The divine presents the possibility for actualization and satisfaction for each occasion of experience (actual occasion or event) but the divine acts through persuasion not coercion. [ ... ] Perhaps artists, musicians and writers [and scientists] are closer to the divine than priests and preachers [and politricksters]. — prothero

The only form I can think of which might be more sophisticated is the thought of the mystics and their extreme forays into the abstruse and their stronger emphasis on the via negativa and apophatic theology ala the Divine Nothingness of Jon Scotus Eriugena — Bodhy

My own tentative view is that we do not access reality directly, nor can we claim any definitive knowledge of what reality ultimately is. What we encounter instead are multiple realities, each intelligible through particular conceptual frameworks or perspectives. The pursuit of a single, foundational, unifying reality strikes me as superfluous in that it overlooks the plural and interpretive nature of our engagement with the world.
— Tom Storm

You have summarized the fundamentals of my personal metaphysics. — T Clark

If no free choices exist, what becomes of notions of free v. unfree choices? They're rendered nonsensical. — tim wood

Can our choices ever be free from determinants, constraints and consequences [spacetime+localiy]? — Truth Seeker

I imagine Japan of the time of WW2 as culturally medieval [pre-modern] in character, the romantic culture of Arthurian legend that concerned itself only with the aristocracy. 'Might is right'; 'death before dishonour'; there are only masters and slaves and only masters have any value. It is a culture of trial by ordeal, where cruelty is not only functional but an aristocratic virtue. I can see how those of the land of Don Quixote, might find an affinity with such a culture, but WW1 I think largely destroyed the vestiges of it in British culture. It turned out that machine-guns have no romance and do not distinguish between gentlemen and peasants. — unenlightened

Got to roll me
Got to roll me
Got to roll me
Got to roll me
(oh, yeah)
Got to roll me ...
Keep on rollin'
Got to roll me
Keep on rollin' ...

I noticed the Sean Carroll quote: "there is no life after death". And I must agree, except [nonsense]. So, a particular form-pattern could in principle be reconstituted, just as computers can copy & paste data. I wouldn't organize my life around the expectation of a better life in the hereafter (bird in hand . . .). But it's a possibility that philosophers could argue endlessly about. — Gnomon

All of reality is merely reified abstractions. — T Clark

In your own view, what are The Forms, which Plato alluded to? — Shawn

As usual, 180 alcohol content responds to my philosophical arguments --- in favor of a Cosmic Cause (hidden hand) for the contingent universe we living & thinking beings inhabit --- with ad hominem political attacks : e.g. liberal (logical) inference bad vs conservative (physical) evidence good. I assume he is appalled at the worldwide popularity of the God of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob, who frequently punished his chosen people with mass death and deportation. 180 may also have had a bad experience with pedophile priests or knuckle-rapping nuns. — Gnomon

Note --- We read the same science books, but interpret their philosophical implications differently. — Gnomon

I think leftists are in the preconventional stage of morality, and MAGA are in the conventional stage. — Brendan Golledge

I can see her looking fast
in her faded jeans
She's a hard loving woman,
got me feeling mean
Sometimes
I think it's a shame
When I get feeling better
when I'm feeling no pain

Did you ever read the “Power Broker?” — T Clark

Yes, and I guess there's always a risk that my kind of reflections are effectively conservative. — Jamal

That’s what’s so compelling in Lefebvre—he rescues liberalism from the charge of moral emptiness not by denying it, but by reframing it. Liberalism isn’t a doctrine, it’s a discipline. It's what we do. A lived ethic of coordination, mutuality, and restraint. Less about asserting the good, more about making life together possible.

And I liked that Hadot echo too—quiet, but clear. Ethics as practice, not rulebook. That’s why the capabilities approach fits so well here: it’s not just about rights or choices, but cultivating the real power to live well. Not a retreat from meaning, but a wager that meaning can be plural.

And still, what is the alternative? — Banno

My dad was a communist turned socialist - how was I supposed to rebel against that? Oh, I remember now, "turn on, tune in, drop out". — unenlightened

I do rather like the developing argumentum ad peanutem. — Banno

Do onto others as you would have them do onto you, and communism: To each according to need from each according to ability. Neither can be achieved, or even approached, in the overpopulated, god-ridden, money-driven, propagandized societies of today. All liberals can do is attempt to mitigate the worst outcomes. In some countries they do fairly well; in others, they fail, get knocked on their keesters, get up and try again. And again, and again.... — Vera Mont

I don't think the answer is found in a dicitionary but a history book. Liberalism and capitalism developed in tandem and share core assumption about the individual, property and greedom (that was a typo but I like it). — Benkei

A pessimistic view is that capitalists need freedom to operate, so they champion liberalism because it diminishes religious and governmental interference. — frank

Assume that the physical in the state of S1 has the caus[al] power to cause the physical in the state of S2. Physical however is not aware of the passage of time. Therefore, the physical in the state of S1 cannot know the correct instant to cause the physical in the state of S2.
—MoK

These misplaced concreteness & anthropomorphic fallacies render your (latest) OP "argument" gibberish, Mok. — 180 Proof

And the essence of liberalism is to justify capitalism with the ideology of equality, individual liberty and property rights.

And not only to justify capitalism, but to justify colonialism, slavery, and class hierarchy. — Jamal

most collectivist thought wants to maximise democratic processes where they are currently barred due to the structure of liberal/capitalism. — Benkei

On your logic, if someone goes looking for the Loch Ness Monster, then there must be a Loch Ness Monster.

Very good. — Banno

an update of Spinoza's deus sive natura, to accommodate modern cosmology — Gnomon