• Response to Plantinga's Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism
    I'm familiar with Plantinga's argument (though the iteration I'm accustomed to gives the supposition that our cognitive faculties are geared towards the truth as K, I think R makes more sense); but I'm not sure what D* represents in your argument and don't see it defined. Same thing with O. What are D* and O?Astro Cat

    :lol: The OP is like a jigsaw puzzle with crucial pieces missing. The puzzle can't be solved. We could, however, construct pieces that would fit the other pieces, but that requires work. Admit it, you're lazy.
  • What is the root of all philosophy?


    Like , an irrational - only an approximation is possible. Reduce error and, in more general terms, recognize one's mistakes, awareness of where one could be/go wrong.
  • Biggest Puzzles in Philosophy
    Yeah, fallibilism – "I could be wrong" about that too.180 Proof

    :lol: :up:

    Better to be wrong with Galen than to be right with Harvey. — Ashok Kumar
  • Biggest Puzzles in Philosophy
    I suspect fallibilism is more suitable for a contemporary kynic (unless you're a 'a deliberately homeless, p0m0 luddite') than (Hellenistic) skepticism.180 Proof

    That's a good stance to adopt. Prefix every statement with "I could be wrong, but ..."
  • What is the root of all philosophy?
    Is it incorrect to characterize the above question as a spark igniting epistemological inquiry?ucarr

    No, ex mea sententia, no! However, though the objective is knowledge (theoretical and practical, re sophia), philosophy is also the realization that the epsitemological project it has undertaken is futile, bound to fail). A dilemma presents itself: raise the bar and it's impossible, lower it and it's dukkha (unsatisfactory). @180 Proof subscribes to fallibilism; I myself adopt what I call an ad interim weltanschauung/philosophy (stick to appearances; those who promise ultimate truths are usually charlatans, oui 180 Proof?) Like @unenlightened once remarked, a brilliant observation, "I treat dreams as real until I wake up." :fire:
  • Biggest Puzzles in Philosophy
    I was a Pyrrhonian in my wayward youth and still have great regard for that form of skepsis (incorporating its praxis, along with fallibilism, in my Epicurean-Spinozist 'framework').180 Proof

    Plato's academy eventually evolved into a school of skepticism as per some reports. Did all the work done upto that point lead upto it (knowledged searched, possibilities explored, discovered, later, that certainty impossible) or was skepticism something entirely novel (no Socratic/Platonic roots)?

    You know, I accidentally (re)discovered Agrippa'a trilemma but, as you pointed out, the resultant aporia is distressing, like St. Augustine/St. Aquinas said it is, rather than tranquil (ataraxia). Perhaps I haven't really understood skepticism if that's the case.
  • Biggest Puzzles in Philosophy
    You're a kynic, I'm an epicurean.180 Proof

    :grin: I'm surprised that a man of your caliber isn't a Pyrrhonist/skeptic.

    Just so you know, your memory is exceptional. I wonder if others have noticed.
  • Biggest Puzzles in Philosophy
    Less and less the older I get. (Old dog vs new tricks paradox?) IIRC, the last major change was over fifteen years ago – a radical shift in my thinking about and comprehension of metaphysics (thanks again, Tobias) – and subsequently lots of minor tweaks and refinements, mostly of my conceptual vocabulary. I've also discovered many and developed a few new arguments which I'm always trying to improve. The path itself is the destination, right?180 Proof

    Rigor mortis is postmortem mon ami! I'm done trying to find the true view (satya drishti or orthodoxa): my stance (view) is no stance (no view) - there's a war going on (thesis vs. antithesis) and like a stray dog, I visit both sides - sometimes I'm fed well, sometimes I'm shooed away. I'm a happy dog. Woof, woof!
  • What is the root of all philosophy?
    The root of philosophy, dear OP, is to (try and) suss out the root of all things. You answered yer own question. I guess, sometimes, we don't know how much we already know. Allah Rahim/El Rachum!
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'


    Deeply insightful post. Psychological health is based on, as you said, how adversely one's current emotions/thoughts affect what's a "normal life" (the ability to live, work, and maintain relationships).

    Philosophical sanity/insanity is quite a different animal - the "normal life" psychologists value (as described succinctly and completely by you above) is actually what madness really is: Diogenes' home was a tub, he answered nature's calls & masturbated in public, he was a great philosopher; Socrates willingly drank hemlock; the only real philosophical problem is suicide said Camus to whom we're all Sisyphus.
  • Emergence


    Read this in a meme: Modern problems require Ancient solutions. I deeply appreciate your, I believe successful, attempt to revive/restore/rejuvenate ancient, quasi-logical intuitions (religion) and then link it to modern, logical understanding (science) of our world.
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'
    Sabbe sattā ummattakaWayfarer

    Précisément! If everyone is insane, who do we turn to to lead us to the light? It's like a group of adventurers lost in the woods, each one has a map (model), but all maps (models) are wrong. I suppose my epistemic nihilism is showing.
  • Gettier Problem.
    no false lemmasLudwig V

    Yep, that should've been obvious. A good justification can't contain a false premise.
  • Philosophy Is Comedy
    Long stretch of time with dozens of mock-ups getting vaporized until, one fateful day, the atomic hurricane knocks the latest Hooterville sideways and... it stays upright, un-vaporized. Influx of residents as real estate values skyrocket. Join the cocktail party chit-chat and you're bound to hear someone say, "Are you cotton to the latest take on being post-modern? Gender phantasia!"ucarr

    :up: We're in for a treat!
  • Morality as Cooperation Strategies is complementary to consequentialism
    Claiming something like “Cooperation is moral” fails for just the reasons you describe. People can, and too often do, cooperate to exploit outgroups.

    The recast claim “Solving cooperation problems is moral” does not suffer the same failure.

    This recasting can recognize the cooperation and self-sacrifice within criminal organizations as moral, while rejecting the goal of that cooperation, the exploitation and harm to outgroups, as immoral based on it creating cooperation problems – the opposite of the function of cultural moral norms.
    Mark S

    True that. I guess one is moral to members of a group you belong to to be immoral to members of other groups. Basically its some kinda military pact between individuals and between groups against other individuals and other groups. However, this is the current version of morality that people are questioning the validity of - animal rights, speciesism, vegetarianism, veganism, eco-movements, etc. are attempts to rectify the problem (from pirates to Jains, we must become).
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'


    :up: Indeed, it ain't in any way simple. I'm just questioning the reliability of the entire perceptual and analytical system (mind + senses) - both have been known to lie (delusions + hallucinations + illusions). I'm referring to well-documentesd psychological conditions to support this claim. I guess it boils down to the question "how do you know you're not mad?"
  • On Time and conscious experience.


    It's not a perfect match, but the overall life histories are comparable. It's also a lesson on essentials and true not all individuals are a success story.
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'


    Interesting. Of course those who claimed the mind is a sense have their own (good) argument.
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'
    Why would you class the mind as a sixth sense? The idea that the mind acts as a sixth sense was dispelled by Aristotle, a long time ago. The mind unifies the senses, it does not act as a distinct sense.Metaphysician Undercover

    How, pray tell, did Aristotle dispel the notion of mind as a (the) (sixth) sense?
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'


    Well said and on point! A Buddhist monk, once, was looking up the English translation of a Tibetan phrase and after much gnashing and gnawing of the teeth (he was suffering, but he didn't seem to realize, I kept me mouth shut), he exclaimed "Aha! The Ultimate Nature of Reality". I guess he was referring to the second of the two truths (post demayafication).

    My problem, everyone's except for a few perhaps, is that the only conduit for perception (both of ourselves and the world out there) is our senses (the 5 physical and the sixth, mind) and there's no reason at all why they should be truthful or untruthful. The reality of noumena is not as urgent an issue as the unreliability of our phenomena.
  • Biggest Puzzles in Philosophy
    The point of philosophy is playing with the puzzles, not solving them. There aren't really any solutions.T Clark

    :up: How to answer unanswerables? How to eff ineffables? How to comprehend incomprehensibles? How to explain inexplicables? How to prove unprovables? How to ... basically ... do the impossible?



    Good luck! If I'm not back in 3000 years, I'm dead!
  • Schopenhauer's Criticism of Kant's use of 'Noumena'
    @Wayfarer, the two truths doctrine (re Buddhism)?

    Questions:

    Why would our senses lie to us? Inversely, why would our senses tell us the truth? Is-ought gap? I seen no necessity that our senses be either truthful or mendacious. The ding an sich, whether it is or it is not, is not the most important problem on our hands, oui?
  • What is Aloneness and the Significance of Other Minds?
    A familiar phenomenon, si señor! I haven't personally experienced it though. :sad:
  • Emergence
    We don't "see eye-to-eye", amigo, because – as I've pointed out in over half of my near 300 exchances with him – "Enformationism" is conceptually incoherent and that "The Great Enformer" himself lacks intellectual integrity. Thus, he cannot address these questions (below) without further invalidating his "ideas".180 Proof

    I intellego señor.
  • Emergence
    Btw, I enjoyed The Matrix (only the first movie) as shallow, comic bookish gnosticism, not really a riff on Bostrom's digital update of Plato's Cave. Like e.g. Carlo Rovelli, David Deutsch, Seth Lioyd and Stephen Wolfram, I think the 'laws of nature' are computable even though the universe – like the brain – is not a "computer" (ergo, without some intentional agent aka "programmer")180 Proof

    This Tao of thinking, the one you've so masterfully wielded, is precisely what @Gnomon is doing. Frankly, it puzzles me why the two of you don't see eye to eye. Perhaps, it's form-congruence and content-incongruence.
  • Why do we get Upset?
    Of course it’s much easier said than doneWayfarer

    Précisément!
  • Why do we get Upset?
    What can't you afford, exactly? Being calm and measured? That would certainly map well against your output.Wayfarer

    :up:
  • On Time and conscious experience.
    The speed of life differs from organism to organism. A Mayfly experiences everything a Greenland shark experiences but in a fraction of the time. A mature Mayfly adult is only 24 hours old I hear.
  • Why do we get Upset?
    Sage advice from the Buddha: watch your breath. Don’t pursue chains of thought, or allow yourself to be seized by emotion. Know that everything is transient. Carry on.Wayfarer

    I can't afford that either mon ami! Philosophers, not that I'm one, are some of the poorest folks around, they simply can't afford anything at all, oui?
  • Philosophy Is Comedy


    My own, perhaps idiosyncratic, take on philosophy as joke, a laughable matter, a ludicrous proposition ...

    Philosophy is like one of those small mock-up towns, complete with dummy occupants equipped with sensors, and gas station, and convenience stores, and a children's park, etc., constructed specifically to test the destructive power of atomic bombs (critical thinking).
  • Why do we get Upset?
    Reflecting on my own experience on forums, I’ve become upset mainly when I’m enthusiastic about an idea or perspective and others pour cold water on it. There have been times when I’ve been seriously perturbed by online debates. Debates about religion, philosophy and politics are often like that, one of the reasons that it has been considered poor etiquette to broach political and religious topics on social occasions (although of course this being a forum that is what is expected). But then learning to deal with adverse reactions has also been an important learning, and detachment is an important attribute. One of the best lecturers I had in philosophy had an uncanny ability to present differing philosophical perspectives in a way that was sympathetic to both sides without ever really needing to signal what he himself thought was right. He just laid out the cases, anticipated objections, summarised the issues. I admired that in him.

    It’s also a factor that we live in a period of intense polarisation of views - culture wars, and the like. Many people hold very strongly to ideas that others may feel are absurd or dangerous. Anti-religious ideologues may see all religion as superstition, and fundamentalists may see science as the work of the devil. And so on. It’s one of the background factors in today’s culture. Again it’s where an element of detachment is important - doesn’t mean being apathetic, but learning to make dispassionate judgements.
    Wayfarer

    :100:

    I suppose philosophers above all can't afford to get upset. It's an expensive item, but there are unverified tales of some of them having bought it nevertheless.
  • Morality as Cooperation Strategies is complementary to consequentialism
    The OP is on the right track. Not just consequentialism, even Kantian deontological ethics is about cooperation. "Act only according to that maxim whereby you can, at the same time, will that it should become a universal law." ~ I. Kant (Categorical Imperative). However, in me humble opinion, cooperation is morally ambiguous (re the Italian Mafia, the Chinese Triad, the Japanese Yakuza, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Communist Russia, etc.).
  • Atheism and Lack of belief
    I have become agnostic based on my evaluations of theory, evidence, probability, limitations of knowledge etc.Andrew4Handel

    Try Pyrrhonism. For every argument, a counterargument and/or refutation. The scale of truth is perfectly balanced. This aporia (bewilderment/puzzlement) leads to epoché (suspension of judgment) which in this case is agnosticism.
  • Is Atheism Significant Only to Theists?
    Whether the world is finite or infinite, limited or unlimited, the problem of your liberation remains the same. — Siddhartha Gautama (Parable of the Poisoned Arrow)

    Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là. — Pierre-Simon Laplace
  • Socrates and Platonic Forms
    Socrates was the Greek Wittgenstein or, inversely, Wittgenstein was the German Socrates. The meat and potatoes of the dialectical method is to demonstrate the nonexistence of Platonic Forms (essences). What is justice? Nobody knows.
  • What is Aloneness and the Significance of Other Minds?


    Synchronization, I don't know why I thought of this. Have you heard the expression "their hearts beat as one"? I recall seeing two heart cells kept apart in a petri dish - their spontaneous rhythms were different, they were out of step. When they're brought into contact with each other, after some initial resistance as the two distinct rhythms face each other off, they begin to beat at the same rate. I've heard similar stories about periods of women in the same household.
  • The role of observers in MWI
    There’s actually no empirical difference between those two cases. There is if there was a true superposition, but there isn’t in the cat case. It’s been demonstrated with macroscopic objects, but under conditions which would kill any cat (such as being in a vacuum and almost 0°K).noAxioms

    :brow:
  • Philosophy Is Comedy
    [ ... ] Without laughter there is no Dao. — Laozi
  • What happened to the Weltanschauung thread?
    I just don't see the sinister or aggression of an Agent - no insult intended.unenlightened

    Muchas gracias. No offense taken.
  • What happened to the Weltanschauung thread?


    Rubbin' salt on an open wound? Youch!

    I could be considered an older, glitchy, version of ChatGPT. :cool: