Darwin says... — Harry Hindu
The special faculties [of h. sapiens] clearly point to the existence in man of something which he has not derived from his animal progenitors--something which we may best refer to as being of a spiritual essence or nature, capable of progressive development under favourable conditions. On the hypothesis of this spiritual nature, superadded to the animal nature of man, we are able to understand much that is otherwise mysterious or unintelligible in regard to him, especially the enormous influence of ideas, principles, and beliefs over his whole life and actions. Thus alone we can understand the constancy of the martyr, the unselfishness of the philanthropist, the devotion of the patriot, the enthusiasm of the artist, and the resolute and persevering search of the scientific worker after nature's secrets. Thus we may perceive that the love of truth, the delight in beauty, the passion for justice, and the thrill of exultation with which we hear of any act of courageous self-sacrifice, are the workings within us of a higher nature which has not been developed by means of the struggle for material existence. — Alfred Russel Wallace
It is simply a process that engineers organisms to master changing environments, like cockroaches and human beings. — Harry Hindu
We've already been over this, Wayfarer. Several others mentioned mathematics also which I already showed that you need a visual experience of symbols, like numbers, to do math. Try doing math without having seen any numbers, or a number of things, to then add, subtract, multiply, and divide. How would you know to perform these operations without seeing symbols like +, -, *, and /?I took issue with intitial statement 'every idea is composed of some sensory impression'. I gave mathematics as an example but there are many others - see this. — Wayfarer
I could say the same thing about what you said about Plato. - "Right, 'Plato says', so it must be true.Right! 'Darwin says', so it must be true! Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, never accepted that h. sapiens intellectual abilities could be explained by Darwinian principles. — Wayfarer
And my point is that you must have had some sensory experience in order to reason. If you didn't then what form does your reasoning take? What is it that you would reason about?Point is that you must have had confidence in basic principles of reasoning in order to accept evolution. Therefore it doesn't make sense to say that observation of the ways of evolution provides you with that confidence. — Mongrel
As to whether 'statements of logical principles might mean different things to different people', it might be relevant to note that formal logic developed in both Western and Indian philosophy, and that many of the basic outlines were similar, even if the details were different. After all, it's hard to imagine how the Law of Identity or the Law of the Excluded Middle could could vary between cultures, isn't it? — Wayfarer
Well, asking for proof is an implicit acceptance that you and I can agree on what constitutes 'proof'. — Wayfarer
Besides which, logical proofs, like if B>A and C>B then C>A don't require individual assent, i.e. it's not a matter of opinion whether the proposition is true. — Wayfarer
The ridiculous thing about people that think that there is an internal is that they have zero deferences. They're entirely transparent as if they're the only one's in the world. I can tell people what they're going to say before they say it, and then tell them that I can read minds. It really mind fucks them. — Wosret
Principles are expressed by utterances of sentences. One is free to take it on faith that a particular expression is understood in the same way by two different people. Question is: can you prove it? — Mongrel
Sorry, can't help you Harry. I don't know what the hell you're talking about. — Mongrel
What form does logic take? — Harry Hindu
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