Janus

Is there an underlying problem, though? I mean, of course there are many problems with human life?both in individual lives and in the collective life....

Schopenhauer criticizes Kant for referring to things-in-themselves on the grounds that if, as Kant asserts, there is no space and time outside of perc...

Strangely, I don't believe you because you try to dismiss what I've said by framing it as an empiricist argument, when all I've presented is an altern...

Rocks have physical boundaries?namely where the surface meets the air or water and the ground. The boundaries may not be precise on the atomic level, ...

:roll: When you stop with the shitty misrepresentations of what I've said I might respond.

The idea of a perfect geometrical figure can be understood to be simply an abstraction away from the inevitable imperfections in any geometrical physi...

:lol: Well might you smirk, having (I imagine) smelt the lingering odor of performative contradiction in what I said.

:up: Exactly! There is a certain (willful?) blindness afflicting those who want to reduce and understand the world in terms of "isms". The so-called "...

You missed "those who, instead of focusing on understanding and creatively managing their own experience, attempt to categorize and explain what other...

I'm wondering what you are yet to see a convincing argument for. The question "are transwomen women" is meaningless unless we are told what 'women' is...

If people adhering to different definitions of the terms 'woman' or 'man' believe there is but one correct definition, and that it is the one they hol...

I don't understand what you mean. Isn't the identity of a rock simply whatever name or description I give it in order to identify it? Or else it is ju...

Do you mean 'idea' when you write "ideal"? Do you mean that 'existence' is an idea or concept, but existence is not? If so, there is nothing idealist ...

That seems to me a fair-minded plan?I think I would probably agree with you about how far it goes. I used to say that the human world is a collective ...

When I say "it doesn't follow" I just mean that it is not deductively certain. "Out there" to me means outside my body. So, animals also see shapes. m...

I tend to agree with that approach, but it seems to me there are nuances. It is unarguable that everything we consciously perceive is the result of an...

I can relate to that...I always want to be in a position to be able to say something more interesting...more interesting that is, than what I have bee...

I can relate to that; we can't say much about truth except that it is what is the case. The real problem does not lie in not knowing how to define 'tr...

I found your articulation clear enough. Again, I think the salient distinction is between the relativity of (certain kinds of) truth claims vs the non...

@"Leontiskis" Seems to be conflating truth claims, which as you say, are always (or at least should be) justified within some context or other. and tr...

Yes, I'm familiar with those ideas. the Dao is another one. There are of course some commonalities given that all three were conceived of as eternal u...

Yes, there may be consciousness without linguistically enabled thought, but there would be no thinking about consciousness. I hope you enjoy Hoffmeyer...

Yes, people have different views and some do believe in eternal, absolute foundations. The problem, as always, with different opinions, is the impossi...

It seems paradoxical to me that Platonism, which is an extremely abstract conception, should claim mind-independence. I think that if anything qualifi...

Is Platonism not a context? Is language itself not a context?

No, they are merely noting that no one has ever produced a context-independent truth claim. And that noting is itself not context-independent because ...

I don't say they "go beyond" but just that they are different domains of inquiry. The brain is not a "blob of matter" so your question is moot. You se...

If you liked that book, you would probably enjoy Biosemiotics and Signs of Meaning both books by Jesper Hoffmeyer. He makes essentially the same kind ...

I agree with you about that. We are fucking up spectacularly when it comes to managing the ecosystem and most of us don't seem to be able to understan...

As I said I don't believe science is always the best source to rely on in formulating beliefs about non-empirical matters such as ethics and aesthetic...

Science doesn't presuppose that our observations are infallible?hence the importance of peer review. All we have to work with are our perceptual and r...

I think there are commonalities of understanding. A dingo will see a wallaby as potential food source, just as we might (if they were not protected). ...

:lol: Indeed there is a Sysyphean element. That would make things easier! :up:

Why is it problematic that metaphysical speculations should be based on something other than merely the imagination, scriptural authority, the suppose...

I have no problem with philosophical speculation. It operates in science in the form of abductive reasoning. The point is that it should be underwritt...

Thanks. Copy/ pasting form the comments is a tedious process. I've often thought I should write my responses in a single word document and then copy/p...

I'd say everything about human life is socially mediated, simply because language is a social phenomenon, and so I must agree with you that truths are...

It is an excellent argument and it will be ignored?when confirmation bias is that strong it becomes impenetrable. As the adage, apparently misattribut...

Thanks Jamal, the projected new forum sounds great. Is there any way of exporting one's posts from the old forum as a word file?

Rational thought is simply thought which is logically consistent with its premises. People speak about premises being rational, but that's a harder th...

I see no reason to believe that. Perhaps you are working with a redundant model of material as 'mindless substance'. If material in all its forms were...

That would be so only on certain question-begging presuppositions. The point is that neither idealism nor physicalism are, contrary to what their oppo...

No, I'd say that's just empty playing with words.

The problem is that the idea of physicalist inconsistency is a strawman given that eliminativists do not seek to eliminate or discount the fact of bei...

I agree that people, as individuals, need to look after their own, and their family's, living and well being first and foremost. Christ advocated givi...

Are you saying that the religious people themselves have a cynical view on what religion is supposed to be? You're right. I didn't read it more than c...

Can you elaborate? It's not clear to me what is meant by "exactly what religion/ spirituality is supposed to be". Supposed by whom? Today, rape, tortu...

The point is that we don't create our characters, we are mostly molded by genetics, family circumstance, teachers, and encounters with others. Any dec...

:up: I always liked that Schopenhauer line. To be free in the kind of libertarian sense that it seems people who believe in free will usually entertai...

:up: Institutionalized religion seems always to become politicized, and hence corrupted, coming to serve power instead of free inquiry and practice.