Jake Tarragon

"Rational" would be a better word than "science". Might get a better look in politically too.

The "butterfly effect" is often misunderstood, mainly I think because it is poorly worded. Rather than expressing it as"a butterfly flapping its wings...

Well if a metaphysics has to become more elaborate in order to avoid refutation then certainly it becomes more suspicious... But at the other extreme,...

Perhaps because if everything is possible then it must exist. Once its apparent existential arbitrariness has been thus removed, it is a simple step t...

I may not be able to,but I will dip my toes in these waters and wade in slowly. Presumably the whole point of metaphysics is that it is thinking large...

I'm not sure why this "Skeptism" is anything more than saying about existence "it is what it is..."....

What about a conscious electronic AI?

Freedom

But perhaps nihilist thinking has certain psychological effects.

The nihilst view of personality is perhaps that it is an accumulation of imperfections?

What sounds best ... "utilitarian hedonism" or "hedonistic utilitarianism"? Whichever, I am its ist.

I was vaguely aware of the unsatisfactory nature of my proposition - but it's very illuminating to have it "formally" rebutted... :)

"This is the only abstract fact" .... as good as "nothing" perhaps?

What about "if I see a chair then it exists?"

But the advertising industry has the public as targets, whereas clinical psychology has them as cared for patients. Persons in fact, who can be treate...

There might be triggers as follows - somewhat arbitrary ones, epistemologically speaking, but perhaps sensible. 1) Constant unhappiness 2) Threatening...

Does anybody get depressed or anxious about believing that" their mind is a computer", in some sense? It is a slightly "odd" feeling, I will admit. Bu...

I don't think I have much to offer by way of expertise, or if I'm on the right wavelength, but I was thinking on the lines of a) "If I look at the sun...

1) Is there not always a subset of if-then statements than can be used to derive all of them in any given context? 2) Are mathematical truths perhaps ...

Psychiatrists exist, but I am not at all sure that psychiatry does in any significantly different way to psychology though!

Get both clones to present a case and let a panel decide who was the most persuasive.

Say no, not as such

Maybe it is ....

It has the beauty of predictability .....

The atomic/nuclear mushroom cloud.

Loved the "Early Modernism".

If it profoundly disturbs?

I really got into that thanks Noble Dust. I would say the piece is beautiful. me Lemme listen to that Ravel piece again...... Got any more links plz?:...

Thanks for the practical info Noble. errmm which Debussy piece?Please orgive my memory for names but I'm thinking of the Fawn Prelude - something impr...

For me a similar Debussy piece would be "beautiful".

Ha! Exhibiting a score as musical "beauty" is surely tantamount to mathematicians touting e to the I pi = -1 as beauty.

I'm sure that each slough would present a narrative deemed to be "beautiful" by those who study them.I don't think Nature does beauty - it is only us.

I don't think any philosopher shoud be studied. They are usually out of date or either mundane/crazy a few years on. Educaton likes "studying" the dea...

I doubt it matters. Formal education is much of a muchness.

Extreme altruism might be self defeating in some contexts because it can give out the somewhat negative message that one's own life is relatively wort...

For debates to become better it must be regarded as cool to admit an error of whatever sort, and to openly welcome shifting your stance. For this you ...

Science is all there is when one needs to be rational. There is nothing else in that situation, by definition. If any facet of "postmodernism" can pre...

1)Biological hardwiring to pick up signs of good health. 2) In awe of size and context - mediated by what one perceives others to think. 3) Only if yo...

"A true philosopher never mentions other philosphers".

Beautiful is a very fuzzy word, but maybe a necessary condition for something to be "beautiful" in common parlance is that it correlates with engender...