I don't see how you can say this, because when the ocean is calm there is still an ocean but no waves. So it is impossible that the waves contain the ocean. — Metaphysician Undercover
A wave is a particular form. It is impossible to imagine a calm ocean as one big wave, because it does not have the appropriate form to be called a wave. — Metaphysician Undercover
The difference is that I've told specifically what I find wrong with what you say. ...whereas you just make vague generalizations like the above-quoted one. — Michael Ossipoff
I wouldn't call it an organism. It was the mind (The Dao) that began the process. Pretty straightforward Daoism.So the mind of some one-celled organism decided to make it procreate a more complex organism.. — Michael Ossipoff
Alright, Rich, how do you account for there being a human species on the Earth? — Michael Ossipoff
How about the knowledge we can (!) have about what is causing our own behaviour at a certain moment, this simplified internal representation of a complex causal structure is what partially governs both our actions and future orientations, never mind the observation that it's the obfuscation of this knowledge from the outside world which gives us a sense of freedom with it. — Gooseone
If one can't make distinctions between the ocean and the waves within it, there's no reason to make a distinction between the Earth and the oceans and lands within it or the universe and the objects within it. — Thanatos Sand
It's profoundly obvious, that the ocean does have waves, and not vise versa. — Metaphysician Undercover
Simply ask yourself, can you imagine a body of water without waves, and the answer is yes. Then, can you imagine a wave without an underlying substance which is waving, and the answer is no. — Metaphysician Undercover
So, if we define free will as the ability to make choices and choice as the ability to imagine different scenarios, entertain their outcomes and pursue them, then the kind of subjects who have free will are those who have a sense of self, possess imagination, desires and are able to act on them. Then, clearly, you and I have free will, while your teapot doesn't. — Πετροκότσυφας
I don't find it hard to agree with both sides of this. From the outside, one is dealing with the continuity of the body, which is born and continues 'the same body' until it dies. And that can be true, at the same time as, from the inside, he is not the man he was. There is a tradition - is it Native American? - of changing one's name after a life-changing experience (like marriage, for instance?). — unenlightened
If the truth here is relative, why try to help him regain his memory? Why talk of a "fugue' state? Why point out the abnormality in his brain chemistry and physiology? — Banno
Because that seems to me to be an error. — Banno
Identity is not memory. Loose all your memories - and it is still Rich who can't remember. — Banno
And since the living body is a property, there must be something (a soul) which has that property. — Metaphysician Undercover
That's fine; if that's who you imagine yourself to be, I won't argue. How does this identity manifest itself in your life? — unenlightened