Brian

You don't have to agree, but there's a pretty longstanding tradition going back to folks like Socrates, Plato, and Artistole that philosophy is suppos...

On my view a mind without contents would cease to be a mind. A mind is not a container for thoughts; it IS the thoughts.

What in your view makes someone qualified to be President? What are some of the defining characteristics?

I don't think even an omnipotent being could defy hard rules of logic. 1+1=3 is not possible in the traditional system of mathematics and it would not...

I like a lot of what you say here. I think Heidegger described what you are talking about as our "thrownness" into a pre-made world that we always are...

This sounds a little bit like American Pragmatism, yeah?

Hello everyone, haven't posted here in awhile. Thought I'd say hi! My philosophical background is mostly in phenomenology and existentialism. To that ...

Ah, the question of Martin Heidegger, "What is the meaning of being?" Perhaps the toughest philosophical question to answer. Mental states certainly e...

I think truth is an equiprimordial value along with happiness. Truth doesn't necessarily make us happy, that much is self-evident. But yet we seek tru...

1. The purpose of government is to lift humankind out of the state of nature and the war of all against all that the state of nature essentially entai...

I think life is more meaningful and important and beautiful because it is impermanent. Eternity would rob life of all of these things for me. Also, et...

I think Heidegger's response would be that such a human being would not be a Dasein at all, as being Dasein and being a biological human being are not...

Meta, I love this film! I've only seen it once but I think it's an underrated masterpiece, one of Kubrick's best out of an incredibly filmography. I t...

Hi there Agustino. I am assuming your would agree that, like speech (help! in a crowded fire) even religions have a legally binding limits to their fr...

Hi Anonymous, I am not nearly as familiar with the thinkers you cited as I am with Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Heidegger, & Sartre. I find it very, very h...

I'm pretty much a subjectivist on morality, so I don't think anything really objectively grounds it. I would say that an individual person's system of...

Good point. Heidegger, it is sometimes argued, was saying this in his writing on the phenomenon of being-in. Just as an individual person has its mood...

Having children may create stronger bonds between people, but you don't need to procreate in order to make intimate bonds with others...right?/quote] ...

I would basically agree with the argument that relationships are primary for a flourishing life and achievements and property are definitely secondary...

I have to agree with you here. There are many, many types of people for whom the party in power has a major effect on my life. If, for example, I'm a ...

Not familiar with him or his work but I'd be interested to learn about it. Not because I'm likely to accept or condone it, but just cause I like to kn...

Wouldn't that also be like saying that because the amount of raindrops needed to fertilize England is vague then there are no such things as raindrops...

In theory, but in practice, I am not sure how a scientist could really research the persistence of memory in a way that was meaningful and would verif...

In some cases. Heidegger is the philosopher I've studied most and I love his thought and writings. But he was a member of the Nazi party and expressed...

It theoretically could be evidence of a previous life, but I think that link is weak. I think some babies and children just have an incredible ability...

I haven't read that book but I like this line of thinking. It dovetails very nicely with much of our colloquial use of the term "soul." I also think i...

I don't see why something like a soul is a logical impossibility. On the other hand, I've seen no real a priori or a posteriori evidence that somethin...

I think such things are better explained by simply appealing to the fact that we have certain innate capabilities that we are born with and thatthese ...

I do not believe in the soul at all in anything other than a metaphorical sense of the unique being of a particular person. But no, I believe that we ...

Definitely read up on the Gettier probem, for sure, as someone else pointed out in here. And as also mentioned, Plato and Descartes are great starting...

I generally tend to think that while computation is some of what the brain does, it is far from everything. So, there is overlap but no, the brain is ...

A good friend of mine does a lot of scientific research on the question of hope and the efficacy of treatment. He is found that optimism about the res...

"Bank Robbery (Prologue)" from The Dark Knight soundtrack. Favorite movie, favorite film score. I usually listen to songs from all three soundtracks b...

On the question of responsibility for your own happiness, I think it's been pretty well documented scientifically that we can have at least some influ...

Yeah that sounds somewhat more plausible to me. The notion would be that the mind just happens to be identical with the brain if its token identity, i...

I like the idea of incorporating a humane principle into our understanding of justice. I think justice has to have some kind of basis in moral correct...

I find the main argument against this view, that mentality is multiply-realizable, rather plausible. It seems like life forms with very different stru...

Nietzsche is filled with contradictory passages. I try to give him the benefit of the doubt as much as possible and try to assume he either changed hi...

I think the vast majority of people value life for its own sake, not just for the sake of experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain. It's hard to put yo...

I think you are pretty much right about this. I had to think about it for a minute. Thinking about animals, who do not possess language, I suddenly fi...

5. Strauss - Also Sprach Zarathustra Prelude - Nietzsche's philosophy of saying yes to life embedded in musical form. It's also a great example of how...

I think this is true in essence. In some way or another, the point of our whole lives is to be happy, as Aristotle rightly said. Happiness, of course,...

I haven't made up my mind yet on the possibility of libertarian free will. I will say that if it does turn out to be impossible in a conceptual sense,...

"Philosophy is stupid but not as stupid as The Real Housewives of Orange County and look how much money those people make!"

Perhaps it is. I wasn't too sure of the state of the scientific research. It seems to me to be pretty well established though, yes, though with the ca...

Yes, I find that to be true about making more skillful choices. I also find that I just enjoy things more. Even mundane things like washing dishes: wh...

I see - I would accept that as true I think... I guess I'm just not seeing the next step of how that makes everything subjective and contradicts corre...

Timeline thanks for your response! Yes, I wasn't even thinking about the film's thematic of fear, which is so essential to Batman Begins and to the ea...

Hello and welcome! Hope you enjoy your stay and feel at home here! I love this sentence of your blog post by the way. It's very Greek, isn't it? The i...

This is a good question. It's kind of an existential-ontological question. The human situation is that we are in the midst of a world of stuff and thi...