I would say that for most people the existentially salvific aspect of religious belief consists predominately in social involvement, in communion; oth...
Kant denies that we can have any other kind of knowledge apart from what he calls synthetic a prioiri knowledge. This is introspective knowledge about...
You've totally misinterpreted what I said. I never said that Wittgenstein denied there was knowledge beyond the sciences. I can't see anything in that...
You frame that question tendentiously. it should be "Is the meaning that one derives from a work of philosophy invalid if it differs from the meaning ...
In cases where their experiences and insights were expressed in unorthodox terms. And this is by no means only the case with religious authorities; gi...
It may be true that the 'ignorant masses' need and will respond to threats of divine punishment, or else they will not behave morally; and even then, ...
It's up to you if you want to encapsulate it like that rather than respond to points made. I believe that philosophy should be descriptive, as with Wi...
individual conscience does not operate in a vaccuum; it consists in responding to others fairly and reasonably. Those who have been adequately sociali...
No, there is plenty we can talk about which is beyond the scope of science. You mentioned Wittgenstein; well, he was totally against any notion of red...
I don't think science has all the answers, if that's what you mean; but you already know that. On the other hand concerning ourselves with an imaginar...
I agree, life without value is not life at all. And no one who is alive lives a life without value, whether positive or negative. Even a negative valu...
I caught your reference to "weak-ass" symmetry and symmetry breaking. I also saw it as a dichotomy between distinctness and continuity (to refer it ba...
As I understand it Wittgenstein's 'picture theory' of meaning posits that the conceptual grammar (I use this term you used earlier, I think correctly,...
I would have said these occurred prior to Christianity, with the ancient Greeks. The gospels (which I count as the essence of Christianity) say nothin...
I see Dharma or Dao or 'the Truth that sets us free' as a natural order, which is also a social order. The Golden Rule reflects the reality of conscie...
My ideas have evolved. I have discarded what I understand to be incoherent; namely the idea that there is any valid spiritual authority and that it ca...
No, nihilism results in those who demand that life must have a ready-made meaning and who are no longer able to believe the master narratives that sup...
Well, I can't help that, since it's due to your particular set of presuppositions. I do understand very well where you are coming from, though, since ...
Yes, but the point is that we know this directly without having to believe anything about a "higher" meaning of life. People say life has no inherent ...
Spinoza's God did nothing by fiat, but by the necessity of his own nature. And in fact Spinoza equated God with Nature. Spinoza's works were anathemat...
Not at all. Nihilism is inherent in, finds it very inception in, the demand that life must have a ready-made, imposed-from-above meaning; as Nietzsche...
Final cause could be understood as something not imposed from "outside" but as the most universal 'global' conditions that determine what possible for...
But this contradicts experience and common sense. We are all constantly changing and may be said to be in different states from one moment to the next...
You may not be a weird person from Sydney, but if you think not being a weird person from Sydney constitutes sophistication then you are weird. "Peopl...
It's because reality has (at least) two attributes: the mental and the physical. Consequently, we understand things in two ways; in terms of causes an...
I think it is unarguable that minds have not evolved just as other organs have. You only have to look at the apparent differences between the minds of...
This is not correct. Bodies, as finite modes of infinite extension, have boundaries, and are hence divisible. You are conflating the idea of infinite ...
You have quoted that out of context and made it look as though I was affirming that all creatures "with maladaptive states will fail to flourish, and/...
If there is a causal relationship between the two states then they will obviously share common features. Think of yourself; as we conceive it, now you...
It would seem that if there is a "self sub specie aeternitatis" then it must be eternal. On thinking more about this, I think I have reverted to a com...
If the two states are not exactly the same, then there is, by definition, change, I would say. Maybe the two what you term "incompatible" ways of look...
Perhaps, since there are "fundamental difference(s) between humans" some can choose what to feel and think and others cannot. How would anyone other t...
Creatures with adaptive traits are more likely to survive, flourish and reproduce. There is no suggestion that there is anything that intentionally se...
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