Janus

:up:

No, I apply the word 'knowledge' only to those cases where we can clearly explain how it is that we know. It is obvious that we know things propositio...

:up: Fascinating! This seems to confirm what I have always believed: that dogs are capable of deductive inferences, rational thought. It seems nothing...

If a slime mold can do something self-initiated then it knows how to do that thing. I'm not claiming that it experiences itself, or understands itself...

Slime molds arguably have know-how. It's not a matter of a "hard and fast prejudice" but of being cautious ascribing the "honorific" 'knowledge' to ca...

I'm not sure which three sentences you are referring to. I was addressing 'if p then q'. Us talking about this sentence is an example of 'mention'. We...

It is not hard to say what warrants as knowledge the basic forms of knowing—about what it is that we experience, the empirical and what is self-eviden...

If I experience a revelation or a "higher' insight, what is it about the experience that warrants it as knowledge? This is the question that proponent...

Right, there are many unknowns. Some of those unknowns could be unknowables, so I'm wary of the idea that there is always a way to know what is curren...

Hence existents are said to be actual.

By "mention" I meant simply that you might reference the sentence as we are doing here, without asserting anything about its truth. So "mention" refer...

That may be so, or it may not be so. How are we to assess the likelihood of either one or the other being the case? Better, I think, to admit our igno...

Well. sorry, I'm not getting it at all. I agree that you can't know you made it happen. But you can't know you didn't make it happen either. I don't h...

How can the stick "remain" if there is no time? Do you mean it is not the measurement which allows for the movement? How do you know this. One interpr...

It seems you are basing that on some kind sense of likelihood. I don't think we can do any calculation of likelihood in this kind of case, so your con...

The fact that it apparently did follow does not entail that it must have followed. I have no idea what "absolute time" could mean.

I agree that we cannot find the idea of non-temporal existence coherent. We cannot think a 'before time'. But we equally cannot find the idea of an in...

That simply does not follow. For the rest I have no idea what you are trying to say.

I'm not sure we would be warranted in claiming that it was inevitable even given the context of thinking in terms of no time limit. I understand 'eter...

I would say that I don't see much reason to believe such a thing. In the early universe, according to current theory, there were no atoms and hence no...

We don't know that it was inevitable in this universe though and that is because we don't know whether the universe is deterministic or non-determinis...

I don't think that's dumb at all but a very good question. We always assume that we know what we mean when we talk about 'god' or' universe' or 'neces...

As I said if life and intelligence were inevitable evolutionary eventualities of our universe it still would not follow that they are necessary potent...

If nature were completely deterministic then your argument might in part follow, since on that assumption, given initial conditions (the Big Bang) int...

How are we to understand what this claim that intelligence is an inherent part of nature even means? And even if we understood what the claim means po...

I missed this until now. I mentioned earlier that a sentence such as "it is raining" can be mentioned without asserting its truth, while to use the se...

They are fictionally, as opposed to actually, true or false, or their truth or falsity may not be sepcified in the work. I still don't see a problem, ...

I must be missing something. I can see no more of a problem with fictional assertions than I can with fictional imaginings, fictional events, fictiona...

I would have thought that whether a sentence which could be said to be in the propositional mode is assertoric or not depends on whether the sentence ...

Of course the experience or the appearance of colour is not within the object. So it all comes down to what you mean by saying that colour is or is no...

It's 'percepts not 'precepts'. Michael has been arguing that colour is nothing but "mental percepts". I formed the impression you were supporting this...

Then red is more than merely percepts.

How would you know the image contains no red if red were nothing more than a percept?

:up:

:up: Right, how could it be sensible to say anything looks like anything outside the context of being seen? I'm amazed that some in this thread seem t...

I have no doubt that with enough passion you will get there. I hope you have a speedy recovery from Covid.

Yes, it is only a basis, not linguistically elaborated obviously. I agree that many dogs are very smart. It's hard for us, an animal capable of abstra...

:up: It is quite a few years since I read A Man Without Words. It seems reasonable to think people and some animals can conceptualize prelinguisticall...

:up: Nice ordinary example!

That makes sense to me. I have come across reports that suggest some animals can learn to do basic small number counting. They may be apocryphal.

I was addressing the quoted text from Perl. I haven't read his work but have received the impression that "apprehending form via the rational intellec...

Rational thought or the cognition, the apprehension of pattern, it is grounded in? Animals obviously recognize forms. Should we say they are rational?

I meant more when the larger reality bites.

What you believe may indeed be your reality, but it's possible to become unstuck.

So, you think this thread is about the distinction between appearance and existence? If so, I don't agree. It has mostly been argued by the antirealis...

Appearance of anything requires a viewer. So where is the distinction?

Colour is precisely measurable, so this criterion does not work. @"Banno" is correct that the 'primary/ secondary' distinction is outmoded.

You said: I do see Wayfarer as prosecuting a moral crusade, so yeah, I did introduce the term. It was you that suggested that the whole of philosophy ...

We simply "get it" without having to rely on a set of rules. Sets of rules are formalizations of "getting it".

I think the salient point is that there can be multiple reductive explanations from different perspectives. So, to say that I went to the shop because...