Janus

It's a general idea of form or configuration. Not qualia and shape is kind of abstract whereas structure suggest concreteness and boundedness (however...

In order to come to conceptualize ^tree^ we must first be able to see one. Then we can conceptualize all the others. Of course other animals don't thi...

That is not a valid distinction in my view. It's a difference that makes no difference. Mere wordplay.

They don't bump into them, and they lift their legs and pee on them They don't try to climb them although they may use them to stand on the back legs ...

As I see it there is no evidence or logic to suggest such a thing. Those things would not be perceived to be sure, but it does not follow that they wo...

This would be where we differ. I think the fact that we all see the same things and can agree down to the smallest detail as to what we see and that o...

The basic and essential difference I see between the two ontological posits is that idealism proposes that mind/ consciousness/ experience is fundamen...

Dogs want to please and they understand when you are displeased and are even able to anticipate that. I once had a Jack Russell terrier called Jimi an...

No I understand the responses very well and in fact once thought very much as you do. Now I find the arguments for idealism unconvincing. I'm not real...

I argue about it only to clarify by presenting my views and seeing where they might disagree with yours and others. It doesn't bother me that you disa...

No I'm not. I'll try one last time. We can say it is true now or we can now say it is true that the planet will still exist when humanity is gone. The...

So you are saying thinking is the something that exists that is thinking, doubting and feeling? Saying that the "who" is Descartes really tells me not...

Dogs can know when they have done something they shouldn't have, just as humans can.

Exactly! However, I personally find realism the more plausible. Since there is no definitive criterion of plausibility, I admit that it is, in the fin...

I thought you were saying that because I think it is a matter of faith we don't merely disagree about that but that I'm definitely wrong in that I don...

Thinking and doubting and feeling is going on therefore something exists. What is that something?

When it comes to justification, I think you are missing the distinction between there being beliefs which are felt to be justifiable based on personal...

That is not the question, though—the question is whether there are is anything independent of the mind, which determines what we see—the things we ref...

That's right. We ought to do what is good. But determining what is good is not always easy. When it comes to normativity it is not merely the survival...

The fact that we and the animals all share the same world and see the same things at the same times and places shows that what we perceive is not only...

The questions concerning whether consciousness is part of the natural world and the question about the existence of the external world.

From Websters Online Dictionary: aporia noun apo·?ria ?-?p?r-?-? 1 : an expression of real or pretended doubt or uncertainty especially for rhetorical...

Very good!

I thought an aporia is a paradox and thus different to epoché. Do you think Husserl suspends judgement about the existence of an external world or den...

It seems you don't have much experience of dogs.

It seems to me that full-blown constructivism is not a plausible hypothesis, given that experience shows us unequivocally we and even some animals see...

As a simple answer we ought to do what is good just because it is good. We ought to do what is best just because it is best. In real life it is more c...

Probably our differences lie more in the conceptual details—about what can be counted as knowledge and what faith. Other than I've always thought we a...

I agree. Humans are so diverse and interesting; their out of the ordinary stories never fail to fascinate. I have experienced a few life-changing expe...

Interesting. We are indeed strange beasts.

:up:

I'm not familiar with McGinn. Our experience is intelligieble to us, just as theirs presumably is for animals. Is that not enough? Our experience is i...

Neuroscience is beginning to show us that the brain/ body is unimaginably complex and interconnected. Without coordination of its cognitive processes,...

:up: To be fair though, I must acknowledge I haven't read the book, only the article. These are just words, just definitions. I could say that subject...

Right, the theist might say that God's will and God's judgement are all of a piece. For us, on the other hand what we will to be the case and what we ...

I meant that truth or falsity is a property of judgements.

When you finally get around to trying to give an explanation you'll find out whether I can be bothered to try to understand it. I can assure you I wil...

That, as obvious as it is, doesn't seem to change the fact that it was there already.

I have a huge 'to read' list and it's not all that important for me. It's not that I didn't understand what the essay says, but rather that I disagree...

I don't understand this because I see no reason why materialism necessarily eliminates the subject. The subject and subjective experience can be consi...

That's interesting. I never found my hands again. Although I have to admit that I didn't apply myself to the preliminaries with any consistency, and I...

I experimented intensively with hallucinogens from the age of 17 to about 19 and first read The Teachings of Don Juan at around 16-17 and subsequently...

I agree. I have no idea what he is wanting to say. So far as far as I can tell his objections have been a series of misrepresentations. I haven't rece...

It's coherent to say 'it is true that the planet will still exist when humanity has become extinct'. Do you think it is coherent to say 'when humanity...

Also would it be possible for most of us to shelve the deeply ingrained proscription against incest such that we could do it without emotional and psy...

I've already addressed this objection:

I'm not saying X will be true tomorrow, but that it is true now that X will be tomorrow. If truth is a property of propositions, then it follows that ...

:ok:

Yes, it is most satisfying!

I've already read the preceding article as you should know from our discussions. Why should I read the book? Is there something there that is not adum...