Janus

In one sense it is a beetle. It is our pre-dualistic experience. But since we all have such experience it can be talked about in general, even if spec...

OK, later then. Happy New Year!

OK, I'm assuming you think we can use names correctly even when we don't know what they refer to; and I think that although that might be true, it see...

So, you're saying that I can use a name correctly even if I don't know who or what it refers to?

This would only work for those who already know the individual being referred to by name. This requires context, which is established by description; ...

Well it is, but then it could not happen right now, as I currently think just the way I do; it would take time. But then as I say, if I later changed ...

I'd say that if I do indeed agree with him right now, then it is not the case that I might not have agreed with him right now, because that would mean...

Cheers, I'm surprised to find myself agreeing with Quine, but then I've never read much of his work. Perhaps I too hastily formed a bad opinion of it....

I searched through the essay and could not find any examples which deal with just what criteria we could possibly have for deciding whether it should ...

So the slightest variation in constitution (?), any counterfactual at all, would bot be "this lectern"?

Could it have been made of a different kind of wood? Or of the same kind of wood from a different tree? Or different planks from the same tree?

Logic is nothing more nor less than valid thinking, which is again nothing more than consistency; it says nothing about the content of thought, but me...

I don't read much pop sci; but if you would like to link something I'd look at it. Yes, but I don't have an opinion about such speculations as I know ...

I don't read much pop sci; but if you would like to link something I'd look at it.

Yours is a somewhat rambling cautionary tale...it sounds like something the big boss when George Costanza was working for the Yankees would say.

C'mon, cut the crap! Inspired...by crap...awesome!

Yes, it's crap in your opinion. but that is not controversial.

I'm not sure what that could mean, but if it is so, we don't know about it anyway.

It's not circular; if something looks red then it is appropriate to use the word 'red' when referring to its colour, just as if something looks like a...

Right, no deductive argument is stronger than it's premises (assumptions); but I think it is likely that only those among the religious who don't unde...

:up: I'm with you on that. If some are asking what you think are silly questions, or making what you think are silly statements, regarding religion, t...

:up: I'm with you on that. If some are asking what you think are silly questions, or making what you think are silly statements, regarding religion, t...

:up: (Was the "fallow" intentional or a typo?) I agree, but one must be at least competent enough to comprehend what is being presented.

We don't experience numbers per se, but we do experience number; that is we experience numbers of things, How do we know whether it is appropriate to ...

I liked it; also reminded me of Calvino. Recursion on the story and projection of the generic "you", construction of the narrative self. the narrative...

:cool:

My understanding of the parable is probably different than yours. Before studying Zen, mountains are thought to be mountains and waters are thought to...

I agree with most of what you wrote there, understood from a certain perspective. 'Realism' is an ambiguous term, though, with quite different meaning...

I have only skimmed that book quite a few years ago, so I don't remember much about it. Searching reviews online yielded one predominant theme: that S...

:up: Not all, I agree. For example, I understand Wittgenstein to have been very much in the ineffable, mystic camp on this question.

If it's a dualism, it's a dualism of views, not of substance. My experience has been that when in a non-dual state of awareness, dualistic views are s...

I see Nietzsche's critique of Christianity highlighting its incipient nihilism: by imposing values it undermines the ability to find/ create one's own...

That's true, Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, phenomenology and even PoMo are also full of it (analysis that is :wink: ); but analysis, like shit, comes in man...

When I want "higher quality content" I read the greats. But sometimes it's interesting to wallow in one's own lower quality content, put it out there ...

I feel you, brother: "Killing me softly with your thong". Anal Isis: the Egyptian Goddess of trying to breath life into excrement.

I'd be interested to hear which of his views you think were wrong and why. Also I find it hard to relate to finding views you consider wrong to be fas...

I think that's one important dimension: but to be creative, problem-solving has to involve imagination and novel solutions, and not all creative work ...

:up: Yep, there's no denying that!

It's not as though people cannot function in a dualistic world even at the height of their non-dual awareness; it is possible to hold both views "in t...

You only get the bloody nose if you are stupid, and as I say I've never seen or heard of anyone so stupid. "What goes next?"...I have no idea what you...

:rofl: I've seen plenty of people on mushrooms and LSD and I've never seen anyone try to walk through a tree, a wall or anything else of a solid natur...

You have it all wrong, mate. You're like a man who refuses to open his eyes and then complains that he can't see what everyone around him is talking a...

I have been thinking of the ineffable more in terms of human experience. The Kantian notion of the noumenon places it beyond human experience. which w...

There is a difference between contradicting yourself by claiming that "something" (some specific thing) is ineffable, and claiming that much of human ...

And yet you have participated all along; if it is so hopeless why not walk away and cease wasting your precious time?

@"Constance" may correct me, but that is precisely what I understood her original question to you, that you have spent so many words evading, to be. :...

I wasn't asking you to explain truth, but rather to explain, per the physicalist view that we are affected by, and know, an external (in the sense of ...

To keep it simple start thinking about empirical claims concerning things in this world. '"Snow is white " is true iff snow is white' tells us nothing...

Can you explain why you think that question is ambiguous?

True, but to entertain the idea that anyone might be deluded all that is required is the notion of a possible difference between human beliefs and con...