Tom Storm

I think this is largely right. Have you read any phenomenology? My own view increasingly is that knowledge is meaning or 'truth' we create together th...

For me the question has never been what makes a good philosopher, it is what makes a philosopher - good, bad or indifferent? What attributes does a th...

Hmmm. Not sure about that. Ordinary language and the usage of words is one thing. But we quickly learn that people actually hold different understandi...

Hey, you left out Richard Rorty! :yikes:

I guess I went there because I can't separate the two matters; to me they are one. Maybe that's wrong...

You must be a hearse whisperer...

It's hard not to like Kastrup, he is very endearing and he communicates/writes so clearly. I consider myself to be in the naturalist camp but I find i...

I like a black hearse, myself. Consider me a traditionalist.

Is this a euphemism?

How is that different to the strikingly similar work of apologists?

Nice. I wonder why people think we have answers to the question, why is there a universe? Isn't inserting god/s into that hole what you do when you do...

Ok. I had a quick look. Sounds more like the cultural cost of doing math, when a religion is unhappy with it. Anyway let's bracket this part of the di...

How does religion inform math? When I said math can be informed by anything I simply meant that math is practiced via a perspective and this perspecti...

I doubt any of this plays a role in the atheism versus theism debate in general, regardless of any epistemological implications of some beliefs.

Is this not what someone might call trivially true? In the end all views can have a bearing on how you view math, etc. Can you tease out more how this...

Perhaps because it reads like fiction? :razz: Do you have a definition of knowledge for us?

I don't think these claims are convincing. Only if you insist. A 'creator' may also be understood as a woo of the gaps. A creator is a tentative hypot...

I know all this, I grew up in Christianity and I have believers as close friends. We talk. :smile: I think that's one potential reason. I also think f...

I don't think this is immaterial (well technically it is because there's no material evidence, but that's a separate matter) :wink: The key question a...

Surely the point is we can speculate about any number of things - aliens, celestial teapots, god/s - but why believe in any of them if there is no goo...

Could not the same thing be said about Russell's teapot or any number of things we can invent but not assess? I don't think it is tangential, surely t...

Not to me. As I see it, what you described is a method. But there is no relationship between the philosopher and the history of philosophical problems...

It might, but this is a more recent thing. I didn't drink coffee for 5 years and still didn't eat b'fast. Are those huge blue things really blueberrie...

Well, isn't that because atheism isn't a philosophical system? Apart from the positive dogmatists, isn't atheism simply the view that there is no good...

I agree, but I am wondering what those dues would look like.

So in your view to be called a philosopher you probably have to be a professional? The idea of devoting time, attention, effort and disciple would pro...

Ok. I'm general, you're trivial... I get it. :wink:

I normally start the day with a litre of black coffee. I haven't had breakfast since the 1980's.

I would question this; especially the use of the word 'wisest'. I would suspect that many decisions made are instinctive or reactive (not chosen as su...

That seems remarkably optimistic. Don't many people act without thinking and generally choose the low road and/or the easiest, most brutally efficacio...

If this is your view do you think there is good and bad philosophy? You seem to see it primarily as a method.

Sure. You don't think competence and key reading is relevant? I am saying there is a tradition and the philosopher is familiar with this tradition. I'...

So how does it not explain the idea to say that a philosopher is someone who is familiar with central problems and their proposed solutions in philoso...

Ok. I don't see how it is circular. I also defined it in general terms. Generally when someone calls themselves a practitioner, they have competence a...

There are at least three OP's asking this question. Generally they end up winding back to the position that a philosopher has a level of competence an...

That is absolutely true and an important point.

You seem to enjoy a phobic anti-atheist rant. Good for you! However, many atheists are conservatives. Some are fairly right wing. Ayn Rand was an athe...

By the way, there are atheist idealists.

I'm not saying I am an idealist am trying to describe the argument properly Often when I contribute I am not defending my own position, I am trying to...

Well, it's not quite solipsistic because it is not saying 'only I exist'. It is saying we all share the same illusion of consciousness manifesting as ...

A lot of those sorts of questions might be meaningless even though they seem to make sense to humans whose entire worldview is tied up in measuring th...

Well, I guess an idealist would argue that everything we see, we take for granted as real when it is actually a product of mind. Does that count? When...

If you didn't change your above comments, I apologise. They looked even more nasty when I first saw them last night, but now I am used to your abusive...

Gordon Ramsey does a great recipe for Tuscan chihuahua with pancetta and rosemary. I'm not a foodie so I haven't tried it.

This is a philosophy forum - we debate ideas like god/s. If this triggers you, deal with it. I'm assuming you are sober now (as per your own admission...

I'd appreciate that.

And then Tom picked up the gormless chihuahua by the tail and consumed him whole in a single angry swallow. Never could stand that dog...

I normally eat food, Frank.

Nicely put.

Ik dacht, dat hij was een 'oude vriend'... niet belangrijk. :wink: