Manuel

I don't believe that killing civilians has justification, nor celebrating death. All I am saying is that the situation in Gaza particularly, is quite ...

I thought I had a general idea of what you had in mind, this last post leaves me unsure: As I understand it, one of the things you are trying to say, ...

Sure, such language is excessive, and war is horrible. Nevertheless, one can imagine living in Gaza under some of the worst conditions in the world, i...

To a small extent. As far as I can recall - it's been several years since I read up on this topic in depth - Iran offers more direct help to Hezbollah...

Oh sure, it's extremely expensive. And even then, it's not a guarantee against some of the most basic missiles which can be made. But as long as the U...

https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/7/from-hubris-to-humiliation-the-10-hours-that-shocked-israel Interesting article. Makes some good points.

Those rockets look like they belong to Hezbollah to me. I don't doubt Hamas has some limited access to a few precision rockets, but not too much - Isr...

They're called "Qassam rocket" and the cost ranges from $300-800 https://jinsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Memo_Evaluating-the-Danger-from-Gazas-We...

Reminds me of some portions of Dhalgren sans the violence. It's difficult for a book to disturb me. Sounds fine - will add it to my reading list. Than...

Yeah, you are probably right. There's a recent quote by the Israeli defense minister, "We will change the face of reality in Gaza years from now." Thi...

Now we are in deep waters: what would you say does not count as knowledge, which plays a role in our attempting to deal with or accept or deal with th...

Yeah, 198 Palestinians killed. I wonder if having captured civilians will make Israel use some degree of restraint when bombing Gaza. It may.

Yes, ontological principle which makes us postulate "external objects". It becomes very murky very quickly.

Surprised that the Mossad did not know about this at least 70 Israelis killed. Now Gaza will feel - for the umpteenth time - the hell of the Israeli m...

I might read it myself, sound intriguing.

Another massacre... Hamas has hostages this time, I've read. And yes, as mentioned, exactly what the hardliners in Israel want.

Whatever is out there, strictly speaking, cannot be called "objects" - there no good neutral word for it that comes to mind, unfortunately. So, let's ...

I mean, if you have Descartes in mind, as you did in the OP, then sure, certainty can arise in this topic. In such cases of looking for certainty, it'...

Yeah, and that's what's paradoxical. We usually don't tell boring experiences in the manner we felt them, few people would tell you: I got to work at ...

Then that is rare for me. Actually, the first 240 pages of Gravity's Rainbow were close to being unreadable. One almost has no clue what is going on. ...

Then I'd suggest that you weren't actually bored, maybe you were reading it in a disinterested manner. But boredom to me, carries negative connotation...

It might be a different conception that drives our view, I believe I follow what you are saying. But, my intuition is that there may be something ther...

Ah. Sure, there's content in that, has to be translated, but it can be interesting.

What's interesting to me is that it's not too frequent - in my experience. That something one has read which one find boring, ends up having much impa...

I know this is a year old, so maybe you wouldn't say exactly what you said, maybe you would. You think Plotinus' conception of the One to be comparabl...

If Schopenhauer is right, which he might be, I share that intuition, I think that the mere awareness of say the feel of moving your arm, is the closes...

I entirely agree. Still, when the occasion arises in which some of these things could be addressed, perhaps in an indirect manner, then we should use ...

But this sounds as if experience is experience of something that is only a representation and nothing else in any case. I don't think that follows, ar...

I mean if you have that in mind, say, sleepwalking through life or drowned in consumerism or some other metaphoric use of the term, I still think the ...

Yes, there are these kinds of intuitions, such as this is not me, or that is X not Y. Infinity too, is something we extrapolate to, without really und...

It's a dense and informative OP, as expected from you. I am however a little perplexed by what the main point is, are you suggesting that the self exi...

Because our experiments show us that the data we are receiving reacts from something that is not merely mental - in other words, there is retrodiction...

I think this depends on the field in question. Like, if you have ordinary manifest experience in mind, then you can say something like we have a model...

While I agree that it is not possible to separate epistemology from metaphysics, I think you are trying to make the distinction way too strongly. Yes,...

Astronomical and physics based evidence suggests otherwise, if you take these sciences seriously, you have to seriously consider that the external wor...

Good summary. I don't see anything that should be too controversial in that, heck if you just stated I think there is a world absent us, that could've...

It can be taken as being that view. I think it is worth remembering that, ever since the shift in philosophy, from metaphysics to epistemology - Desca...

Constrained in relation to what? Also, experience of what? Absolutely sense-data or sensations or however you want to call it, is fundamental to any m...

Sure, relativity or classical physics are not changed if we consider ourselves idealists or eliminitavists. But given how a non-trivial amount of meta...

Either we hold onto some kind of metaphysics or we do not. If we deny that metaphysics is legitimate, then we are left with the view that all there is...

Maybe the rhetoric will change several years after this war is over - that is, if it finishes without an accident happening. It's well beyond that poi...

Finished: Chomsky & Me by Bev Stohl Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

Then his power is limited. Or he is not the kind of being we usually take him to be: all good, all powerful, etc. Or we could have the wrong ethics - ...

I think this is quite fair, in that we can do away with some of what Kant emphasizes in the simple number of categories he uses to render objects mani...

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to suggest that Kant's system fails or falls apart, it's very good. Spacetime is indeed a form of synesthetic a priori judg...

Yep! I am rather familiar with it, though I could perhaps use a brush-up or two. But it will be a while, since I've read him more than any other. Whil...

"Here we have a wide ocean before us, but we must contract our sails." I believe so, otherwise it seems to me we are stuck in Berkeleyan idealism. But...

Sure. But what I had in mind is something like Schopenhauer's version or maybe even Mainlander, though I have to read him more closely to see if he do...

It's a technical term, which can be used in several ways. The issue is, is there a better way to think of what counts as "empirical"? What prevents th...

You have baited me. :cool: As I've told you, I find Kant very good, but I think this level of technicality may be excessive, so I'd either change the ...