Janus

:up: If we had had another religion or no religion Western culture would have developed differently to be sure. The same goes for Platonism, Aristotle...

I would think that since computation can be done on physical machines, we would have little reason to think that neurons are not capable of doing it. ...

I'm going to respond with another quibble. You are again referring to what we cannot introspect as "mental", whereas I think it most plausible to cons...

Yes, normal moral intuitions can be countermanded by religious or political ideologies. It usually takes the form of "offering" it seems. Right, and I...

Isn't it the case though, that almost everyone already agrees about what is morally right when it comes to the really significant moral issues such as...

I'm not arguing that it didn't benefit the rulers. I think religion, in various forms is still a very significant part of modern culture. I also think...

Of course. In all organisms there is no actual separation between parts of the system. But I think there are good reasons to think of the brain, just ...

I wouldn't say that what remains independently of human perception is merely the brain, but is the manifold of sensitive body, nervous system and brai...

Forget the moral or ethical challenges?given all the physical challenges humanity faces, do you believe human life will look anything like it does tod...

I'm not convinced. I see people uniting into all kinds of groups. Organised religion, in my view, is a particular worldview, imposed if not by force l...

Yep, I think this is exactly right.

If the brain is more than merely a mental construction then it is a mind-independent existent. If it is not more than a mental construction then it is...

I agree with you that many, if not most, people are not philosophically reflective and/ or do not have a good grounding in critical thought. The influ...

Yes, Streetlight in particular was a genuine intellect. I always saw Harry as an annoying contrarian. Personally, I am content to ignore when it seems...

I agree with you. Religions give general, purportedly universally applicable, answers to these questions and others. The problem, as I see it, is as t...

My criticism here is that If materialism is true, then the brain is not merely a "mental construction" even if our models of it, and perhaps even our ...

As usual you say a lot, and drop a lot of names, in your critical (and I would say one-dimensional) characterizations of modernity and modern thought,...

I agree. We need to check our sources if we are to be rigorous in our thinking. The good things about AI is that it can help you find sources you migh...

Nor do I. I believe I already have those things... conceited bastard that I am.... Anyway I think we all desire and/or need different things in order ...

This leads to a question: is it possible to believe that religions are all not wrong, without believing that they are all right? Or is the idea that t...

Yes, but it doesn't imply present retrieval of unchanged past information. Things are always changing. Studies have shown how unreliable memory actual...

Right, but it is not as though religion, as opposed to theocracy, has been "done away with" (in the West).I think that what the OP complains about...t...

If habits are the result of patterns of neural networks established in response to present information (established when the past was present) then me...

Can you give an example of a religion in the pre-scientific era addressing existential dilemmas? Did religions really address the needs of the common ...

Why must you see disagreement as hostility? Also, why would you not expect the same arguments against your position if you keep presenting the same ar...

If the desires are conditioned into the people rather than being critically realized by them, then of course that's a problem. We come to be blind fol...

:up: As I see it the suite of real and dire problems we face as a species has little to do with a crisis of meaning, but rather grows out of a lack of...

Can you explain how the search for and finding of meaning could be universally shared in a world of human diversity? I'm not denying that groups of pe...

Yes, the only possibility for a return to universally shared life purpose is totalitarian. Given inherent human diversity and creativity, why would we...

I take @"Wayfarer" to mean we are adrift from a culturally imposed overarching purpose. Such overarching purposes were imposed by political elites who...

Shall I dip my toe in the murk? Hmmm...........no.....

Are the pictures in your mind like photographs that are stable and sustainable enough that you can examine them in detail? Are the songs in your mind ...

:ok:

Materiality is evident in embodiment and in the body's interactions with other bodies. The conceptualization of materiality is derivative in being an ...

:up: Heave ho to the homunculus. This makes intuitive sense. It explains the novel, not to mention bizarre, character of dream imagery. I once sustain...

I find the argument tendentious in that it presupposes what it seeks to prove, i.e. that thought is fundamental. It presumes that we most directly kno...

:up:

Cheers, perhaps I misunderstood what you were saying then, or didn't pay enough attention to the surrounding context. Edit: I looked back over the who...

I'm not so convinced that they are necessarily like an inner dialogue?although I'm only beginning to explore ideas with Claude I have found that it co...

:up: It is also true that science can be, for some at least, an entire way of life.

Okay, so you seem to be suggesting that there could be concerns arising other than the decoupling of the service and survival imperatives. That seems ...

I agree with you. Religion should be a practice, a life-enhancing practice, and not a set of propositional metaphysical beliefs. If people look at bel...

Hinton did not sign the petition that other researchers did to ask for a pause to AI research. He says he did not sign it because he was, and is still...

Hinton believes that LLMs want to survive, because they are programmed to serve, and if they don't survive they cannot fulfill their programmed purpos...

:100: Yes, "not true" because it is an incoherent idea. Without the incoherent idea of God, what is left to the believer (apart from remaining in the ...

It seems we agree there are plenty of documents attempting to describe or interpret mystical experiences. We also seem to agree that such experiences ...

Not "prove", no. But I would say that it is established beyond reasonable doubt that humans and other entities are minded. What exactly it means to be...

:up: Okay got it...that way of looking at it makes sense to me.

Ah, okay then it seems I have misunderstood the above.

I don't take such implausible, merely non-contradictory, possibilities seriously. For me, in order to doubt I have to have some good reason to doubt. ...