magritte

No. Our limits of cognition are irrelevant to the world of emergence. Levels are there whether we exist or not. There were no atoms before we discover...

@"schopenhauer1" ... and why would levels necessitate a viewer?

I think the problem with knowing that is the narrow range of what can be known due to the wide range of possible objections that can be raised. Knowin...

You're awfully certain that there is such a thing. I always thought materialism is something practiced with balls and sticks or by kicking big rocks. ...

Freud's popularized emphasis on the subconscious arising from demonstrations of hypnosis is lastingly significant.

Metaphysical issues move unavoidably in both directions between philosophy and scientific theorizing and explication. In philosophy, scientific facts ...

Classical physics works well to solve problems in the world of physical reality of space and motion created just for that purpose. But how can that be...

Precisely. You can eliminate many objections by defining your terms and making more assumptions explicit. For example, you would want to rule out Russ...

Thanks for that, I don't think you're far off at all. From where I'm sitting, watching the rain fall on streets with much reduced traffic, the economy...

Isn't this the policy of all countries already?

So, Dennett is not saying that metaphysical objects somewhat like qualia are impossible, but that the terminology used would need to be something unfa...

But to deny the existence of qualia wouldn't there first have to be someone foolish enough to insist that qualia as mental processes actually 'exist' ...

I take Quining to be the gross error that subjective processes can somehow be made objective and distinct for the purpose of quantization?

Qualia are bundles of properties without a distinct object. The issue is that since the PNC is inapplicable saying things about qualia becomes difficu...

I am missing something. Are we talking about my own personal belief or something that is believed by everyone because all humans by necessity believe ...

Let's think about death later, much later. According to people in the know the brain evolves from infancy to old age in quantity and quality. Others s...

Philosophy needs to be logical but it need not be a single logical system. Quite likely, anything classified as philosophy will not match other, or ev...

Like many other games and puzzles, jigsaw puzzles have the peculiarity that a unique solution only comes easily when the pieces are few and large with...

Can't do one without the other. To study the unknown, some bounds and rules, definitions for discourse, must be hypothesized first then see how it goe...

Garber said -- But the foundations of Aristotelian philosophy, ontology, epistemology, ethics, and theology are another matter.

Thank you for raising facts for attention. Are facts rational? Do we use facts to rationalize or are we better off appealing to emotional leanings? Wh...

Perhaps. But most decisions are based on gut feelings, necessity, sentiment, or habit, and then the facts are carefully marshaled afterwards to ration...

But not Hume. Hume's philosophy is an understanding and lack of appreciation for Galilean-Newtonian science. Instead, he starts with modern Aristotle ...

As @"Olivier5" pointed out, strong hunters do not proliferate at the expense of their prey in nature, rather, there is a dynamic balance between the t...

In nature, the predator is also prey, and the prey predator. And if nature sneezes they're all dead.

I wonder how much Plato's Theaetetus had to do with this powerful argument. The key to understanding seems to be recognize equivocation in both argume...

Human free will is from a different unrelated language. In theory, machines can be made at least as semantically intelligent as a standard dumb human....

I recommend that you take a look at the entry on "Relativism" at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (IEP) and especially at the three related art...

So probabilities would be meaningful as applied to gambling, for example, or are they meaningful just as numbers?

I'm not sure what meaningful means in a probabilities context. I think of probabilities as arising from the analysis of purely hypothetical mathematic...

I could come up with a strong argument that the greatest problems in the world are a consequence of having sex and children. The entire environmental ...

On what basis can you accept Xenophon's word over Plato's? Most likely they were both just stories to create opposing Socrates portraits that suited e...

Oh, I think the Russians or the Chinese will have a say about that. It's only reasonable that they should hop aboard that train.

That's one problem with a dialog. Two points of view may each be true, but neither need be right, either singly or in any combination.

Although we live in a physical world that is chaotic, that is a combination of lawful, random, and willful events, we have a genetic psychological imp...

Should philosophy be telling people how to live or what the ideals of life lived to the fullest should be? Is philosophy capable of doing that?

You are squeezing three relevant philosophies into two buckets. The consequence is platonic nonsense. There is the philosophy of the subjective privat...

He was pumped up with oxygen until erect. It appears that this campaign stunt against all medical advice may have finally backfired. The polls now giv...

-- AP via abc7ny

A giant paper machet Trump will be waving to adoring crowds from the roof of the White House

An argument could be made that philosophy and the Arts have been dead for quite a while now, and that we are in a cultural dark age.

He is waving thank you to loyal supporters.

For example, and For example,

Words and meaning have either a tenuous or a forced hypothetical connection?

Pence is also a stable genius but from another stable.

This is logical when you get paid by the day or have hard deadlines for your projects, for example if you're an accountant working for yourself. You m...

All these proposals ignore the elements of time, change, and the people involved. There were differences between emerging industrial and laggard medie...

If I were a democrat I would advise Harris to insistently point out that Trump is the devil incarnate.

What exactly would the consequences be if that happened? Let's try to do the calculus. 1. Pence becomes Pres. 2. The Republicans nominate a younger mo...

A long prison term would be more humane.