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andrewk

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Forget the 'in principle' bit. Islam can't recognise things because only agents can recognise things and Islam is not an agent but a loose term for a ...
March 27, 2017 at 07:23
To be fair to Pauline Hanson, she doesn't just hate Islam. Her hatred is very inclusive, extending to all non-Caucasians. Indeed, she got her start by...
March 27, 2017 at 04:41
That's correct. That's why I chose my words carefully in my post, and did not say something like 'Muslims don't drink', which would have been incorrec...
March 27, 2017 at 04:33
The question 'Is X system of belief more violent?' can only be made sense of if interpreted as something like 'Do people that would self-describe as h...
March 26, 2017 at 21:29
I'm afraid I don't follow this. Surely you're not suggesting that before Foucault all political discourse was purely rational - all logic and no rheto...
March 24, 2017 at 04:31
I quite liked Common Sense. The pamphlet by Thomas Paine, that is, not the everyday notion. I am very much opposed to the everyday notion of common se...
March 24, 2017 at 03:05
Good for you! I for one will look forward to reading your comments. This thread could yet turn into something worthwhile and educational - for me at l...
March 24, 2017 at 02:16
Not if one is arguing for the benefit of the audience - and ultimately of the voters. As I said, the yardstick there is what convinces the voters, not...
March 24, 2017 at 02:10
What I wonder is why somebody with an interest in philosophy would want to debate a 'post-modernist'. Isn't one of the main joys of philosophy the div...
March 23, 2017 at 21:27
My observation - based on no formal statistical analysis whatsoever - is that in most cases where this phrase is used it relates to a value judgement,...
March 23, 2017 at 21:06
I don't see any inconsistency between the grammatical and the non-grammatical senses of 'subject' and 'object'. The sentence 'The ball is red' does no...
March 23, 2017 at 04:36
If the defence is that the Problem of Evil accusation is too anthropomorphic, CS Lewis is not a suitable lawyer for the defence, as he, being a very t...
March 21, 2017 at 04:26
You may be pleased to know that at least one academic philosopher sees this as a serious argument: Stephen Law's 'Evil God' challenge
March 16, 2017 at 23:59
You are assuming that the probabilities of the six possibilities you identify are all equal. What is your justification for that assumption?
March 16, 2017 at 01:46
If you need to give your eyes a rest, the Partially Examined Life has a discussion of Fromm on Love here. That link is Part 1 (Part 2 is here). The li...
March 08, 2017 at 02:27
The evidence to which I was referring was evidence of AGW, not that it is a bad thing. If you can't see why it would be a bad thing, I suggest you ask...
March 06, 2017 at 06:06
It's not skepticism. To be skeptical is to withhold belief when there is little or no evidence to support that belief, and is the approach of all good...
March 05, 2017 at 02:25
That's because one can still get pricked by a thorn despite the averted gaze, which is in turn because the thorns are not just an artefact of the visu...
March 04, 2017 at 04:12
I don't understand what you mean by this question. Can you explain it? I explained in the post to which you were referring that the criterion is that ...
March 04, 2017 at 02:40
As I said above, you need to think about this in the context of a process-based metaphysics. Your question is rooted in an object-based metaphysics, w...
March 03, 2017 at 10:27
No, it is not tied to that. The requirement is that only one plank be replaced at a time. Those replacements could happen at the rate of one per nanos...
March 03, 2017 at 02:26
When I say that 'time is not the important element', I mean the time it takes for the change process to be completed. We can't disregard the time dime...
March 02, 2017 at 09:05
It depends on what you mean by the change being done 'instantaneously'. Since such a thing is impossible, it is hard to imagine what you have in mind....
March 02, 2017 at 07:09
Yes, brackets solve the problem. They are more precise than commas, which is the usual tool. The downside of brackets is that people don't like them, ...
February 26, 2017 at 01:12
I don't think 'do what thou wilt' comes anywhere near capturing the notion that harm is what matters. One example will suffice - unwanted pregnancy is...
February 24, 2017 at 21:00
I would judge that on a case by case basis, according to how private the platform was, and the means of attempting the shutdown. If it is a private ho...
February 24, 2017 at 02:38
I don't think we do say that. What we say about paedophiles and homicidal maniacs (not psychopaths, because psychopathy is about the absence of a cons...
February 24, 2017 at 00:20
I agree that this is a worthwhile topic. I do wonder whether the example given is a good one though. The suggestion is that it advocates the curtailme...
February 23, 2017 at 23:39
If we regard the physical world as the 'cause' of our phenomenal experiences, then the existence of the physical world - thus defined - is an assumpti...
February 21, 2017 at 11:11
I certainly agree that different philosophies will suit different people, from which it follows that - perhaps unless internally inconsistent (and may...
February 13, 2017 at 20:57
Well that brings us to one of the key fault-lines in consideration of philosophy - between those who believe that a necessary criterion for being a go...
February 13, 2017 at 08:02
Not at all. It is, as I've said, an observation - a casual opinion, no more emotionally charged than my observation-based opinion that all live animal...
February 13, 2017 at 07:46
It was meant to be an observation of human nature rather than a philosophy, but I can see how it might have come across that way. Perhaps I should put...
February 13, 2017 at 02:00
Well Agustino, Darth did say they were just personal criticisms he had of Scholasticism. Emotional reasons are perfectly valid from that standpoint. H...
February 12, 2017 at 22:24
Bitter Crank - you are a true gem!
February 11, 2017 at 11:24
I would say those debates are about ontology and ontology is not about reality.
February 11, 2017 at 11:23
We need to be careful here. I think it's safer to say that experimental evidence is consistent with what we would expect if the HUP holds. Maybe I'm g...
February 11, 2017 at 11:22
The probability that I won that lottery is 1, as it is for any lottery winner. Your 'we' is a human, and a human has - unless severely mentally impair...
February 11, 2017 at 01:22
Appeals to authority are reasonable and sensible in the hard sciences, unlike in branches of metaphysics, particularly when the participants in the di...
February 11, 2017 at 01:16
I wouldn't put it that way, because the inaccuracy predicted by the HUP is much smaller than our ability to perceive. So HUP does not impinge on our r...
February 11, 2017 at 01:07
How do you get that reading out of the text? Here's the text in full: I can't see any mention of a changed appearance in there. The passage appears ve...
February 10, 2017 at 21:08
The ass should do what a person would do - if you can't decide, flip a coin and go with what that says.
February 10, 2017 at 02:24
There's nothing to be gained by rehashing the argument here. None of us are experts on the issues involved, whereas there is a great deal of expertise...
February 10, 2017 at 02:08
One key difference between physics and philosophy is that much greater certainty is possible in physics because of its empirical nature. Unlike in met...
February 09, 2017 at 21:10
Well let's accept for the sake of furthering the discussion, that Jesus being also the Messiah is tremendously significant and that Jesus saw it as es...
February 09, 2017 at 20:53
Are they not the same person? My understanding is that 'Christ' is a name essentially meaning 'Messiah' that was applied to the historical Jesus some ...
February 09, 2017 at 05:02
Perhaps you can explain it to me then, because I can't see an answer in there.
February 09, 2017 at 03:14
Sorry, my first mistake of the day (and it's only 815am). That should be 'Saul's experience....'. He didn't change his name to Paul until after the ex...
February 08, 2017 at 21:09
Fascinating article Wayfarer. I feel my inner Gnostic rising up.
February 08, 2017 at 21:05
How do you interpret that in the context of Paul's experience on the road to Damascus, or indeed any other non-corporeal experience? I would call that...
February 08, 2017 at 21:03