Michael Ossipoff

Of course we make choices. ...choices that are mostly, almost entirely, or entirely determined by our prior inclinations and predispositions, and even...

Agreed, if quantum-effects, or anything else, introduces a small probabilistic influence in human-behavior, then our choices aren't entirely determini...

We've been over this. I admit that there could be small probabilistic influences, randomizing influences on human behavior. But we're mostly determini...

I don't disagree with that, but, sometimes, to the extent that something is probabilistic, it's said to have some randomness. ...even if all outcomes ...

All of that is true, and AI taking over all work, and even decision-making, would be great if it happened in an already good society. Unfortunately, t...

I should add that 2 + 2 = 4 is a direct consequence of the below-stated definition of some of the numbers, and the additive associative axiom of the r...

But it's already obvious to everyone that it isn't/wasn't. Michael Ossipoff

I’d said: . . You replied: . . You make it sound as if the laws of physics were “created” and “produced” by magicians who made it so. . No, the laws o...

People talking with food in their mouth. Michael Ossipoff

But that's obviously a truism, and conveys no information. Anyone it's told to already knew that it is what it is. It is what it is, but that fact has...

That's an official standard utterance for Neo-Advaitists. ...but Neo-Advaita would be a whole other topic of dismay and annoyance. Michael Ossipoff

How about the double-is? The thing is-is, that usage became fashionable maybe around the '90s. Clinton was a particularly frequent double-is-er, but h...

And then: Incorrect. You will, only if you're predisposed to, predispositionally able to. You'll do and say what you're predisposed to. Of course, if ...

This is a 6-page reply. If I take the time to reply at all, then I don’t let brevity overrule complete answers. . I’d said: . . You replied: . , We’ve...

There needn't be a "purpose". Maybe there are things that you like or would like. Obviously you should act ethically, or at least avoid acting unethic...

"The separate “consciousness” is Spiritualist fiction." — Michael Ossipoff ...or made-up? Then that's where we can agree to disagree. Exactly my point...

Certainly some people, due their own lost-soul needs, want or need to make happiness into a zero-sum game. Some people's happiness depends on harming ...

Your question is based on a not-valid metaphysical assumption. Your life is a life-experience possibility-story There are infinitely-many such stories...

I'd said: You replied: Yes. In that sense, a perfect die is completely random, because all of the outcome-numbers from 1 to 6 are equally probably. Bu...

Dice are known as a "randomizing-device", one among many. There isn't a very "big difference" between randomizing-devices. They all achieve the same t...

Rich is unable to disagree politely. That's particularly inadvisable, for someone who believes that he's controlled by a disembodied, distributed, Rup...

Someone here quoted Schopenhauer as saying: "We can do what we will, but we can't will what we will." He was right. And, because the determinism of ou...

I'd said: . You said: Dice are probabilistic and random. Random doesn’t mean that all outcomes are equally probable. . Anyway, I didn’t introduce the ...

I'm sure you've heard this answer before, but it's true: Quantum randomness wouldn't achieve free-will. It merely would mess-up, make less effective, ...

I’d said: . . You replied: . . “Division”, yes. “Reasonable”, no. . The separate “consciousness” is Spiritualist fiction. . We aren’t a consciousness ...

I'd like to further reply to this post: For one thing, regarding the system of inter-referring hypotheticals that I speak of, I don't claim that it's ...

Soul is a diverse genre. You probably like some of it, as do I. Likewise for Rock. Michael Ossipoff

. If you have a proof that the fully parsimonious Idealistic metaphysics that I’ve proposed (and which I call "Skepticism") is wrong, I invite you to ...

Yes, but you were still speaking of Mind and body as separate and different, whereas i claim that that is an artificial dissection of the animal. So I...

I looked up Mars' atmospheric density, and it's only about 1% of Earth's. Wind's dynamic pressure is proportional to the air's density and the square ...

Less than 1/3, if I remember correctly. And the wind-pressure at a given windspeed is proportional to the air-density. So yes, the wind would be a lot...

One thing I should have done was, I should have sent a copy of the threatening post to the company that hosts that forum. ...especially given that the...

(I've gone through this post of mine, changing "statements" to "facts". "Facts is what I've meant when saying "statements". Replace "statements" with ...

Well, for one thing, physics probably will never be complete. Most likely (most here probably would agree), there is an infinite regress, even within ...

It's reasonable to say that any self-consistent possible world, and anything in it, exists. Likewise mathematical theorems, abstract logical facts, et...

we watch "Jurassic" Dino-movies every week. Jurassic-III is the best, because it's funny. Jurassic II is next best, because of the priceless T-Rex on ...

Sure, larger animals are less able to support their weight on land. Maybe Brontosaurus ("Apatosaurus"), Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus spent most of the...

Regarding the climate-effect of precession, I should add that it's a combination of two things actually: Precession, and also the rotation of the absi...

Likely, after the KT impact greatly reduced the food-supply and the temperature, those things tended to kill-off reptiles, because of their greater te...

Precession of the equinoxes, a top-like wobble caused mostly by the gravitational pull of the Sun and Moon on the Earth's equatorial-bulge, affects ou...

As the material contracted gravitationally, it would have tended to form a roughly spherical shape, except that, as the rotating material contracted, ...

From the figures that you gave, the micrometeorites have, during the period you specify, increased the Earth's mass by about a tenth of a billionth of...

Sure we do. It's an imaginary fiction created by Western academic philosophers so that they can have a "problem" to write about. There's the animal. T...

I should add that I once received a murder-threat, from a "moderator" at a Spiritual forum. Of course there were no consequences to the perp. Michael ...

I don't know what the dispute was, that disillusioned or discouraged you, so of course I'm not in a position to disagree with you or judge your object...

..besides, even if Materialism were true (but it isn't), worlds consisting only of systems of inter-referring hypotheticals would still inevitably be-...

Let me reply again to this post. Maybe a stronger suggestion can be made. Metaphysics isn’t really off-topic in this topic, because it relates to your...

Longing for absent things like a Saber-Tooth Tiger? Michael Ossipoff

I meant to add that "create" sounds anthropomorphic, especially since it's agreed here that God isn't an element of metaphysics. Michael Ossipoff

"What is?", and "Why what is?" are the subject of metaphysics, with the understanding that metaphysics and "Why?" can only be taken so far. That what ...