• Wayfarer
    22.6k
    Thus the Great Chain has not only functioned as a complete description of Creation (what philosophers call an ontology), it has also worked as a moral order sanctioning the use of everything. The achievement of the Great Chain of Being was to fold the beliefs of human superiority and entitlement into a single cosmological package.Janus

    A tendentious interpretation.
  • Janus
    16.3k
    A tendentious interpretation.Wayfarer

    It doesn't seem tendentious to me at all. There is no doubt that the idea of a hierarchy of being has been used to justify human exploitation of the natural world as well as those peoples who were considered to be savages. Those are its negative achievements. Perhaps you could say what you think have been the alternative positive achievements and benefits of the Great Chain of Being.
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    The irony! :rofl:Janus

    That you're commenting on it? Yes. You're one of the folks with serious, almost continual reading comprehension problems.
  • Janus
    16.3k
    It just gets funnier! :rofl:
  • Terrapin Station
    13.8k
    It just gets funnier!Janus

    True that.
  • Banno
    25k
    God does not exist.3017amen

    True.
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    Hey bana welcome to the party glad you could join!

    How did you arrive at your conclusion logically?

    Just askin'
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    Don't take this the wrong way but you sound like a preacher!

    Really sounds like a bunch of a priori logic with no experience behind any of that gibberish.

    Sorry it's not very persuasive.

    Try tackling some questions from the OP...
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    TS denies subconsciousness.

    He basically said when you're daydreaming while driving a car and crashing then killing yourself, that you do it consciously LoL

    Go figure...
  • Banno
    25k
    Logically?

    I don't believe in Zeus. Nor do I believe in Yahweh. Nor in any Christian god. Nor in blue flying squirrels.

    Not at all sure what that has to do with logic.
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    It has everything to do with logic. Can you define belief, or in your case disbelief?

    Please tell me how the mind works like Daniel Dennett did...

    I'll see how smart you are with this question:

    If I'm driving my car daydreaming and crash and kill myself what caused me to do that?

    Tick tock tick tock
  • Janus
    16.3k
    He is one of those who thinks that anyone who disagrees with him or questions his reasoning is necessarily failing to understand what he has written and is thus displaying poor reading skills, or for some obscure reason, emotional problems and/or Asperger's. "Go figure", indeed!

    Anyone who denies subconscious mental processes is, quite simply, a laughable fool. :rofl:
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    Amen sister soul!!
  • Banno
    25k
    Can you define belief,3017amen

    Can you?

    Please tell me how the mind works like Daniel Dennett did...3017amen

    As if one needs to know how the mind works before one can hold a belief. No.

    I'll see how smart you are with this question:3017amen

    What does this phrasing say about you as an interlocutor? Are you here just to show off? Why did you think it necessary to say this?

    If I'm driving my car daydreaming and crash and kill myself what caused me to do that?3017amen

    Why the tangent?
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    No I can't but you're supposed to know you are the atheist!

    I'm just getting you back from trolling on my Donald Trump thread LOL

    Anyway, try to answer that question about daydreaming while driving... ?

    Conscious, subconscious or something else? Is the mind a mysterious phenomenon or is it all logical?
  • Banno
    25k
    So I can but you're supposed to know you are the atheist!3017amen

    I've no idea what this sentence is about.

    Conscious, subconscious or something else? Is the mind a mysterious phenomenon or is it all logical?3017amen

    So... you are suggesting that the mind is mysterious, therefore god exists?

    I think you had best put some detail.
  • Banno
    25k
    I'm just getting you back from trolling on my Donald Trump thread LOL3017amen

    I've no recall of that.
  • 3017amen
    3.1k


    Does mathematical abstract ability confer any survival advantage?

    Does music theory have any biological significance at all?

    Do all events must have a cause?

    True, false or something else?

    Is love a phenomenon or is it all logical?

    Do any of those suggest life might be a little mysterious?

    Or are you saying you have life all figured out?
  • Banno
    25k
    Does mathematical abstract ability confer any survival advantage?3017amen

    For mathematicians, yes. And for accountants. Builders and blacksmiths, too.

    Does music theory have any biological significance at all?3017amen

    I've no idea.
    Do all events must have a cause?3017amen

    Do you mean "does each even have a cause" or "do events as a whole have a cause"? In either case the answer is going to depend on what a cause is. Big question.

    Is love a phenomenon or is it a logical?3017amen
    You seem to presuppose that it cannot be both - or neither. Why?

    Do any of those suggest life might be a little mysterious?3017amen
    There are indeed things I do not understand. That does not imply that there is a god.

    Or are you saying you have life all figured out?3017amen
    Not at all. I will leave such to you.
  • Banno
    25k
    If I'm driving my car daydreaming and crash and kill myself what caused me to do that?3017amen

    Well, there will be multiple causes. A cause is an explanation; so what you accept as the cause will depend on what you are doing, what you are explaining.

    Where do you think this leads?
  • Janus
    16.3k
    Where do you think this leads?Banno

    Quietism? :joke:
  • 3017amen
    3.1k
    For mathematicians, yes

    Are you sure? For example, should you run laws of gravity calculations in order to avoid falling objects in the jungle?
  • 3017amen
    3.1k
    I've no idea.


    Does that mean that there's mystery in the world?
  • 3017amen
    3.1k
    Do you mean "does each even have a cause" or "do events as a whole have a cause"? In either case the answer is going to depend on what a cause is. Big question.

    Your doggon right it's a big question !

    Alll events must have a cause. It's a kantian synthetic a priori judgment. A synthesis of two concepts: experience and a priori logic..

    I don't have an answer but if you do I'd love to hear it????
  • Banno
    25k
    Eventually. It gets a bit rowdy on this ladder...
  • Banno
    25k
    So fill out the argument. You leave it hanging. Are you claiming that mathematics incurs no evolutionary advantage, hence it must come form some other, divine, source?

    Because that's not a very good argument at all.

    So, being a charitable chap, I'll leave you to enlighten me.
  • Banno
    25k
    Does that mean that there's mystery in the world?3017amen

    If you mean are there things I do not understand, then yes.

    But that does not imply a christian god.
  • Janus
    16.3k
    Does that mean that there's mystery in the world?3017amen

    Does 'mystery' signify for you just stuff we don't know, or something else?
  • 3017amen
    3.1k
    You seem to presuppose that it cannot be both - or neither. Why?

    You're right it could be both!
    Because if I walk in front of a running train to save my loved ones, that would transcend an animal's need to survive. It's called altruism.

    Does Darwinism account for altruism?
  • Janus
    16.3k
    Does Darwinism account for altruism?3017amen

    Altruistic behavior also exists in animals and can be a beneficial adaptive strategy for social groups.
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