I read Krishnamurti from about 1978-84, but I realised that 'reading Krishnamurti' (and even listening to his talks) would only get one so far. — Wayfarer
But I think teachings are very like the Buddhist Prajñāpāramitā teachings. (Actually the Dalai Lama said the same.) — Wayfarer
But when he asks 'is it possible for the content of that consciousness to be dissolved?' the answer is: it's extremely difficult! — Wayfarer
(like what happened to Jill Bolte Taylor, the neuroscientist who had a massive stroke which also turned out to be a spiritual awakening.) — Wayfarer
I think the first cause, in order to be a cause of all else, has to have some form of internal drive. This must be intelligence. — Devans99
Why don't you care about it? — Devans99
Why? You're giving this thing human properties such as drives. They don't necessarily apply to it. How do you define "drive" anyway? Does the moon have a "drive" to revolve around the earth? That statement is just too vague. — khaled
Whatever this first cause is it's either no longer a factor, or is one of the forces we see in physics — khaled
The universe is fine-tuned for life — Devans99
Is autonomous movement possible without intelligence — Devans99
People are wasting a lot of time working on models without first causes.
3m — Devans99
Its important for cosmology; — Devans99
No it's not. If it was why would there be so many useless stars and planets elsewhere. Why wouldn't it be just earth and the sun. — khaled
Why not? — khaled
And why should I care about cosmology exactly? — khaled
We know how and why particles go where they go and there is (almost) no unexplained phenomena left. Whatever this first cause is it's either no longer a factor, or is one of the forces we see in physics. Maybe the first cause was gravity, or electromagnetism, or some mystical force that no longer plays a role because we don't detect it. — khaled
That is only the prime mover argument - 1 of 10 and anyway, that seems a good axiom to me. — Devans99
link to Philosophical dictionary pageaxiom - A proposition formally accepted without demonstration, proof, or evidence as one of the starting-points for the systematic derivation of an organized body of knowledge. — Philosophical dictionary
An axiom is an assumption, not a proof. An axiom is declared only because there is no proof (of the concept in question). If there was proof, we'd just state it and move on, wouldn't we? — Pattern-chaser
I only adopt them if they are very likely to be true. — Devans99
axiom - A proposition formally accepted without demonstration, proof, or evidence as one of the starting-points for the systematic derivation of an organized body of knowledge. — Philosophical dictionary — Pattern-chaser
If you guess that cause and effect is (say) 99% likely - 0.99 probability - where do you get that figure from? What is the statistical science that justifies and demonstrates a numerical probability for this value? How do you assess the probability of an axiom being true? A simple, clear and explicit answer would be appropriate, and appreciated. — Pattern-chaser
OK I estimate I witness 30 instances of cause an effect a minute, so that's 43200 in a day, 15,379,200 in a year versus no examples of causeless effects. That 99.99999% certainty from 1 year of data. — Devans99
We assume that cause and effect hold to get our everyday lives done. — Devans99
I think the statistics I've given — Devans99
To call them proofs, or anything more definite than the guesses they actually are, is misleading and damaging to the reasoning which follows. — Pattern-chaser
Anyway, that the large number of observations you made, and that they all confirmed your expectations, is not "statistics". Medians and means, and normal distributions: those are "statistics". — Pattern-chaser
Those are for the aliens to live on. — Devans99
Explain how autonomous movement is possible without intelligence then? — Devans99
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.