Janus

That's completely irrelevant to the point that number is empirically instantiated

Where else would we have gotten the concept of number other than from the things around us? You said "Makes empiricists nervous". Empiricist philosoph...

Right you're saying the cognition of the objects is mind-dependent, and I have no argument with that since it is true by definition. But it doesn't se...

It doesn't sound like your view. since you are always arguing that reality is entirely constructed by consciousness, and that it is meaningless to spe...

To say that truth and falsity are properties of sentences, utterances, beliefs, etc seems fine to me. To say they are only properties of those seems o...

Yes, the world of abstracta is conceptually irreducible to the world of sensations, perceptions and feelings and the world of energy and matter. Each ...

Popper's "Third world" differs from Plato's world of forms in that it is entirely an artefact of language and culture and is thus constantly changing....

The form of idealism you advocate doesn't seem to posit anything at all, which leaves it looking totally vacuous.

You just keep asserting the same thing over and over—the very thing which is at issue. Forget about truth for a moment. The salient question I asked w...

That is all I'm saying. It being prime and it being true that it is prime are exactly the same. No proposition need be uttered. Same as with the exist...

I enjoyed this. Vivid imagery evoked the scenes very effectively. I was a little put off by some strange turns of phrase, but that was a minor concern...

It seems to me your thinking is too black and white. If there are countless prime numbers which no one will ever identify, then we can write down extr...

I think it's probably a knot which cannot be untied. Taking sight as an example, we see things just as animals do. But we are reflexively self-aware t...

: An evocative story. The ambiguity works for me—I don't feel a need to work out just what is going on—the lively imagery suffices. Well done!

Cheers. I guess the basic reason for my tendency to think of consciousness as a natural physical process is that I can't imagine what any non-physical...

Right...a very similar point. And yet @"Michael" remains oblivious it seems...or willfully blind.

I'll try one last time If you won't address what I actually write, there is no point continuing. I haven't uttered any proposition; I've just nominate...

It is irrelevant that past scientific theories have been shown to be wrong, or at least not as adequate as some later theory. That fact does not guara...

No, I'm not assuming mathematical Platonism or anything else. As I said I'm not proposing anything. I just write down a number and ask the question as...

I'm talking about prime numbers and you change the subject to paintings. Why? It's not an apt analogy. For a start paintings do not enjoy pre-existenc...

Let's say there are many prime numbers which have never been identified. If I utter a proposition that says that some X is a prime number the truth or...

Yes, the legions of the homeless and the hopeless are growing apace. I think you are right about his dog —it is implausible that it was a happy ending...

Cheers, perhaps I didn't read closely enough. I agree with you about the father—although I wonder whether any one of us is whole and fully functional.

This story drew me in, held me and moved me from beginning to end. A really great story...my only (slight) criticism being that some of the language s...

I enjoyed this simple straightforward story. The neurotic obsession with self-blame and its strange linking with notions of destiny. After the apparen...

My position is that, considering the current state of science, as far as I am familiar with it, it seems most plausible that mind evolved in a physica...

I don't think we are disagreeing. I did say " no reason to think that we must be able to...". not "there is no reason to think it is possible that we ...

I agree, but I think all interpretations are, in their different ways, attempts to imagine what is observed in terms of our macro world understandings...

I mean the counter-intuitive, puzzling nature of QM phenomena should be no surprise given that our expectations regarding how things should behave hav...

Why should we think that the microworld must be real in the same sense, that is behave in the same way, as the macroworld?

No, you are projecting because you are imputing motivations to what I said which were not there. It seems obvious you cannot carry on challenging conv...

I haven't claimed there is an overall point to life. In fact quite the opposite—it is up to each of us to decide what the point of our lives is. Or el...

So the meaning of life lies in an afterlife or in nirvana (is it eternal life or extinction?). Why are you so ready to feel insulted. The aim is to qu...

No, it says that the inability to explain something in terms of physics does not entail that the thing to be explained is non-physical. Mass and charg...

So you think Buddhism gives life meaning? In virtue of what? Rebirth? Karma? Even if those, what guarantors their universality? Merely learning to let...

I find some cathedrals (for example Chartres) beautiful and many others merely impressive. St Peters I found to be a mixture of beauty and impressiven...

I think this is right. The aesthetic appeal is important. I'm reminded of the sublime aesthetics of the great cathedrals and Christian rituals. I don'...

How to make a distinction between natural and supernatural—it seems to come down to the idea that over and above the natural visible world is an invis...

Leaving aside the possibility that such a mind is an omniscient, omnipotent God who will judge us and accordingly determine the nature of our life aft...

I agree. But why should anything about physical properties and the laws of physics suggest subjective experience? They are different areas of investig...

If the firefighter can save everyone then s/he has a duty to do that. You cannot have a duty to do the impossible, so it follows that if it is impossi...

It's no different than referring to commonsense realism as "naive realism". I think naive realism is the default pre-critical attitude which we all ha...

Makes sense to me.

It should be obvious to you that I'm asking if you think it follows.

What about 'If "the king of France is bald" is false then " the King of France exists" is true?

Non-reductive and/ or non-eliminative physicalism are not incomplete, any more than any metaphysical hypothesis is incomplete. The Churchlands argue c...

He could have said "the first even prime number greater than 2". No such thing, 2 is the only even prime number because all other even numbers are div...

Right, but it is obvious that value and meaning are felt, in their various ways, by sentient beings. No one can sensibly deny that fact. We might be d...

When I say "use" I count interest, creativity and joy as uses. I was referring to accumulating factoids for the sake of impressing others or winning a...

If others seek clarification about a point, why do not simply give an answer to clear it up? I feel no need to avoid interaction, as though there is s...