Tom Storm

Many contemporary atheists would not say that. There's plenty of evidence, from The Koran to personal experience. As an atheist I would simply say the...

I'll check it out and thanks but I suspect it will be too impenetrable for me. :up:

I don't fully understand this question. Based on what criteria of value or against whose scale could you possibly measure such a question? The glib an...

That made me laugh. :fire: Interestingly the words of progressive theological thinker David Bentley Hart frequently come back to the 'wonder of being'...

The metaphysics of presence is a key preoccupation of the post-structuralists like Derrida. Wiki has it like this, although I am unsure of the reading...

Fair point. It's likely to be Aboriginal culture/spirituality, which I don't pretend to understand but it is hinting at human nature having an opennes...

I think the problem is that progress is hard to define and aligned with worldviews. Hence the internecine battles between 'progressives' and conservat...

Interesting. Attitudes are central to this. I've been debating this idea of progress (mostly badly) for decades. Not as a philosopher but more simply ...

Could be. It's probably down to the notion of god which has historically been posited as the foundational grounding of human knowledge. So we get the ...

Great, thank you. I note you said this earlier: Is this your view about the question "what is being?" more generally, or is it your view of the Heideg...

Does this count as ambivalence? :wink:

That's a tantalizing notion. Thanks for the context. Do you agree with Heidegger?

Can you explain to me why Heidegger viewed Nietzsche as the last metaphysician? How does one read Nietzsche this way?

Do 'properly basic beliefs' or 'basic beliefs' mean anything in contemporary philosophy? I'm assuming they come out of a foundationalist epistemology?...

Dumb question but is Heidegger an important figure in philosophy?

That's an interesting phrase - is that your own formulation?

The issue with this is that people perceive things with certainty through their senses all the time and yet are mistaken in their conclusions. Given t...

So you see Trump as a kind of necessary disruptor and as such a harbinger of change? What legacy do you envision?

:up: Interesting observations about the engineering process. I'm always envious of people who have models or texts they admire and are guided by. I've...

Nice. Thanks again.

I think a key issue of our time is that we no longer know who should be in charge and we no longer draw easily from reassuring metanarratives. Many of...

Can you outline what you have in mind here? Do you mean using experience to make assessments and decisions? Does this depend on the area? Surely certa...

Thank you. That's what I was wondering. My understanding is that Dreyfus' reading is now considered somewhat limited, is that your view? Would you cla...

Out of interest, and briefly, how do you personally describe a figure like Trump? From your perspective, what kind of President was he and what did he...

Is post modernism a critical aspect in obtaining a better reading of Heidegger?

Thank you.

I get you. I believe I recall you saying that you found the approach of fallibilism problematic. Although from my perspective it seems we often have n...

It's a nice quote but I'm not sure I fully get it. Can you expand?

Always figured it was a 1960's utopian position, based on some purported tribal value systems, where all things (objects, resources and land) are held...

Do you use the term justification for this process?

Got it. Does this privilege forms of truth involving empirically verifiable matters? How do we deal with issues such as, for instance, the band Cream ...

I think it's pretty fashionable to be pessimistic about the notion of social improvement. If progress means to move forward or onward to more advanced...

This is an important point for me. What you write about knowledge is thought provoking and reminds me that I am an outsider to philosophy. Would you s...

The snake is the hero in this story.

:up:

:lol:

I've met many atheists who used to be fundamentalist Muslims and Christians. People do respond to arguments and do find their way out of religion. It ...

:ok:

The problem with scripture is interpretation full stop - allegorical or literalist. Just look at the confusions amongst Christians about matters of do...

I find the unforgiving cock smell goes away with a liberal application of baking soda and water. Just rub it up and down until it goes all frothy. :ro...

Could part of this incommensurability between members be that only one of your John Thomases is circumcized?

I understand. Many Christians reject the Bible stories as engaging fictions but still mange to believe in god. The great American model for this was t...

Seems to me that Hoffman's recent work might be an edifice built on top of Searle's 'the bad argument.'

I'm looking forward to this.

The burden of proof on is on anyone who makes an extraordinary positive claim. There's no empirical evidence for the non-existence of Bigfoot or fairi...

Bruce taught me short story writing back in the 1980's.

I would argue that the question might also be why should life NOT have meaning to people? Humans seem to be machines for making meaning - drawing conn...

My atheism has slightly different foundations - I don't argue there is no evidence. There's plenty of evidence (personal experience, the existence of ...

Actually our 8 year-old at the time allowed a heater to burn some paper in her room and it caught fire and burned down our place. We just managed to g...

I don't really consider evil to be a human attribute. Perhaps disfunction is a better word and it removes the quasi-religious nonsense. For me if ther...