Janus

Do you think it is plausible that we could entertain reasons without that being correlated with neural processes? Say on reason or reasoning leads to ...

I disagree. One can see a tree without thinking of it as a tree. Animals obviously do this.

Yes, 'substance' is an idea—the question is whether the idea refers to something real or is merely an idea. How could we find out? Yes properties were...

And it raises an interesting question—can we ever come to know what substance is, and if so, how? Via science? Philosophy? Some other way?

I was going to object to your first two paragraphs, but when I read this final one, I realized we are largely in agreement. Although I will point to a...

Right, the act of helping them is correct, the act of harming them not correct. There you have objective morality in a nutshell. When I spoke of a "mo...

I count as objective that which is actually encountered or experienced. Say I feel sadness, then I would count the sadness as an objective fact or an ...

Seems to me that is just a general idea of existence. When it comes to what we encounter that we are able to talk about, it is only particulars. There...

Would an account of why a subjective description has the characteristics it does not simply be another subjective description? The idea of the physica...

What do we need to measure? If we are empathetic, we know when someone is suffering. The idea of an objective morality is, as much as possible, to avo...

I don't think the idea of substance is that difficult—it is simply what is fundamental, what everything is composed of-—the basic nature of things.

Whether someone fells empathy for others or not is an objective fact, just as whether or not someone suffers is an objective fact.

Empathetic people know when others are suffering. Suffering is an objective fact; if someone suffers they suffer regardless of whether anyone knows ab...

"What they really are" is just another story. Discursively rendered, what anything really is depends on how you are looking at it.

This is, though, a bare description not an explanation. We are left with no idea how the "one becomes the many".

What I meant is that the world, as experienced, is a cooperative reality involving the organism and the environment. I understand this world as experi...

Spinoza already sorted this out—by understanding the physical and the mental as the same thing under different descriptions.

The world as experienced by humans is obviously "half human". Likewise, the world as experienced by animals is "half animal". This is in line with Spi...

:up: Spinoza's model also resonates with me. It allows us to think of substance as "fundamental stuff" which can be both extended stuff and thinking s...

:up: Yes contrary to the popular picture. Judging from modern anthropological studies of existing forager societies it would seem likely that much of ...

:up:

Yes there is no absolute knowledge. But we do know many things beyond reasonable doubt. That the Sun will rise tomorrow is one of them because for it ...

Nice work! I basically agree with you. I think the two issues are, as you say, timestamping and justification. I would not want to discard truth—we kn...

Out of tune notes can be detected by electronic devices. We all think some music is better (aesthetically) than other music, but it remains that there...

The point remains that the enlightenment of the guru must be taken on faith, whereas a note's being out of tune can be rigorously determined. Perhaps ...

Not according to the God of the Old Testament.

That moral injunction is just an expression of a healthy human disposition. There's something wrong with you if you don't think stomping babies is wro...

I do think it applies to God. According to general Abrahamic religious doctrine God can only be known via revelation, and the works of revelation are ...

I have never found myself wishing I had never been born. For myself the interesting in life outweighs the boring, the enjoyable outweighs the distaste...

That makes sense. It is not fundamentalism, The question it seems to leave me with though is: 'What use is an authority if you don't know what they wa...

Intention? Sometimes we might seek to do good and unwittingly cause bad outcomes, is that what you have in mind?

Apart from forced obedience imposition may also include brainwashing, resulting in faith in authority. It is well known that Stalin's most effective s...

I did say this which I think clearly shows that what I had in mind were dogmatic ideologies, whether atheistic or theistic. It is the belief in absolu...

You seem to be saying that freedom only obtains conceptually after the fact. The way I see it the only freedom is freedom from oppression, repression,...

I don't hate anyone on these forums. I just call out poor quality, and especially 'Dunning Krueger' type postings when I see them. Mww seems to know K...

I never mentioned it's not that they are "tame" but that they are philosophical perspectives, not dogmatic ideologies.

Judging from the quality of his responses I doubt he has read it, or if he has read it, I doubt he has understood it. As usual more posturing than sub...

Marxism is explicitly atheistic, even anti-theistic. Hitler's may have used quasi-religios rhetoric, but nazism is not explicitly or specifically thei...

Or it may be that an argument strong enough to convince you may not work on me—or vice versa.

I don't count those as ideologies, they are just possible philosophical perspectives. Communism and Nazism—totalitarianisms of any colour—those I woul...

Faith in God or some atheistic ideology—both equally dangerous. Those who feel certain there is no God and those who feel certain there is a God and t...

Tesla est déclassé!

Fair enough...I remain unconvinced, but I acknowledge that a fact of the matter regarding the question cannot be established, so...it's going to come ...

That seems to be a different issue. Not all, or even most, workers are gig workers. Also, if workers are paid, and not taxed below a very high thresho...

Right, but not workable in today's world.

I came across this, claiming that Trump wants to eliminate taxes for those earning under $150,000 per annum, which I find surprising but hard to belie...

That's right. Counting begins with objects. Fingers and toes, grazing animals being hunted, heads of corn or whatever. Calculating was practices with ...

Sorry mate, I don't know what you mean.

That makes sense. I've never thought that randomness will be any help for justifying belief in libertarian free will, because the tiny differences tha...

It seems that such understandings are based on thinking about and generalizing from experience. Thus, we are said to know a priori what characteristic...