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Janus

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In: Rebirth?  — view comment
Most likely right, but you never know...in any case I don't mind a little mental exercise. :grin:
May 09, 2019 at 22:30
Yes, love and care is not based upon, or generative of, ownership or slavish dependence, quite the opposite.
May 09, 2019 at 22:27
I would say most is concerned with considering behavior towards others, and even if it is not a consideration of behavior specifically directed toward...
May 09, 2019 at 22:21
It's lucky the idea of the impossibility of shared meaning is not universally accepted, but you might be able to find some local deviations if you sea...
May 09, 2019 at 22:13
The point is that there is no definite limit on any span; which means that an entity is always itself; and so we can indeed speak of the same entity a...
May 09, 2019 at 22:07
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
All those questions are inherently connected, in one way or another, to the question of rebirth, though.
May 09, 2019 at 21:57
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
I've tried to show you the differences between what is logically possible and impossible, what is possible and impossible as far as we know and what m...
May 09, 2019 at 21:53
I think the point you are missing here is that in moral thought we are considering what kind of person we want to be, and that makes no sense in the a...
May 09, 2019 at 08:01
Some really good points here, praxis!
May 09, 2019 at 07:56
I'd say it's not impossible that someone might really care about people she doesn't know, but I would say it is vanishingly rare. Usually what might a...
May 09, 2019 at 07:52
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
Have you conisdered that what might seem like intuition might be wishful thinking. In any case since it is unknowable what could it matter to us here ...
May 09, 2019 at 07:44
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
But all is not language and Wittgenstein never said it was. Our language allows us to form models, but what makes you think those models have any purc...
May 09, 2019 at 07:42
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
But it doesn't just happen once, it happens to countless beings. What makes you think it should happen to you or any individual being more than once, ...
May 09, 2019 at 07:38
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
If what can happen once?
May 09, 2019 at 04:40
I don't agree that laws are necessarily based on "the expression of what the community thinks ought be done or not done, morality..", but reading char...
May 09, 2019 at 04:39
I think ethics is best defined as the study of how best to live. Of course, if you are a member of a community that will involve others, but it is not...
May 09, 2019 at 04:33
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
Perhaps the cycle of samsara is best understood as being encapsulated within a single life, and putting an end to it as assenting, surrendering, fully...
May 09, 2019 at 02:50
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
For me, one of the most paradoxical aspects of the Buddhist notion of rebirth (which can only be coherently understood at all as individual rebirth) i...
May 09, 2019 at 02:35
Yes, the idea of a real T1 is meaningless in view of the fact that the present is not a dimensionless point, but a moment containing both past and fut...
May 09, 2019 at 02:07
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
If there is no notion of essence involved in a claim that rebirth is real, then it is meaningless to say that a particular individual is reborn as @"R...
May 09, 2019 at 01:58
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
The point is as to whether a causal connection could be established between the one who dies and the one who is born; is the latter a genuine continua...
May 08, 2019 at 23:52
If you just mean that it is only through interactions and specifically talking with others that one's traumas mys be dealt with, then I would say that...
May 08, 2019 at 23:49
But now you say this: That seems to be saying that laws are in prinicple moral because they are an expression of a social contract which is the view o...
May 08, 2019 at 23:07
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
You're ignoring the fact that something might be, just on account of the way things are, impossible even though we could never know that with absolute...
May 08, 2019 at 22:51
I'd say you have it exactly backwards here.
May 08, 2019 at 21:45
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
OK, I tried to open your mind to a more nuanced way of thinking about it, but you have proved to be the most locked-in interlocutor I have ever encoun...
May 07, 2019 at 21:57
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
You're missing the point. Being dead or alive are obviously two possibilities the cat instantiates. But being purple with pink polka dots, or being tu...
May 07, 2019 at 07:31
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
What does that mean? I have provisional,(that is 'subject to change in light of further experience') faith in what I have experienced, but I don't exp...
May 07, 2019 at 01:14
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
I would say they are not that "by definition" at all, but by report. How do you know those reports are accurate? I have met people I would count as hi...
May 07, 2019 at 00:25
The form of a wheel has objective utility. Mathematics is an elaboration of counting, and counting also has an objective utility. It is also an object...
May 07, 2019 at 00:04
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
Why do you keep repeating the same nonsense over and over instead of at least attempting to tender some reason for why I should believe you are right ...
May 06, 2019 at 23:54
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
So, any view or belief must be tested against your experience? So, how do you test your view or belief as to who is wise if not against your own exper...
May 06, 2019 at 23:44
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
If I had a "near-death experience" it might change my views, but someone else's experience cannot be good evidence for me to believe anything. Even th...
May 06, 2019 at 21:35
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
You are still failing to recognize the distinction between something being possible as far as we know, and something being actually possible. For exam...
May 06, 2019 at 21:12
In: Rebirth?  — view comment
No, something may well be impossible even thought we could never prove that. So, it doesn't necessarily follow that if we cannot prove it is impossibl...
May 06, 2019 at 09:37
Right now I can only think of one absolute definite!
May 06, 2019 at 08:12
And just what is that criterion?
May 06, 2019 at 08:08
What makes you so sure it is my favorite movie? Actually it's not, but it's probably in the top twenty. :grin:
May 06, 2019 at 08:01
No, I don't think it's a 'petty" point at all, but a better way of maintaining what is a useful distinction. As to the account you have to offer; I do...
May 06, 2019 at 07:59
I would not consider anything ideologically based to be a basis for good societal ethics. I disagree because it is the negative effects that such acti...
May 06, 2019 at 07:29
No, I'm not claiming it is predicated upon authority at all, but on recognizing what is the best and finest thinking on the subject. If you want to be...
May 06, 2019 at 07:24
Moral thought is most appositely thought of as being concerned with one's relation to others. Concern about how ones' actions will affect one's own li...
May 06, 2019 at 07:15
How many times do I have to tell you that under my definitions having or holding thoughts or beliefs is not the same as thinking or believing in the k...
May 06, 2019 at 07:11
I agree that societal morals are "practicalogical" (I take you to mean 'pragmatic'). The question is as to whether they serve power elites or everyone...
May 06, 2019 at 07:08
Give me a demonstrative example, then. I haven't said that and nor does what I have said entail that. Again you are confusing yourself with your slopp...
May 06, 2019 at 06:53
I haven't denied that morally responsible individuals can rationally defy the state; so I don't know where this is coming from. As to conscientious ob...
May 06, 2019 at 06:47
I agree with your first paragraph, but not with the second. I think sociopathy is on account of distorted or absent moral feeling; the inability to em...
May 06, 2019 at 05:04
How do you arrive at that conclusion? Conversing with you would be less tedious if, instead of merely asserting things, you presented the argument wit...
May 06, 2019 at 04:58
Well, I think the clarity and depth of your thought would benefit from tightening up your language. , I agree, because all the important social norms ...
May 06, 2019 at 04:47
I didn't say it was. One can (presumably) visualize a tree without being a competent language user. If we can see them we can visualize (recall the se...
May 06, 2019 at 04:40