Michael

And I think this is exactly the issue behind the argument between the direct and indirect realist. The direct realist (or at least the naive realist) ...

Presumably the same thing that makes a direct realist so sure that there has to be something responsible for the experience (so sure that the things w...

I think you missed my edit: "or just 'noumena' if you don't even want to be a realist about the Standard Model".

That's the wrong way to look at it. It's like saying that "playing chess" is a fictional account of the deterministic movements of a computer. It's be...

I think one can be a realist about the fundamentals (e.g quantum mechanics and the Standard Model) but an anti-realist about macroscopic objects. Allo...

That doesn't follow.

You mean an anti-realist can't be a scientific realist and instead has to be an instrumentalist? Perhaps. But so what? Are you suggesting that anti-re...

Considering my coffee example, where our bodies are the water, the external stimulus is the coffee beans, and our experience is the interaction betwee...

What I was saying is that the properties of the experience (e.g. colour and taste) are not properties of the external stimulus (e.g. the apple). As a ...

They might have a shape, but that shape isn't anything like a shape as seen or as felt. I think you're committing the same error of conflation that so...

I don't think so. As studies have shown, there's no a priori connection between shapes-as-seen and shapes-as-felt. Those born blind who later gain sig...

Well, I would add to this that we also mean that the same external stimulus is causally responsible for the experience.

So direct realism is as described in the Wikipedia article (even though so many have taken issue with it when I bring it up): There exists a world of ...

But then, if the image differed, was there a shared object of perception? Some were aware of a black and blue dress and some were aware of a white and...

I'm asking for the distinction between perceiving a mind-independent object and perceiving a mental image. I don't get it. Both the direct and the ind...

So are you saying that the image of a tree is the tree, or that there's no such thing as the image of a tree? And what are dreams/hallucinations if no...

And what do you mean by direct access to the external world? Presumably you're not saying that my experiences are the tree, because that would be subj...

I agree with this. I think it's analogous to the difference between saying "I'm reading words" and saying "I'm reading about World War II". When the i...

A painting of a tree is made of paint, but of a tree. And so the experience of a tree might be "made of" mental stuff, but be of a tree.

To refer back to an example I've given before, a painting of a tree isn't a painting of paint, but it is just paint – paint which 'represents' a tree....

I would say that they're the same in that both waking and dream experiences are constituted of sense-data/qualia. They're different in that in the cas...

It isn't. You want to talk about it in terms of the computer recognising shapes as we do, and so conclude that shapes are mind-independent things. But...

I don't think this is right. Presumably these neural networks simply recognise patterns in the magnetism on the hard drive, that although covariant wi...

So enactivism?

I thought we were going with the "won’t happen, but we can always wish".

Plot twist: Agustino is actually Sapientia.

Or, Trump resigns (or is removed) and the Government pursues him further to determine if he's committed any crimes, and if so charge him. And then Oba...

Implying that you're a dickhead? :P You just keep setting me up today.

George Papadopoulos is the second? This one is directly about the Trump campaign and Russia. He's admitted to lying to the FBI about his communication...

Incidentally, I've read that the reason these charges are coming so soon is because the statute of limitations runs out on some of these charges tomor...

I've heard that there's a second indictment, which some are saying is likely Flynn, but they may have just meant a second person which would be Gates ...

It's regarding the money stuff. Conspiracy against the Department of Justice and Department of the Treasury. You can read it all here.

Money laundering was what I expected.

Paul Manafort, Who Once Ran Trump Campaign, Told to Surrender The charges aren't known yet.

There's a joke somewhere here about snappy piranhas.

She can get you for the incorrect spelling of "actually", though.

Sure, but it might still be true. For example, if we take the current number system, and assume that we hadn't yet measured the value of Pi, would it ...

Earlier you said "I always thought that we had some preexisting fundamental truths, and mathematics attempts to map these truths to formal statements....

-0 > -1

Yes, just looked into it. "to" is mainly British, "for" is mainly American.

To all extents and purposes intents and purposes incestuous porpoises.

No, but so what? Regulations don't stop business. People had work and consumers had goods to buy under Obama. Perhaps more work and goods would be ava...

Anyway, should we place bets on who's going to be indicted today? I'd say Manafort is the best bet. Flynn, Page, and Stone are possible. Also heard th...

More people will suffer if the environment isn't protected, if workers aren't protected, and if consumers aren't protected.

Perhaps. There are always going to be people who lose out, whether it's the big business owners, the small business owners, the consumers, the workers...

Nothing's wrong with that per se. It just doesn't mean that Trump is capable.

Regulations protect workers, consumers, and the environment.

He is incapable. Investors believing that he'll implement policies that will benefit them isn't the same as being capable.

I assume because investors believe that Trump will cut down on regulations that will allow them to make even more money, and so investor confidence is...

What is that supposed to show? Here's the last 5 years: /uploads/files/r9/5r04npi1ev0bvt8s.png The stock market tends to go up.