Hi, Tom. Yup! That sums it up. On the subject of outside world, I like to think of science as describing our outer reality while art writ large descri...
Hi, I like suchi. You've touched on another interesting line of thought -- degrees of 'knowing'. We know some things in the absolute sense -- the whol...
Hi, Rogue AI For what it's worth, I assure you that I'll continue to live my life as if I'm in a real world, not a simulation. Regards, stay safe 'n w...
Hi again, 180 Proof. The sole non-trivial reason for taking time to think about such things is little more than the pleasure of pursuing knowledge. Re...
Hi, Vera. A nice, pragmatic response. I can see Dewey looking over your shoulder. Pragmatism is a great way to cut Gordian knots. Regards, stay safe '...
The very first line in the OP's reasoning defines whatever it was that was responsible for the beginning of the universe as 'god'. Acceptance of that ...
@Gnomen: There's a nice tie here somewhere. Gnomen -> sundials -> man's philosophy and how it has been affected by being able to tell time. Or extend ...
@ Gnomon. First, I like the 'handle'. As a desultory maker of sundials, I'm aware of its function and etymology. Second, thank you for taking time to ...
@bongo fury, Hi! Thank you for taking time to read the OP and post a reply. T/F decisions, truth tables and the like are certainly of value. They lead...
I'm presently reading At The Existentialist Café, by Sarah Bakewell. Her writing style can best be defined by 'chatty'. I've a better idea of what the...
Under the rubric of 'Wisdom': "Don't never buy nothin' what has a handle attached. It means work." "Good, fast, cheap: pick any two." "It depends." Re...
There's a delightful little tale of a philosopher who said to a friend, "There's no difference between being alive and being dead." The friend, in a p...
Hi! That's a point, of course. I suspect that a nit-picker would add anarchy. There are times when extreme simplification can provide insight. There a...
Hi, 180 Proof! I've not yet read the article, so I can't respond directly to your comment. That America is 'controlled' in a number of ways by an olig...
Hi again, Tim. We agree on the Republicans, especially when they present as Mr. Donald Trump, being a poor ideological match with Christian evangelica...
Hi again. You may be right. Thus, my search for the underlying philosophy may be in vain. If I'm not careful, though, we'll get into a discussion over...
Hi, Tom. That's part of it, of course, but it's hard to assemble all of those beliefs into a coherent philosophy. The word 'coherent' is carefully cho...
Hi, Tim! Are you saying that the philosophy of the Republican Party at present is essentially the same as that of the evangelical Christians? Regards,...
Hi, Shawn! It's a wise parent who knows just how to answer children depending upon the age and sophistication of the child. Some answers are, in thems...
"No man is an island, Entire of itself, Every man is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the ...
Oh, my! Here we go again. 'Good' is the stumbling block here. If we define it carefully, chances are that a moral/ethical structure can be established...
Hi, telex! The quirk in that little story, and it is a quirk, is that the responder sees a normal deck up until the third remaining card is turned up....
One of the characteristics of most religions is attention to the meaning of human existence and concern over the end of life. It takes a bit of a stre...
I admit, thanks to a comment above, to there being more than three possible responses. 'god' was assumed to represent a supreme entity. Regards, stay ...
There's always the Flying Spaghetti Monster to consider. ;-) I skipped a step in the OP. It was that once a god is accepted, there are a number of rel...
Hi! An interesting question. My first stop was to check on human cell longevity. If brain cells had a short enough life span, the question would be mo...
Oops! I suggested the wrong book. The suggested 'starter' book is Analytic Philosophy: A very short introduction, by Michael Beaney. Sorry for the err...
More than one noted philosopher in the past has dealt with the concept of nothing. One, if I recall correctly, considered it of great importance in ma...
Hi. The set of horses would contain all horses. The set of ice cream cones would contain all ice cream cones. A null set would be an empty set, contai...
The concept of an all-powerful god leaves itself open to all manner of paradoxes. "Can god create a physical place that god cannot enter?" will serve ...
There are, for us h sapiens, two 'realities'. There is the inner reality, our mental 'map' of that which lies outside our bodies. Then there's the out...
Getting back to the original question, a quick check of such groups as, say, the major political party federal legislators, the Fortune 500(r) CEO's a...
Two quick comments. Many of the arguments for and against map nicely upon those which arise when the question of the existence of a god is considered....
We seem to have come round to my statement: "Is it not a raison d'etre for philosophy to seek and discover the truths, if any, underlying beliefs? If ...
Curiously, I sit here not feeling scared at all. I've no problem with doubt. It has its place. There are even times when it doesn't, as when I'm in th...
There are basic structures in philosophy which can be agreed upon as the basis for further discussion. These can be thought of as axioms, similar to t...
Is it not a raison d'etre for philosophy to seek and discover the truths, if any, underlying beliefs? If one starts, a proiri, with the belief in a go...
There appear to be two streams of conversation here. The first is generally of the nature of that found among historians. The second is perhaps philos...
I'm but lately come to this discussion. Fact is, I've just confirmed my 'membership' in this forum. I've picked this as the first thread to read, prim...
Comments