Janus

It's not as simple as you and the article (apparently, although I haven't read it) are claiming. This is an abstract from a Paper about Quine's realis...

From mushroom to mushroom then? Considering the 'mutually assured destruction" scenario, I think the threat of nuclear weapons being deployed is not s...

I used the word "speculation" because I don't think untestable, non-tautologous or non-a priori or unargued speculations or propositions really count ...

I haven't said that philosophical speculations must be testable or semantic.I am saying that to be counted as claims they must be at least able to be ...

OK, sure you can claim that something is the case without providing evidence or proof. You can claim that God is purple with pink polka dots if you wa...

Where does that definition come from?

Why would a proposition count as a claim, as opposed to merely an idea that one likes, if its truth is not determinable? Claims must be supported, no?...

Not necessarily; I wasn't sure whether you thought they were testable or not. I'm saying that in order to count as a claim a proposition should be eit...

Of course, I said as much above:

I didn't sat that. Here it is again: Whenever you say what something is that can be interpreted as being an ontic claim. For example: 'water is H2O'. ...

I'm saying it is the central characteristic of empirical claims that they should be testable. It depends on what you mean by "ontological". Of course ...

What do you mean "partially"? If a claim is not testable (at least in principle) it cannot count as an empirical claim. Of any theory that claims to b...

It is the abandonment of the idea of a metaphysical foundation to our inquiries. It is to accept that the only foundations we have are epistemological...

For me (and for Kant as I read him) it's not that nothing exists without a perspective but that we cannot say what anything is like absent a perspecti...

This seems quite wrong-headed to me. The claim that objects have real boundaries completely independently of our perceptions of them is either an empi...

How do you know that is the case, or even what it would mean? Does it even make sense to speak of fundamental particles having spatial extension? See ...

Should it?

What is it about the boundaries of objects that is real according to you? I mean you say that what is real about the boundaries of objects is not at a...

So, how do we know which rational intuition to trust? Personal preference? Consensus? Or? This is nonsense. We don't "appeal to reason", we use reason...

Other things bring equal to what?

OK...? Edit: What are you smoking, man?

I'm not sure why you say "we read two different Schopenhauer's" given that I said that I thought that for Schopenhauer there are no objects without su...

I remember that he says the world of representations is the world of objects, and that there are no objects without subjects.

I'm not sure I'd put it quite like that. I'd say he analyzes the difference between our "outer" and "inner" experience. As far as I remember he says t...

:grin:

Yes, I read World as Will and Representation, other bits and pieces of his, and several secondary texts, many years ago. I'm quite familiar with his, ...

I'm not sure I'm understanding you: do you mean the idea of conatus is supposed to be an analysis of the way we think? Nice analysis!

I agree with you insofar as string and multiverse and other untestable theories don't seem to be useful for understanding our universe insofar as anyt...

Jesus, what's going on? We seem to be making the same point! :yikes:

Are the boundaries (borders) of objects real, according to you? I've heard you say that there are no real, as opposed to merely conceptual, universals...

I tend to agree with you that it seems more coherent and plausible to think that there are no actual infinities. But, we know so little! :yikes:

Thanks for your explanation. I'll watch your video when I have some time. Yes, I understand that the idea of a universal "now" is inconsistent with re...

I don't find the intelligent design argument to be "at least as powerful" at all, on account of its sheer implausibility. I can't see anything implaus...

In some ancient Gnostic texts it is asserted that God, the creator God of the Torah, is an ignorant, deluded deity called Yaldabaoth, who thinks he is...

Isn't that just what euthanasia is, though? Perhaps that painlessness and gentleness is the difference between killing and euthanazing, so perhaps I w...

I don't want to be pedantic, but I think you are confusing the fact that the so-called "devil's interval" is also called a tritone, with the interval ...

I won't allow myself to euthanaze and now I'm not even allowed to euphemize??? :joke: Thinking further I guess it begs the question as to whose misery...

:lol: They're like the most annoying pets (or pests?) that we feel we can't bring ourselves to euthanaze.

I think the idea, expressed in the term 'conatus' predates Schopenhuaer. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conatus

My pleasure. For what it's worth I always enjoy your contributions because they make me think harder and often in novel ways.

Your second post gets it I think. It makes no sense, in the context of eternity, to speak of the past as an infinite regression.There does not seem to...

It seems fairly clear to me. He's saying that the idea of concepts being incorrect in themselves is incorrect. He's referencing Kant's "thoughts witho...

Perhaps I should give it another read. :smile:

I think you are falling into the same trap as @"Poetic Universe" when you say the future and past already exist as they will exist and do not change. ...

I'm familiar with the ideas of presentism and eternalism. My concern is with trying to avoid inappropriate use of language like "the future and the pa...

OK, but I was referring specifically to your thought that events are "pre-made" and that consciousness "traverses already existent events previously c...

Why would the "occasions" of eternalism be "pre-made"? There is no before and after in eternity. You seem to be resiling to inappropriately thinking i...

Yes, it is always going to be a compromise. I love the harmonic versaltility of keyboards, though!

I don't know if this is addressed to me, but I did read that book about 25 years ago, so I can't remember too much about it.

I don't know if this is addressed to me, but I did read that book about 25 years ago, so I can't remember too much about it.