Janus

Yeah, someone who steals infants would say that. :joke:

I vote for a combination of 1 and 2. I think 3 can safely be ruled out. It's quite remarkable how much @"S" says, without really saying anything at al...

I am not too sure about associating aesthetic judgements with emotion in the basic sense of pleasure, or at least not of sensual pleasure in any case....

I'd agree that in possible world semantics names are merely stipulated to refer to the same person. The metaphysical question as to what is essential ...

It would better be said that emotion, as distinct from the most basic affect, is founded in moral and aesthetic judgement. Moral and aesthetic judgeme...

It does seem we have achieved some agreement. It seems we agree that description is not sufficient to determine reference (unless we count the proper ...

I would say you intend to refer to that man you incorrectly thought was named 'John', and you also actually refer to the same man.

Sounds like you are even more pessimistic than I am!

Yes, hopefully it will be possible for governments to act in some way to make a real difference to greenhouse emissions. But one of the problems is th...

Ah, what the hell, here I go again! That'd be at least probably a move in the right direction...

This article, which I think is a fairly accurate analysis of the situation might be of some interest: https://paularbair.wordpress.com/2019/03/21/a-mo...

Well, firstly the point was to show that something can be more than something else even if we cannot measure it. But there is also the point that if s...

More of a sad-ass.

That's merely a preamble to the "content" in question. Why ask for confirmation of the obvious?

This.

I can't tell whether that is merely incorrect, nonsense, or complete gibberish.

I wasn't thinking merely in terms of "individual mental effort" but in terms of the communal conditions or practical context in which reference occurs...

Do we love some things more than others? Of course! How will you measure the difference? If you reduce life to what is measurable, what will be left? ...

Sound advice!

As I remember it that is simply not true, but in any case if you can't be bothered presenting it again, that's not my problem.

You sound like sometime who wants to defend something, but cannot find the words to defend it. If you understood the work, then you should be able to ...

I read it years ago; it was one of the texts in a course at Sydney University called 'Language, Truth and Meaning'; (I even wrote an essay about it) a...

An example or two would help. Continuing to make bare assertions is not going to help. Perhaps if you could address my objections in your own language...

I think you've offered an excellent response here, with much to think about, and when I have the time to think about it some more, I will perhaps beco...

More like you interpreted the way it went predictably.

You make interesting points! For me the idea of "Socratic ignorance" indicates the dependence of discursive knowledge (leaving aside for the moment an...

:cool: I like it! reminds me of Dostoevsky's "Pouring from the empty into the void".

The bottle is a figment of your imagination, I would say. Or, perhaps you could say that one man's bottle is another man's freedom.

Maybe you're right; although I do like Aristotle's concept of phronesis, usually translated as 'practical wisdom'. unfortunately I don't see much reas...

Both the collective and the individual may be seen as either subject or object; It all depends on perspective and what you want to do with it.

I should add that I don't see humanity in that anti-humanist way, I see us as an apex predator out of control, kind of like a "pig in shit".

Well, unfortunately or fortunately its moved on to more important matters than trying to pin down the semantics of the distinction between subject and...

I totally agree with you on that: I certainly don't advocate following the mob. We can look after our own lives and position ourselves as best we are ...

As I said, of course we can think of human inventions like internal combustion engines as being "non-natural", but they are really just ways of exploi...

OK, I see now you are speaking about technological transcendence of nature. Personally, I think that is a misguided pipe-dream. The whole of technolog...

Thanks for you thoughtful reply, but I remain unconvinced that "it is totally irrelevant to the semantics of a name". I would say you do have descript...

What do you mean by "transcend nature"? OK, I think I can see where you are going with this. I guess it depends on perspective; I can think of ways of...

A common enough human circumstance, no doubt!

I was using the term 'the arts' to refer to any and all of the arts, including music, poetry, literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, etc. beau...

More intelligent appreciation of the arts is cultivated; the result of education, just as with philosophy itself. So there are criteria that underpin ...

Uh...indeed!

Obviously you don't mean in the "biblical" sense? :joke:

I already have!

Polluted water off a toxic duck's back you mean? :joke:

There is a coherent conceptual distinction between natural and artificial. The latter is usually taken to refer to phenomena which are produced by hum...

I don't have a lot of time at the moment, so I will just comment briefly. I generally agree with most of what you say here. The point you make about w...

It can be frustrating, when you are trying to interact sensibly with an ignorant or stupid person who is being willfully ignore-ant or deliberately ob...

Yes, I think what is needed is a change of consciousness as I already said. I don't know if that change will come easily, or if it will be forced upon...

Your first point is obviously correct; the question is not whether his argument is "extended" but whether it is sound and adequate. I don't agree the ...

Sure, that the book is about that is uncontroversial, but due to the point I made above, that the referrers who didn't know the referent personally wo...