Janus

I mentioned building before. When building it is desirable to get everything as level plumb and square as possible, otherwise errors compound and horr...

Cool!

I agree in the sense that we never perceive the whole of any object; so the idea of a whole object or entity, its identity, is "constructed" from vari...

Yes, but it also depends on what is meant by "beyond one's control".

Yes, there is a sense in which we, as a more or less self-determining organism. determine our own actions, but those actions are determined by process...

I tend to think the language of 'internal versus external' may not be helpful here. I would say both the objects and us (comparing and) contrasting ob...

This comment I made in another thread seems apropos: It doesn't follow that the p-zombie is "inconceivable" merely that it is implausible, and even in...

I don't really seek to persuade either but to present and be presented with rational arguments for beliefs and standpoints, since this is a philosophy...

As semiotics asserts information is neither energy nor matter. But it is not something independently of energy or matter either. So, we can say that w...

The flipside is the idea that everything you have learned throughout your life will die with you, apart from what you may have imparted to others or c...

We do, however, encounter number. Numerals are the names we give to the different numbers (of things) we encounter. Over there I see nine apples and s...

As you know I am not against people believing in rebirth or whatever. Obviously there can be no definitve evidence either way. What I am curious about...

Right, I haven't said the child necessarily has any choice in what is accepted and introjected. I used the word "accepted" but that was not meant to s...

Spinoza said the free person thinks least of all death, he says nothing about fearing death or the afterlife. From here

This seems to be pointing to the religions mentioned in the previous sentence, the critique being that such religions od not possess explicit epistemo...

Things, beings, entities are not eternal, but nature itself is. Spinoza drew a distinction between natura naturata and natura naturans. The former is ...

:up: What do you mean by mystic, Wayfarer? Is nature not eternal? Spinoza, as I read him, advocates loving and contemplating the eternal aspects of na...

It's simple; philosophy is about self-knowledge, about understanding the human condition, so as to be able to live the best possible life. He was exil...

:up:

I don't see it as a case of the "feeliness" of experience "affecting neurons", but since that would be to espouse dualism, I would rather say the felt...

When I responded the passage about Ramana Maharshi was not there. Spinoza never said anything about reincarnation as far as I know, so I'm still not s...

@"Mww" has explained the point much better than I did. Patience is not always one of my virtues.

More distortions...you're doubling down on your ignorance, clutching at straws...time wasting.

Spinoza denies the idea of personal survival of death except that each individual and in fact each entity or thing could have an existence as an etern...

Those who believe in reincarnation show it is not a taboo for them, and in the case of those who don't, the more likely explanation in many if not mos...

:up: The best it can be is an intuitive belief that "somehow" we live on in the sense of being reborn in this realm or some imagined other. The part t...

So, instead of making their own stuff up, they accept and introject the stuff that others have made up; stuff that has been canonized in their culture...

How can metaphysical statements or standpoints be truth-apt if their truth is undecidable? The only way I could parse that would be to say that they m...

So what? Logic is about the form, not the content, but I haven't denied that thought processes and arguments, whether logically valid or not, have con...

I voted for '1' as the closest fit. I'm not too sure about the "epiphenomenal" part, though. I think all causes are physical and I think consciousness...

I think it is inevitable that we will feel responsible for our decisions, even if we are not really responsible. Imagine you ask your teenage daughter...

I think determinism is compatible with the idea that I am free, absent external constraints, to, and inevitably will, choose whatever is determined by...

Disagreement about non-trivial things is inevitable in a pluralistic society. There seems to be almost universal agreement about the most important mo...

I agree that Spinoza wanted to refute any form of supernaturalism, but he also acknowledged that such beliefs may be necessary for those who don't wan...

My point was only that whatever imagery is involved with and whatever is subsequently said about religious/ spiritual experiences is interpretive and ...

Also, lack of food, lack of adequate medical services. lack of access to education , contraceptives... This is a case in point. Of course, a society t...

I have several friends who were very religious as children and into their teens, who in their later teens firmly rejected their religion. I agree with...

I'd say the difference is a function of memory; the ability to visualize what has been experienced but is no longer present. It seems to make sense th...

Individual ends are subjective, I haven't denied that there are collective ends. But even collective ends, insofar as they are desired by the individu...

The idea as I understand it is that it is the competition for survival, so they don't all survive. It is not necessarily competition directly against ...

More panentheist than pantheist; I think Spinoza understood God to be both immanent to and transcendent of nature, and by that, I mean transcendent of...

I don't think it is necessarily different. There is universal intersubjective agreement that 2+2=4, and no room for disagreement (excluding insanity o...

"Survival of the fittest" has come to imply competition, but there seems to be no reason to exclude cooperation. I also tend to think that when it com...

That's a good pickup. There is also the distinction between saying science pursues truth and saying that science yields truth. It also occurs to me th...

Does it apply to the whole universe? Where and when is the whole universe located?

True it is a form of consensus, but in relation to simple observations of phenomena and mathematical and logical truths there is really no room for di...

If there are phenomenological commonalities to be found across so-called spiritual or religious experiences, and a significant portion of those who ap...

You're asking the wrong person: I'm no scholar of Aristotle's philosophy. Yes, agreement about metaphysical theories is unlikely since their truth or ...

I don't at all believe that everything needs to be publicly demonstrable; what I would count as the most valuable things in life cannot be. My point i...

A flippant remark. We have intersubjective or subjective: do you have an alternative or third categorization that can be rationally justified or is th...