Manuel

That's fair. But I do think that if one takes into account his sometimes ridiculed account - which is severely underappreciated - of "common notions",...

I'm reading it slowly, want it to last. So far, amazing. Beautiful language, exotic location, interesting ideas, quite fun too, which never hurts. Thi...

I agree, but then we enter into difficult terrain, I think it wouldn't be too crazy to speculate (based on the evidence we have, in part) that they ha...

Descartes says that there yes, but I'm skeptical if he believes that as quoted, given other textual evidence. The senses are the spark. But it's a bit...

That's right they reach very similar conclusions so far as the usefulness and dependability of "folk psychology" (I dislike the term "folk", but, it's...

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville

Somebody tells tomorrow that new military technology which looks bright at night, it could be confused for a star. Or we see the "star" moving very, v...

Sure - this was a phenomenon common the classical tradition of the rationalists and the empiricists, they believed that the contents of our mind were ...

It's a part of it, I think, though he does have a very strong optimistic streak so far as the extent of human reason can go in attaining knowledge. He...

I don't have to tell this to you, I'm kind of "typing out loud" here but, he really doesn't deserve the amount of crap that is often levied his way, i...

But you don't recognize a star by sense, you recognize by the intellect. You see with your eye, but judge with your intellect. The world doesn't speak...

We can suppress them (the senses) to an extent. But it's the intellect which calls the shot when it comes to making truth claims, on this latter part,...

I am not decided on the issue. I certainly have rationalist sympathies, but am unclear if it’s an issue of senses misleading or us mis-judging the sen...

And that’s already an issue. Do the senses decieve us, or do we misread them? The senses do what they so, react to stimuli (internal or external).

You could have involuntary movements in which case your hand is not being commanded by the will, in such cases you could say that the arm (or hand) is...

Yes. It does - we need to account for the existence of math, for instance, and whatever it is that math is a structure of. One assumes elegancy. Who k...

Sensible. Well, in so far as there is something "beyond physics", which is my intuition, that guess is perhaps as good as any other.

What you say is true. And it's what the physics tell us. But does this mean (I'm asking semi-rhetorically) that the nothing you and I have in mind is ...

Mysteries are creature dependent. What's a mystery to a dog, is not mystery to us. The universe just is, but its existence and resultant properties ar...

I'll grant this no problems, but one ought to mention exceptions, like Cornel West. Granted, such figures are rare, but they exist.

That's one way to look at it, and it good way too, it shows a path to intellectual honesty. Provided we are cognizant of the fact that the Ancient Gre...

Sure. That's why that thread is there, for precisely such questions.

@"Banno" already asked, but I think @"RussellA", @"schopenhauer1" and @"Janus" could ask Chomsky for clarification on these issues. He usually respond...

Let us pray to the quantum field vacuum, might be a sentence uttered by Lawrence Krauss. It's missing something, but it's hard to argue, in today's ag...

Probably Jamal and T. Clark are the same person. Not only the avatar, but the quarrelling is almost too well choreographed. . . Never mind, let me get...

That's too much Zen. Destroy the few things that one enjoys? Tough.

Well, one could add, without books the philosophy would be a lil' lacking. And sometimes, those books ain't cheap. We may debate the fancy cars, the s...

I'm sure he did, his actions proved that. It was a very general remark on a tendency, not an absolute. Roger Waters is also filthy rich and owns expen...

This is a most definite possibility, likely even. Once you're spending that much money on cars, are you really going to care about other people?

Mehhhh. I think Rolls Royce downgraded once they decided to change the exteriors of the cars, this new version here is better than what they've had in...

Well dude you're going to starve waiting for a reply. It's convenient at times to use recordings instead of typing things out. But truth is, the quest...

Well, first of all, very good explanations of the pronunciation of the word "dance" in different accents. I do still think that the way you first refe...

I am skeptical that dance can be pronounced neutrally. :confused: Good sir, tis' a delusion. I highly doubt we don't say it one way or the other.

What?!? No fair! What's the shabby way? :rofl: :lol:

So, we have the word "dance", right. In England they pronounce it kinda like "duhnce", but in Merican' we pronounce it "dense". Very sus.

Perhaps you might get more mileage out of this thought experiment if you argue that I am this, where "this" denotes the existential intuition that you...

"Materialism is the view that every real, concrete2 phenomenon3 in the universe is physical. It’s a view about the actual universe, and for the purpos...

Well, one could say that the moon being mental is surely a very hard problem. :joke: Seriously though, I hope I won't forget it but, if the issue aris...

It's a terminological choice, more than substantive one, though there is some substance. The qm phenomena are curious and interesting, but an extremel...

Our commonsense notions lead us astray in regard to the nature of the world. That something can be at the same time a particle and a wave in superposi...

“In short there are two principles, which I cannot render consistent; nor is it in my power to renounce either of them, viz. that all our distinct per...

:up:

Yes, in a sense modern QM at least, does once and for all demolish the once very popular, and still intuitive belief, of "dead and stupid matter" - we...

I follow Strawson here, everything is physical, and that means everything. It's a terminological choice, but a coherent metaphysical one, which focuse...

It appears to be a near-universal intuition that mind is somehow different and separate from matter, a form of thinking that sticks with us and appear...

I think something like that is true. Occasionally you'll get some scientists say that we don't really understand what gravity is, while many other say...

Finally finished Leibniz New Essays, though of course extremely interesting and quite brilliant in parts, he is prone to meandering too much for my pa...

Hey man good to see you writing about these kinds of things for a change! :smile:

Oh sure, plenty of silly mysticism surrounding this topic. Which is strange, because, as I think you would agree, consciousness is what we are most ac...

A solution to the hard problem is to recognize that it is merely one of many. Back in the 17th century the "hard rock of philosophy" was the problem o...