Janus

That common use of physical seems to be an artefactual assumption. The kind of default folksy dualistic thinking that seems to naturally proceed from ...

Physicalism is a metaphysical assumption which, just as is the case with any metaphysical assumption, cannot be definitively demonstrated. The point i...

Space exploration is hugely expensive; wouldn't it be better to spend that money on health care, cleaning up the environment, feeding the hungry, educ...

If what you call "psychological causes" are themselves physical, neuronal processes then your argument fails, and the mystery (or at least the one you...

What's being eliminated is the notion that the mind is non-physical, not the notion that it is important.

Eliminative materialism being a philosophical position that is obviously deemed by the adherents to be important, cannot consistently deny the importa...

Think about it and you wont need authority to guarantee its right, youll see it for yourself. Abolition of rent, and particularly interest, being such...

I'm afraid I'm not au fait with that. :smile:

Cancelled from what? Do you mean banned? If so, I doubt it. I don't believe this forum is so draconian. If I would be banned for saying that, well the...

This is simply not true, or at least is true only given that you adhere to the assumptions about materialism and just what it consists in of those who...

There is no way to have the economy we have without rent and interest, and no foreseeable way to transition to an economy without it; that's what I'm ...

I don't know; I see the continual rise of technological humanity as inevitably leading to the degradation of soils, destruction of habitats and extinc...

Yes but contractual slavery is not an institution upon which we depend. The idea that any individual could create a system that could foresee conseque...

The sun has plenty of energy, but in order to harness it we need to use the limited resources we have on Earth. Likewise with getting to other planets...

There was no need to "dumb it down"; it's a very simple idea to begin with; indeed I would say a very simplistic idea. How would it be possible to cre...

I think you're over-complicating the issue with technical jargon. You say you're against rent; but if you're not against people accumulating property,...

So, according to you, is a "free market" an unregulated market? Is there ownership of property in your model? What does your notion of a free market l...

Yes, we moderns love to collect so-called primitive art and some of it attracts huge selling prices (although much of the more contemporary tribal art...

Yes, it's as though real life experience is written in neural code, blended all together in sometimes very weird ways and then relived.

As near as I can tell dreams are just like real life; I'm immersed in a world, only it's often a much more bizarre world. I certainly don't experience...

Why do you say that?

I didn't ask why we need the concept of experience; I asked why, if the concept of qualia is just the concept of experience, do we need the concept of...

If you say so then it must be so, I guess. So, if it is just the same notion as experience then why do we need it? That's the question no one seems to...

If it's just 'experience' then why do we need it? What does it give us, what does it clarify, that 'experience' doesn't?

No, I don't imagine they are, by their adherents, conceived of as "little ghosts" (whatever that means), but as something like non-physical mental rep...

If you mean that there was conscious awareness and then there wasn't, I'd agree; but what do you think that demonstrates? Denying that there is any co...

I think you would have a pretty good idea if I am acting out my pain. Of course it's always possible I am merely acting, not acting out. If you saw my...

Not just (or necessarily even) complaints: a painkiller (if successful) stops me feeliing pain; so it kills pain. There may not have been any complain...

it just means "in terms of observable phenomena".

:cool:

Not at all! There is no methodological idealism except in relation to human reason-giving. like "I did this because...", and the like. When it comes t...

Leibniz' theory is not as cogent and testable as an empirically based physicalist theory, though, simply because all testing is physical, empirically ...

Leibniz' Monadology relies on the Master Monad (God), though; so it is a kind of theism. The problem with theism is that it cannot be tested, which ki...

I agree, intuition and introspection (and imagination) are very important for the sciences and philosophy (and of course for the arts), but in the for...

I don't see any cogent account, even a partial one missing some details, from the idealist side. Can you help me out? Tools do do what, though? Would ...

That's an obscure comment; I have no idea what you want to say.

OK, thanks for answering honestly. As to the "split between idealism and materialism" they are based on substantially different metaphysical presumpti...

Materialism accounts for conscious experience by saying that it is a function of neural complexity; an emergent function that, like the emergence of l...

I'm not psychoanalyzing anyone. I said "perhaps"; I was surmising. What does 'qualia' give us that 'perception' or 'experience' doesn't? I would be pl...

It seems to me you are thinking that because I could hallucinate a red cup on the table when there was no red cup; and that I would be unable to tell ...

Me too! I imagine there must be some emotional attachment to the term because it is thought to support some form of idealism. I think perhaps some peo...

The two terms are not synonymous, though. 'Perception' and 'experience' are more synonymous. So it makes sense to say 'I experienced the taste of the ...

Yes, I agree there are foundational assumptions to any metaphysical standpoint. What foundational premise you afopt comes down to where you think your...

What would it mean to say that aspects of experience are illusory? Just that they are not what we think they are, no? Are we liable to think of them a...

Experience, at least insofar as we are aware of it, just is subjective, phenomenal, qualitative and felt; so I'm still not seeing what the concept 'qu...

I think the idea of qualia is an idea of entities. Experience has its entities; they are the objects of experience. Those objects have qualities, so e...

Well we already have the concepts 'experience' or 'perception'. Everything can be adequately spoken about in terms of those, so I can't see why the co...

I think Buddhist philosophy does postulate, not a structure, but a nature of consciousness. Consciousness is understood to be eternal, and either co-a...

Nothing problematic about experiences. Why do we need the extra layer of "qualia", though?

That's certainly a possibility we can imagine, but we can't imagine how it would be possible (think about Descartes' "interaction problem"). It's true...