this diversion onto Materialism vs Metaphysics or Realism vs Idealism is off-topic for this thread. Do you think it should be moved to a new thread? — Gnomon

Vyse noted that "religious and spiritual beliefs promote the assumption that the universe is fair". Then, he adds, "they find solace in the belief that they will be made whole in this life or the next". Perhaps, a non-Christian source of solace is the Eastern religious concept of Karma : that Good & Evil acts in this life will be morally balanced in the next incarnation. Ironically, both approaches to a Just World seem to accept that the real contemporary world is neither fair, nor balanced. As Vyse summarizes : "The universe has no interest in your success or failure, and things don't happen for a reason --- they just happen". — Gnomon

But for the naturalistic holism I argue, we are all contextual beings who have the right instincts because we are being shaped by our lived environments to make choices that on the whole – statistically speaking – lead to the continuing repair and reproduction of that system. — apokrisis

A fact that terrifies 'anthropocentric antirealists' (e.g. Gnomon @Wayfarer) to the point of despair or woo-woo denials. — 180 Proof

I don’t find Linde’s approach convincing. — apokrisis

So in general, science has observer problems. — apokrisis

You can simply switch off the lights and declare that it is all just meaningless symbol manipulation and about nothing at all, which it actually is, if you take the time to think about it. — Tarskian

Sen. Bob Menendez found guilty on all counts, including acting as foreign agent, in federal corruption trial — NOS4A2

So in America, criminality is more acceptable than aging?

Lord have mercy! — L'éléphant

What other monstrosities are they going to discover in the melted plutonium core of Chernobyl reactor number four? — Tarskian

How does reading off a number make a difference to what the dial has recorded? Be as precise as you like. — apokrisis

The problem of including the observer in our description of physical reality arises most insistently when it comes to the subject of quantum cosmology - the application of quantum mechanics to the universe as a whole - because, by definition, 'the universe' must include any observers.

Andrei Linde has given a deep reason for why observers enter into quantum cosmology in a fundamental way. It has to do with the nature of time. The passage of time is not absolute; it always involves a change of one physical system relative to another, for example, how many times the hands of the clock go around relative to the rotation of the Earth. When it comes to the Universe as a whole, time looses its meaning, for there is nothing else relative to which the universe may be said to change. This 'vanishing' of time for the entire universe becomes very explicit in quantum cosmology, where the time variable simply drops out of the quantum description. It may readily be restored by considering the Universe to be separated into two subsystems: an observer with a clock, and the rest of the Universe.

So the observer plays an absolutely crucial role in this respect. Linde expresses it graphically: 'thus we see that without introducing an observer, we have a dead universe, which does not evolve in time', and, 'we are together, the Universe and us. The moment you say the Universe exists without any observers, I cannot make any sense out of that. I cannot imagine a consistent theory of everything that ignores consciousness...in the absence of observers, our universe is dead'. — Paul Davies, The Goldilocks Enigma: Why is the Universe Just Right for Life, p 271

Liz Cheney said on Tuesday that Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) would help former President Trump “illegally seize power” if they were elected on the GOP ticket in November.

Cheney, pointing to previous statements from Vance, drew a stark contrast between the freshman Ohio senator and Trump’s first-term vice president, Mike Pence — whose refusal to abide Trump’s request to reject certified electoral votes from certain states that voted for President Biden turned him into a pariah in many GOP circles.

“JD Vance has pledged he would do what Mike Pence wouldn’t – overturn an election and illegally seize power,” Cheney said on the social platform X. “He says the president can ignore the rulings of our courts. He would capitulate to Russia and sacrifice the freedom of our allies in Ukraine.”

“The Trump GOP is no longer the party of Lincoln, Reagan or the Constitution,” she added. — The Hill

If you can't figure out where to place the epistemic cut, then sure, you wind up trying to put it in the "mind" of the individual scientist making the measurement rather than where it should be, which is out in the instruments designed to produce the mechanical click of a yes or no, an on or an off, an up or a down, etc. — apokrisis

Peirce defined vagueness as that to which the principle of non-contradiction fails to apply — apokrisis

reality is always something being produced by the "monism" of a triadic relation. — apokrisis

Today it would be general relativity and quantum field theory. — apokrisis

Broadly speaking, Mathematical Platonism (deriving from Plato’s broader theory of ‘forms’) is an ontology of mathematics according to which mathematical objects are abstract, timeless entities existing objectively independent of the circumstances of the physical universe in a separate, abstract realm.

Forms...are radically distinct, and in that sense ‘apart,’ in that they are not themselves sensible things. With our eyes we can see large
things, but not largeness itself; healthy things, but not health itself. The latter, in each case, is an idea, an intelligible content, something to be apprehended by thought rather than sense, a ‘look’ not for the eyes but for the mind. This is precisely the point Plato is making when he characterizes forms as the reality of all things. “Have you ever seen any of these with your eyes?—In no way … Or by any other sense, through the body, have you grasped them? I am speaking about all things such as largeness, health, strength, and, in one word, the reality [οὐσίας] of all other things, what each thing is” (Phd. 65d4–e1). Is there such a thing as health? Of course
there is. Can you see it? Of course not. This does not mean that the forms are occult entities floating ‘somewhere else’ in ‘another world,’ a ‘Platonic
heaven.’ It simply says that the intelligible identities which are the reality, the whatness, of things are not themselves physical things to be perceived
by the senses, but must be grasped by thought. If, taking any of these examples—say, justice, health, or strength—we ask, “How big is it? What
color is it? How much does it weigh?”we are obviously asking the wrong kind of question. Forms are ideas, not in the sense of concepts or abstractions, but in that they are realities apprehended by thought rather than by sense.

Sometimes, I don't really get it, or not immediately. At that point, I know that I am close to understanding something that is even worse than all the bad stuff that I have come across already.

I cannot stop because I like too much playing with metaphysical fire. If you have the sensation that you are about to discover the true secret name of Satan, would you stop or would you keep going? — Tarskian

philosophy of the mind is almost never falsifiable — Tarskian

If mathematics is "just string manipulation" then it is indeed "about nothing". — Tarskian

Well the Trump cult does love their delusions. — Mikie

Former President Donald Trump is pledging to supercharge one of his signature trade policies — tariffs — if he's re-elected this November, by imposing 10% across-the-board levies on all products imported into the U.S. from overseas. The idea, he has said, is to protect American jobs as well as raise more revenue to offset an extension of his 2017 tax cuts.

But that proposal would likely backfire, effectively acting as a tax on U.S. consumers, economists spanning the political spectrum say. If the tariffs are enacted — with Trump also proposing a levy of 60% or more on Chinese imports — a typical middle-class household in the U.S. would face an estimated $1,700 a year in additional costs, according to the non-partisan Peterson Institute for International Economics. …

The reason, according to experts: Companies in the U.S. that import goods from abroad typically pass the cost of tariffs onto American consumers; relatedly, domestic manufacturers then often raise their own prices.

The biggest impact of higher import tariffs would likely fall on low- and middle-income consumers because they spend a larger share of their income on goods and services than wealthier Americans.

Letting Ukrainians die and not being prepared to actually risk our own people is horrible. — Benkei

Thomism is all together too in the middle, too ordinary, too boring to possibly be true in any real sense of the word. — Gregory

Western ethnocentrism wanting to call the shots. — ENOAH

"I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution." — Donald Trump

There has never been a US president like Donald Trump — and now he's back, this time with a detailed plan for his second coming.

Nearly four years after he was cast out by voters and accused of encouraging the American people to assault their own democracy with the attack on the US Capitol, the now convicted criminal wants to rebuild the country in his own image.

Ahead of the US election in November, Four Corners reporter Mark Willacy travels to Washington for the first of a special two-part series.

He sits down with White House insiders who witnessed the chaos of Trump's first term — some who continue to support his vision, and others Trump now considers "traitors".

Trump wants to reshape the pillars of American democracy and give himself more power. Willacy goes inside "Project 2025", the blueprint for a second Trump term and the army of recruits ready to carry out his orders.

Meanwhile strategy, security and defence experts warn of the impact another Trump presidency could have on America's institutions, its democracy, and the rest of the world.

Four Corners: Retribution Part 1 — The battle for democracy, will air from 8.25pm on Monday 15 July 2024 on ABC TV and ABC iview.

Trump continued, arguing: “Joe Biden is not the defender of American democracy, Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.”

Do you think (as i recall being led to believe) that "sophisticated" Mahayana practitioners/thinkers sweep the reincarnation aspect of karma under the rug, ignore it? And yet, the Bodhisattva vow includes as you say all sentient beings, so how could they. — ENOAH