Janus

It's not my experience, but an arbitrary add-on., an ad hoc, an 'after the fact'. There is no such thing as an "if-then fact"; there are if-then propo...

There's nothing 'if-then' about my experience. You're conflating experience with possibility.

There are some really tantalizing ideas in there apo; unfortunately some of it is over my current scientific head, so I can only get a kind of 'feel' ...

Ugliest turd in the bowl? :vomit: No, that's right, that honor went to Buxte! Joking, of course... :wink:, should not speak ill of the 'dead', right?

For me and, I believe, Nietzsche, the idea that there is some transcendently given ultimate meaning to, or for, being is what inevitably leads to nihi...

Well, ironically enough the only modern philosophers you seem to favour at all, like Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, the idealists, existentialists and the an...

I don't interpret those as metaphysical statements at all, but Wittgenstein is merely saying that what humans feel value in, what we really care about...

I think that's not relevant. Even if you, more modestly, claimed that modern philosophy sees nothing "beyond the human"; that might be true of a few m...

No, it's something that you will never admit that you cannot explain. As Wittgenstein wrote in the Tractatus: 1.The world is all that is the case. 2. ...

Yes, this makes sense, except that I think the final cause Wayfarer is looking for must, according to him, lie outside (be transcendent to) the system...

I think the idea is that the eternal is not inside or outside space and time, but that space and time are expressions of the eternal. Differentiation ...

Where in the quote from that source is the ultimate meaning or purpose of life consistently and clearly given? It reads like suggestive nonsense to me...

It seems to me that you are manufacturing false problems. You say no one "knows what the redness is"; which seems to be a question as to what it "ulti...

I find nothing to disagree with here! I think that's true; but I would then say that if so, then the discussants do not properly understand what they ...

I meant that it was a strawman for two reasons: firstly, not because it is not the case that some physicalists (such as @"apo") might understand entro...

"Substantive" appllies to propositions which refer to, or have implications for, actual experience, which merely logical propositions do not.

That's as may be (actually I think it's a strawman). But, in any case what other overarching purpose can you imagine life to have? What purpose do you...

If there were an eternal entity, then nature would be its temporal unfolding. It doesn't seem to make sense to say there could be more than one eterna...

There is no "must have" except in purely deductive arguments. But purely deductive arguments do not prove the soundness of their premises; they are me...

You mean many reasons to think that human experience is not primary?

I think that's highly questionable. We feel the impact of physical forces bodily. We feel our own bodies' powers to affect other things. We perceive m...

Thanks I should get around to reading Towards an Ecology of Mind I've had it on the shelves for years. And thanks for the reference to that article, i...

The thing with metaphysical arguments is that they can of course be valid, and indeed must be if they are to be good arguments. The problem is that ev...

I agree that there are no universal emotional effects of different metaphysical systems, Just as is the case with the arts, but I think there are cert...

I agree with this; although I would say some people do take it seriously, in the sense that they are emotionally invested in reality being one imagine...

Sure, there is a difference between information which is intentionally produced and information which is just an inherent aspect of the natural order....

Yes, I can make no sense of the idea of the supernatural. This is not to say that I can make no sense of the eternal, though; it's just that I think t...

I would say that redness is information; and information is an inherent aspect of matter, energy and space, not something substantially different such...

Am interesting connection; I think I'll follow that one up. :smile:

I don't think your definition is really different. If the immanent is the realm of material entities, then an immaterial entity would be ontologically...

This is funny. The analogy seems to work with the idea of a 'posterior' (behind or backside) coming "before" the 'anterior' (the front or "appearance"...

You seem to be thinking of space as something "out there", and because science tells you that redness is not out there is the world you are denying th...

I think 'western culture' and 'western history' are adequately determinate subjects. I voted 'no' because I think any culture is necessarily a "mixed ...

I think modern cosmology still posits a unity in the sense of a unification of fundamental forces and laws. If there were parallel worlds or multivers...

The problem I see here is that you're contradicting yourself; by saying that it is a unity you are claiming to be able to comprehend it. Perhaps you w...

The interesting thing about aesthetic judgements, as Kant pointed out, is that they include inherent claims about the universality of their ambit. The...

No, nothing about your journey offends me in the slightest. :smile: But this is your path we are talking about, not the universal path of the communit...

Look I know this applies to science; I already agreed with that. I just don't accept that it applies to philosophy ( at least not to the same degree)....

Yes I see that now, and would have before if I didn't suffer a momentary lapse of reason. :yikes:

Sure those differences may make no difference to measurement or the practice of science, but they may matter to different individuals in other ways. T...

Naturalism is essentially the view that there is no ontologically transcendent reality. It seems that what else it is besides that is a matter of tast...

Of course, you're right; my ability to do simple addition failed me there! So, yes it does seem that the square root of the sum of the squares of two ...

I don't know much at all about mathematics, but I was thinking earlier when reading this thread about the Pythagorean 'incommensurability problem' tha...

There is a Quantum Field Theory, isn't there? Are you saying that it is vague? In any case, if you are drawing a distinction with objects here, what m...

No doubt we all do it at times, and would benefit from having it pointed out when we do. Some do it more than others, too. :wink:

I don't have much time, so just a couple points. Whether they say something interesting about the metaphysics of nature is akin to whether you find a ...

But does QM undermine the very notion of their being anything ultimate or fundamental? I mean, why not 'field' or 'process'?

No, I don't want to call you a "liar" at all. But, you agreed earlier that your thinking is reductionist in this, but not in the 'mechanistic', sense....

LOL, no I don't feel embarrassed because it is not intended as an insult but as the expression of a genuine impression. I honestly think your thinking...

I wouldn't say that. I would say philosophy is the very human and understandable attempt to make sense of the world and of human experience and of the...