Janus

So, do you believe that if there were no minds in existence there would be no reality or actuality? I don't think Kant believed that— I think he would...

I took it to mean that when you are interacting with the room then that is what you are. I don't want to speak for @"Banno", but I have no problem wit...

Yes, I do believe that the existence of the tree I see is not in question. If I decide to question it and then accept an answer, then, and only then, ...

This is going too far. It is true that the way we perceive the world is conditioned by the ways in which our sentient bodies and brains are constitute...

I agree. Confusion results when knowing and believing are conflated. We might not always in practice know the difference, that is we may not always kn...

All assertion and no argument. I'll wait until you present an argument to address—responding to mere assertions being a waste of time.

Well yes, there are many different usages and contexts of usage of the word. Adding to what you say we could equally fail to cosmetically remove the w...

I agree that exchange of and argument about the different ideas we may have are fun and also worthwhile for the endless task of clarification. I don't...

Sorry I missed your comment earlier. I think this is an important point: leaving aside faux-skepticism or global skepticism, which profess that we can...

I don't think believing the tree is there is necessary for seeing it. I see the tree there, and the question of whether or not it is really there (ans...

Yes, it seems easier to realize that touch, taste and smell give us immediate access to the qualities of things than it is in the case of sight or, es...

Thanks Pierre, I hadn't before seen evidence that this exact debate had been going on that long. :up: When I look at something I can see its qualities...

Again not true: perceptible properties of distal objects are directly observed, no need for inference. Of course, these observable properties, being p...

Again not true: perceptible properties of distal objects are directly observed, no need for inference. Of course, these observable properties, being p...

What could direct perceptual knowledge be but reliable knowledge of its objects, as opposed to (presumably) indirect (because subject to intermediate ...

The idea that we have scientific knowledge relies on the assumption that we have reliable knowledge of distal onjects. Attempting to use purportedly r...

It would be too complicated, the kinds of arguments you would get would be "Well it applies in that case, why not this one?". The distinction is betwe...

As I said, we need general rules, but those rules cannot adequately deal with all cases.

No, I'm allowing that society needs general moral rules which I feel I should support but which unfortunately cannot be expected to adequately cover a...

Perhaps seeing the coloured squares as different is not inferential or predictive, but a case of the locations of the squares in different tonal conte...

:up: I think you're right that it is dogmatism masked as liberalism; it's couched in terms of being merely Chet's belief, yet it's asserted in a way t...

What's the difference between having no good reason to doubt something and not being able to doubt something legitimately?

You have your way of thinking about it, and I have mine, and the twain shall never meet, it seems. I think we know many things, as I've said, but I ad...

I don't believe it is possible to actively disbelieve in something you see in front of you. Well, I know I can't at least. I also don't see that as su...

I admire your patient circumspection. I admit I am a bit prone to jump to conclusions. What I may or may not be able to conceive is not necessarily an...

Well, I don't see it that way because I am no moral purist. Of course, torture must be condemned tout court, If I torture the perpetrator to save my f...

People do things they think to be immoral all the time if it suits them. How much more so will they lose whatever moral compass they may have thought ...

I didn't say it was a "non-moral issue". I said that its status as a moral issue may be irrelevant to the one defending themselves in the act of defen...

Nice pickups!

What might be, from an abstract perspective, immoral would be completely irrelevant to someone acting to save their own lives and/or the lives of thei...

We experience our own efforts all the time. We know energy from the inside, so to speak, and the idea of an interaction that does not involve energy, ...

If it seems shallow to you, then so be it. No, seeing is seeing and believing is believing. I can see the tree outside the window, I don't need to bel...

In the other thread I said this, which I think answers your question: I wouldn't say they are "empirical criteria for what is considered to exist" so ...

I cannot think of a single philosophy that advocates the idea that there is just one point to being alive, unless you mean living itself (as opposed t...

It depends on what you mean by 'substantial'; if you mean something like "tangible' then sure. Is mass fundamental in physics, specifically in QM? If ...

:up: :up:

If the physical is naturally understood to have substantial or substantive existence, and it is upon that idea of substance that the notion of reality...

It seems to me there are some things (even many things) which cannot be coherently brought into doubt. I agree with your point that to doubt anything ...

Fuck, I knew there was something else!

That's true. I wasn't suggesting Descartes would think that, as I seem to remember (it's a long time since reading Descartes) that he thinks that the ...

I agree with you on this, but I wonder whether you think that those things we hold certain are in any degree fallible. Do you think they could ever be...

I would say 'seeing that there is something to be mimicked', 'seeing that another individual behaved in some certain way', 'seeing that someone did so...

I would say the difference there would be intention, not belief.

OK fair enough—I just don't see why one cannot merely mimic. If I am conscious of an intention to mimic then I know that is what I am trying to do. So...

Perhaps "this body doubts"?

I just mean by that something like "assertion that something or other is the case".

What I meant about planing boards and riding bikes is that you can watch others doing them, and then have a go, trying different things and improving ...

I can be aware of whatever it is that is present to me right now without believing or knowing anything about it in any propositional sense. You can be...

I don't count "elevated experience and understanding' as being demonstrably more than a feeling. In other words I don't think we can know what the imp...

I think what we know is restricted to what is right in front of us at any time, and what we have experienced to the extent that we can rely on our mem...