Philosophical Speculations

Given the level of organisation of the Guerilla Skeptics, it would be great if the Essentia Foundation or some other motivated folks kick-started a Materialism Skeptics group of Wikipedia editors. Yes. I hope Essentia has an explicit Wikipedia strategy. If not, they should get one. This is what it ...

I just want to say thank you Simon for doing this. Your wikipedia edits will be read by a lot more people than anything in this forum ever will. True progress. (albeit in micro steps, this type of progres is of the concrete, measurable type) I second that. Thanks Simon. Re this thread, many people ...

FYI, this topic was also extensively discussed in the old forum, where I think the consensus was that BK posits one alter per organism. Here is the link to that discussion: https://groups.google.com/g/metaphysical-speculations/c/mba518Vbk7c/m/lfzLZg5iCQAJ This discussion from the old forum re cell c...

Questions for BK: BK, as far as I can see, assumes there is one alter per organism (in contrast to someone like Nietzsche for whom the body 'is a social structure composed of many souls'). So, my questions are: - What do you think of the idea of each cell being an alter? - Why would bacterial cells ...

Very good writeup, explains subtle philosophical issues in a clear, simple and straightforward language. Personally I have no fear of existential void and do not need a higher authority to define the meanings of existence for me, I'm able to do it for myself. Neither do I fear explanatory gaps. Tha...

Psychedral has just written a great essay on the topic of this thread. It is in defense of "Divine Idealism" and is well worth a read : https://psychedral.medium.com/what-does-the-philosopher-fear-7879d79b8132 He is critical of the implications of BK's version of idealism, which, he writes...

AshvinP, again you put that very clearly and it really helped. It also helped me see that my main gripe is just that he sounds like he's laughing at materialists for saying that we have an inner image that is nothing like whatever is out there, and then, in another context, he marvels at how cool i...

This take on the influence of Platonism on Kabbalistic ideas is exceedingly long (I barely got one hour into it), and goes into such historical detail as to have an overdose effect, but it may help address your question ... Thanks. But Platonism is more idealist than panpsychist. I'm really trying ...

Yes, the Essentia Foundation looks like it has some great stuff.

I don't know about attaining a 'bird's eye view' of what reality is really like, but surely an indelible realization of That which one is in essence is exactly what stepping out of the segregated maya-self view of a nature><culture/subject>< object divide is what mystics, whether through a practice...