Manuel

It seems we are an impasse here for the time being. I propose to park the conversation here and we can pick it up in some other thread, maybe by then ...

Because you equate it with scienticism. It does not need to be so equated. If you reject the scientistic association, then many problems go away. The ...

That's fine. I call the stuff that the world is made of "physical stuff" or matter, you can call it "energy" or "idea" if you wish. It could cause ter...

But that is a stipulation that mind is above matter. What does that mean? Why can't mind be a specific configuration of matter? Is there a principle i...

I thought you were saying that all creatures had access to same basic structure. If so, then I was going to reply by saying what you just said "animal...

I was not evaluating your comment, I was asking if this structure is what you think is the same for all creatures - as I did not understand your speci...

Sorry I overlooked this. I am not following. So, some microphysical thing?

If experience comes from organized matter, then it comes from the brain of certain organisms. I don't see these terms as polar opposites. I'm a scient...

The world. The actual world. The hard thing to tease out is what belongs to it absent us. That's a hard question. I think the evidence indicates that ...

OK. Good. We see something, right? This something triggers a reaction in our minds such that we call it a "tree". We don't see a tree first and then l...

I mean, either the universe is 13.7 billion years old, or it is not. That's a factual statement. If we never arose, there would still be something the...

They don't bump into something; we conceptualize that something as a tree. Cats "climb" something (as opposed to go up? or latching on?). Yeah, they s...

Can they? Do dogs see trees? They see something for sure, they don't have the concept "tree", nor do we know how they individuate objects. When it com...

I agree, for the most part. I would even venture to say that experience itself is not ontologically different from matter and energy, but epistemologi...

Ah. Fair enough. To be clear "idealism" covers a lot of ground, as does "materialism". It's a matter of what one emphasizes, it seems to me.

Apologies if this is a forced intervention, but you brought up something interesting. Isn't this the case with most of us? We have a certain view and ...

What's always puzzled me about questions such as these is that they tell us almost nothing about goodness. We should do what is good, granted. Why? Be...

Sorry Anthony I can't participate at the moment. Don't have the capacity to focus too much on W now. But will return soon to this thread hopefully.

Not sure about degrees, but of amount of confidence. As Russell said (forgot where) the highest degree of confidence belongs to my percepts. The secon...

Yeah. As the much cliched quote goes, war is politics by other means. What can be done through war, can also preferably be done through political nego...

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/europe/russia-launches-icbm-strike-against-ukraine-as-war-escalates/articleshow/115524889.cms

I understand that. But we are speaking about nuclear powers. You have to measure if your principles stack up against the real possibility of nuclear a...

I was replying to your comment. Of course, literally, no war is forever. But they can be very long, like Korea, which is still ongoing. Winning is sto...

Correct. But NATO is making it worse, not better. We will see how it pans out shortly. As you probably already know, we were literally one word away f...

Yeah, they will take more land. It might be a forever war. But negotiations have to happen. Ukraine simply cannot beat Russia now the numbers don't ad...

Last I saw Kiev was functioning. It wasn't like Baghdad was left. I mean full and total devastation of Kiev. Yeah, in an ideal world they would just t...

In my scenario, the US would eviscerate Cuba and attack Russia. But I am not here to debate this topic with you or anyone else. After nearly 3 years, ...

That's right this does not threaten them. But it is US and UK soldiers using US and UK machinery firing into Russia. Imagine Russian missiles being sh...

Yes sure, that may well be the case. But we know that "limited nuclear war" cannot be fought with those two countries. It's a total fiction.

I don't know how much more evidence one needs to know that Russia is being serious. It is being left without options.

This is horrifying. Worse that many American and some Europeans think this is a good idea - not all of them to be clear. I don't understand how people...

Is Sartre worth reading? I've only ever read his novel Nausea, which was really good. I find his phenomenology (the bits I've read) dubious, but you'v...

Yeah it was very quick and as far as I know, not very effective. Just not a good idea. But I believe we have different takes on this war.

And now Ukraine can send missiles into Russia. Great.

Ah sure. I mean the way I see it, is that Republicans keep going further to the right (than almost any other developed country on Earth) dragging Dems...

Yes, the 60 votes rule is now a serious problem. I don't know what it will take to get the Constitution amended again. I don't quite follow what you m...

:100: Well. Let's hope we make it out alive during these 4 years. Maybe we will have a good strategy by then.

Yeah - this view is wild to me. Sanders is too far left damn,,, Sanders would fit into right wing political parties in Europe. The American people mus...

Well - maybe in certain situations such a measure could be appropriate. In the meantime, it's not as if one is going to go to Truth Social or some sit...

It's very hard to fight against cults. Just looking at some of the survivors or people who quit - it takes a lot of time and they usually have to hit ...

I have seen your political posts and discussions here and elsewhere. I frankly don't think there would be any point in discussing these matters with y...

It's hard to say. We can only hope for the best and try to help out whatever way we can to combat this right-wing plague surging everywhere.

Your son is Australian right? He will be fine if he's white, most likely. It's black and brown people that will have an issue, sad to say. Maybe anoth...

It should be evident very soon. The people saying I regret voting for Trump" will come put so quickly. It is so predictable and maddening. Along with ...

You know, I suppose the only silver lining here, quite literally (for me), is that I think Trump is right on Ukraine IF he is honest about it. That vi...

Then let's speak of an idea of a tree then. Are we going to say that an idea of a tree exhausts what a tree is? Or let's take his example of time, doe...

True, the 1.5 goal was already surpassed this year, but the important issue is to avoid going much further beyond that. Now it will be almost impossib...

Well, I mean if Trump just completely cuts most (if not all) climate regulation and accelerates oil extraction then it is most certain we will not rea...

True, but before no states had abortion bans. It's fine for individual states to get that right, for sure. Sucks bad for those women who can't do much...

I explicitly referred to developed nations. I don't think it makes much sense to compare Germany to Ecuador. You can do so if you want to, but it woul...