Philosophical Speculations

Ashvin wrote: If God were to "transcend" consciousness, as in phenomenal experience, then how could we ever experience His activity or know that He exists? Such a God may as well not exist for any of our intents and purposes. That, of course, is not the portrait of God we get from the Chr...

For the past few days, I have been reading an old science-fiction novel that (up to now) has been exploring the definition of the individual, the person, the self. The story includes a character who is purely a simulation in a computer, a software program that can be moved from one computer to anoth...

Jim Cross wrote: Many problems arise from the assumption that there actually is a self (or something) that is having the experience of qualia. Even Bernardo falls into this when he argues for survival beyond death. Many Eastern approaches (especially the Buddhist) have the belief that this apparent...

Jim Cross wrote: the brain does not compute in a Turing sense but that is actually simulating the world. Simply modeling the world, rather than try to compute it, does not require the computing resources which the biological brain would lack. If the modeling is based on analog and wave principles, ...

Jim Cross wrote: Who says every experience can be described with an equation? No one that I know of. There are many non-computable problems. I don't know if Lorezop meant that literally, but physicalism does indeed reduce everything to physics, and physics is math-heavy. Yes, there is the three-bod...

Lorenzop wrote: I don't see how materialism (brain produces consciousness) is compatible with qualia. Specifically, if every experience can be described with an equation, or set of equations, there is no need for the word 'qualia' . . . that is, using phrase 'qualia' adds no additional value. IOW, ...

Jim Cross wrote Nice for your to take a shot at this but I'm not following your argument at all. I tend to agree with Jim. In any philosophic venture, one can begin with a basic argument that makes sense. BK did this. The only thing we "know" is that we perceive. Consciousness defies any ...

Ref video at Here is a wide-ranging discussion in which, oddly enough, a secular polymath, without endorsing religion per se, scoffs at atheistic argumentation masquerading as science. There is a great deal of metaphysical perspective, although not very much of Idealism. Even so, for those who ask s...

From a Science Website: The more we learn about fast radio bursts, the less we know about them. [End quote] From a non-science website: Professor Tumuch Lerner announced today that scientists have agreed to stop making new discoveries. “The problem,” he said, “is that the more we discover, the less...