Philosophical Speculations

Honestly, even though at first idealism simply seemed like an interesting yet surprisingly logical ontology, the more I thought about it the more existential anxiety welled up in me. I'm at the point where I'd happily "convert" back to physicalism if I could still believe it to be true, w...

We've all heard about those poor psychiatric ward patients who claim and are convinced that they are some famous historical or religious figure. We treat this as a mental illness, but in the framework of idealism, do you think it is possible that these people simply start to REMEMBER? At one point B...

There's a new video on the Essentia Foundation website titled "Blobs of Order". While scuba diving Dr. Geerken got into a situation where she got totally disoriented and isolated from her friends and everything that was familiar to her. She describes how that primordial fear of "being...

Isn't this somewhat at odds with your signature? No, because "consciousness" is not an entity, it's not a "thing", it has no "I". The "I" is just another mind-fabricated abstraction. How can the "I" be a mind-fabricated abstraction? I mean, of cours...

Honestly, even though at first idealism simply seemed like an interesting yet surprisingly logical ontology, the more I thought about it the more existential anxiety welled up in me. I'm at the point where I'd happily "convert" back to physicalism if I could still believe it to be true, w...

I don't know how uncommon this is, but at least half of the time I dream in 3rd person. I don't experience the dream from the POV of the dream avatar, i.e. it's more like a movie than a 1st person shooter game, but I still identify with him/me the same. While dreaming it doesn't even occur to me tha...

No. I don't. What is it, in this Idealism of yours, that is causing you angst, which isn't present in physicalism? A lot of things. Firstly, the notion of eternal existence. This may seem strange, since most people would prefer for reincarnation/afterlife/heaven etc. to exist, but I have been terri...

No. I don't. What is it, in this Idealism of yours, that is causing you angst, which isn't present in physicalism? A lot of things. Firstly, the notion of eternal existence. This may seem strange, since most people would prefer for reincarnation/afterlife/heaven etc. to exist, but I have been terri...

Honestly, even though at first idealism simply seemed like an interesting yet surprisingly logical ontology, the more I thought about it the more existential anxiety welled up in me. I'm at the point where I'd happily "convert" back to physicalism if I could still believe it to be true, wh...

Note that I'm not arguing for that supremacy of the psychedelic (or any other) state over the waking state, I'm just saying that there's simply no absolute point of reference from which you can establish the measure of truth. I wouldn't have put much thought into this either before I actually had a...