You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

counterpunch

Comments

I think there's enormous consensus on the shape and nature of a middle ground scientific understanding of the world around us - insofar as it relates ...
February 14, 2021 at 23:55
Agreed. What are your grounds for deciding if a joke is funny? Or deciding if a painting is pleasing to the eye? There are no grounds, per se. There a...
February 14, 2021 at 23:24
I would have thought 'truth' was the take home concept in terms of an "inherent purpose other than propagation." Only human beings have intellectual i...
February 14, 2021 at 22:55
I disagree. It's a consequence of omitting a causal reality from evolutionary theory as a form of selection, but it's rather obvious when you think ab...
February 14, 2021 at 22:09
I want to solve climate change. That will be my life's work. I'll have no time for theory.
February 14, 2021 at 21:37
None of the above. — counterpunch Glad to. Thanks for asking. To my mind, the organism evolves in relation to a causal reality, and has to be 'correct...
February 14, 2021 at 21:27
None of the above.
February 14, 2021 at 18:30
You're not though. It's like I said earlier: I posted Strawson's Basic Argument and commented on it. You have ignored Strawson's argument, and dismiss...
February 14, 2021 at 18:06
So we're debating your argument - which is: End of debate. Nothing to see here!
February 14, 2021 at 17:18
Good to hear. I need £10bn to start with, and a further £20bn over 10 years. The plan is to drill through hot volcanic rock, and pump water through, t...
February 14, 2021 at 15:48
Flying cars and robot butlers!
February 14, 2021 at 14:41
Your guesses hide a multitude of sins. It beggars belief that Descartes would uproot his life and move to another country, were he not assured of a we...
February 14, 2021 at 12:47
You're right, I did. When all I can realistically defend is, that unlike Galileo - Descartes was at liberty to accept such an invitation, and not on t...
February 14, 2021 at 10:29
I'm unable to help you with your incomprehension. They are English words, plainly spoken. Where is this from? You attribute it to Strawson, but I did ...
February 14, 2021 at 09:22
The argument seems to turn on this pivot; and therein lies the weak link. (5) But one cannot really be said to choose, in a conscious, reasoned, fashi...
February 14, 2021 at 02:58
A more cumbersome statement of the Basic Argument goes as follows. (1) Interested in free action, we are particularly interested in actions that are p...
February 14, 2021 at 02:28
At the risk of confusing the OP for my elbow, I'm going to have to ask you to be more specific about what you consider interesting and novel - because...
February 14, 2021 at 02:12
I don't deny facts, ever. But the fact Descartes died is somewhat incidental - (unless he really was poisoned by a Catholic missionary, as apparently,...
February 14, 2021 at 01:47
Well, if it's cod psychology, I thought we could just cut straight to the argument about the argument. Isn't that what every one of your discussions d...
February 14, 2021 at 00:58
You don't know. You really don't. You don't know that the religious, political and economic ideological architecture of society is just made up, and c...
February 13, 2021 at 17:07
Important in what regard? It remains, Galileo was grievously suspect of heresy - which is about a hair's breadth from being burned alive, while Descar...
February 13, 2021 at 11:27
It depends on what you mean by philosophy! My interest; in correcting our relationship to science in order to secure the continued existence of humank...
February 13, 2021 at 10:34
You have failed to defend your thesis. And ironically, done so by failing to act in a morally responsible manner. You have acted, as I would have expe...
February 13, 2021 at 09:52
I could just read Descartes - and extrapolate slightly. It's not like any subjectivist could ever have anything new to say, is it really? That's the p...
February 13, 2021 at 09:16
Opening line: Closing line: Nothing in-between indicates any agreement with, or acceptance of any part of his argument.
February 13, 2021 at 04:57
You expressed no agreement with Strawson in the OP. You expressed strong disagreement; and then asked me if I agree with you and Strawson. Either you'...
February 13, 2021 at 04:46
I also think more than one thing. Given that I had already expressed a view that we are morally responsible, when you asked me: You must have assumed ...
February 13, 2021 at 04:18
Yeah, you do that. I'll be thinking about being reduced to words of one syllable to get past your apparent incomprehension - and then being told, that...
February 13, 2021 at 03:52
In the hands of Descartes, a means of asserting the primacy of the subjective - to undermine the significance of the objective, such that science coul...
February 13, 2021 at 03:41
Not quite. I mean failing to appreciate that science is a valid understanding of reality, relative to overlapping religious, political and economic id...
February 13, 2021 at 03:36
If Strawson is wrong, and you agree with him, that would make you wrong. So, no - I don't agree with you! lol.
February 13, 2021 at 03:31
I really couldn't say. I'm not so well versed in math that I could judge the significance of Descartes algebraic geometry in the history of mathematic...
February 13, 2021 at 03:10
Galileo's Trial for heresy was 1634. Descartes didn't publish Meditations until 1641. Galileo had already made the necessary distinctions between subj...
February 13, 2021 at 02:22
I have some slight suspicion that your congratulations are not sincere, and yet - I accept your congratulations sincerely because I am a philosopher, ...
February 13, 2021 at 00:51
Than what? Some hypothetical stupid version of myself? I value intelligence above all. Therein lies the hope and purpose of humankind; to know!
February 12, 2021 at 20:06
You're almost there. It's about conserving energy when food is scarce. In winter, there's less food around, so the natural tendency is to conserve ene...
February 12, 2021 at 19:50
Humans left Africa 70,000 years ago, and migrated all around the world. We have adapted to local conditions; most obviously, the amount of melanin in ...
February 12, 2021 at 19:41
I've just figured out something that's been bugging me for quite a while; that is, why - when it's cold do we instinctually want to curl up - rather t...
February 12, 2021 at 19:11
Oh, right - so is this book one long advert for Buddhism? I'm not in the market for a religion. I value existence..., I think ego is healthy....., 'st...
February 12, 2021 at 18:43
I don't get this passage in the way I got the last. I can comprehend the idea of the evolutionary organism, inventing god, nation and socio-economic c...
February 12, 2021 at 16:48
I'm learning, slowly, that imagining you can change someone's mind only leads to frustration. You've presented your arguments, and it seems like you w...
February 12, 2021 at 13:22
There seems to be some truth to your concerns, but - I assume you're talking about the work of Chien-Te Tseng, Elena Sbrana, and Naoko Iwata - which w...
February 12, 2021 at 12:43
I see your dilemma but if all you have is uncertainty, would you not weigh that against the public health implications - of voicing those concerns, an...
February 12, 2021 at 10:20
Analogically too, there is a blind-spot, but the essay is completely wrong about its nature and cause. — counterpunch Its the difference between scien...
February 12, 2021 at 10:01
Great. Good to know I haven't made a difference!
February 12, 2021 at 09:49
That's fairly convincing proof you are a medic of some sort. I can't find it anywhere on the web - so possibly not just plagiarised. I apologise and w...
February 12, 2021 at 09:43
No thanks, I had cereal!
February 12, 2021 at 09:40
Right, but the configuration doesn't exist of itself; it exists as a configuration of three balls, a pen drive, a brain. What's at issue here, ultimat...
February 12, 2021 at 09:36
But science does account for subjectivity - admittedly, as an obstacle to understanding to be accounted for and subtracted from the objective, but the...
February 12, 2021 at 09:18
Right, but what you're asking me to do, is imagine three balls - and then take them away, and suppose there's some substance of configuration still th...
February 12, 2021 at 09:14