The emergence of Intelligence and life in the world  — view comment
Yes, I liked it. Hoyle’s reputation is mixed - it was he who coined the term ‘big bang’, dismissively, in a radio interview, but I like his maverick s...
February 14, 2026 at 05:00
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
Because they enable discoveries about nature that would otherwise be completely imperceptible to us. They account for the discoveries which make the p...
February 14, 2026 at 04:52
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
There’s the Cartesian division again.
February 14, 2026 at 01:26
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
Scientific realism believes that what is real can be discovered by science in principle even if not yet in detail. It posits hypotheses which are inte...
February 13, 2026 at 23:37
In: Intelligibility Unlikely Through Naturalism  — view comment
Whereas I would prefer ‘indeterminate’.
February 13, 2026 at 22:56
In: The emergence of Intelligence and life in the world  — view comment
I've always been drawn to 'panspermia'. I have the original book on it, by Fred Hoyle and Chandra Wickramasingha, called The Intelligent Universe, pub...
February 13, 2026 at 05:18
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