Revolutionary Jews From Spinoza to Marx: The Fight for A Secular World of Universal and Equal Rights by Jonathan Israel — Maw

I am surprised no one has started a thread on this — Manuel

He just died. Surprised there was no mention here.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/19/books/daniel-dennett-dead.html

RIP — fishfry

No more 'resting in peace' than there would be for cars cut up for scrap. — Wayfarer

Our interpetations are constrained by the nature of the world including ourselves, so it's not right to say that we create the world. — Janus

The bodymind interprets what is given to it precognitively. It doesn't create what is given ... — Janus

One of the surprising discoveries of modern psychology is how easy it is to be ignorant of your own ignorance.

Like many other natural wonders, the human mind is something of a bag of tricks, cobbled together over the eons by the foresightless process of evolution by natural selection.

Philosophy is to science what pigeons are to statues.

There’s simply no polite way to tell people they’ve dedicated their lives to an illusion.

The task of the mind is to produce future, as the poet Paul Valéry once put it. A mind is fundamentally an anticipator, an expectation-generator. It mines the present for clues, which it refines with the help of the materials it has saved from the past, turning them into anticipations of the future. And then it acts, rationally, on the basis of those hard-won anticipations.

The mind is the effect, not the cause. — Daniel Dennett, d. 2024

I'd wager less than 10k civilians killed. — BitconnectCarlos

open supporters of terrorist groups — BitconnectCarlos

You're an atheistic materialist. No? The universe has no real meaning/value save what we choose to impose? — BitconnectCarlos

I am a moral realist[naturalist] who disagrees with both theses — Leontiskos

Thesis 1 and thesis 2 represent two categorical claims:

All human acts are moral acts
All interpersonal acts are justice acts

What is the breadth of the moral sphere?

Some human acts are not moral acts

Some interpersonal acts are not justice acts

What are your thoughts on self-sacrifice in this instance? — BitconnectCarlos

I do not see how "the afterlife" is a primary motivating factor. — 180 Proof

Do you understand the scenario? — BitconnectCarlos

structure and function — bert1

Consciousness is not structure and function. — bert1

So, if I've understood your question properly, consciousness abstracted from any functioning system is indeed impersonal, in that sense. — bert1

All true. But what of self-sacrifice in an instance where, according to the social reality, it would seem completely futile? [ ... ] Do we still self-sacrifice here? — BitconnectCarlos

I can't subscribe to a philosophy that doesn't know what knowledge is; it would be contrary to my daily experience. — Vera Mont

[W]hat is the point of doing philosophy? — Angelo Cannata

Are there things in the physical universe that we can never find out? — Vera Mont

If so, is that due to our limitations or time constraint?

Are there things beyond our range of perception, ...

beyond our ... imagination or

our ... ability to devise instruments?

Or are there things we are not meant to discover ...

or not able to comprehend?

It seems like you are anchoring your ethics in reducing harm, and not progressing towards flourishing. — Bob Ross

I don't think that the negatively, intrinsically valuable (such as 'harm' that you refer to) is more valuable ... — Bob Ross

All across the country ... These are
Trump abortion bans. — Kamala Harris, VPOTUS

heroism and martyrdom — BitconnectCarlos

Do you have any thoughts? — Bob Ross

some varied (modern) readings:

• On the Genealogy of Morals, F. Nietzsche
• Human Nature and Conduct, J. Dewey
• The Sovereignty of Good, I. Murdoch
• Reasons and Persons, D. Parfit
• Natural Goodness, P. Foot
• Creating Capabilities, M. Nussbaum — 180 Proof