Philosophical Speculations

Maybe I am misreading too, but how are you reconciling the bold with the underlined? You say you refuse to make the metaphysical leap of attributing consciousness to non-life, and then immediately say it is not a great leap to assume consciousness can be "composed" of [presumably non-cons...

I think you have misread me. First, I do not posit energy as what Kastrup calls the ontological primitive. In fact I have gone out of my way to emphasize that no such thing is even possible. I do say that energy is the lowest element in our experience, at least so far, but that in no way implies en...

You see your problem here is that "energy" is something you say you observe, it is a quality of experience you have observed, you see stuff, say it is distinct from yourself and call it "energy", an idealist simply reduces your postulate of undefined "energy" into the ...

All I can say is my experience , including over 30 years of meditation and a long time musician, is very different from what you describe. On the other hand, Idea is always a reduction of a reality that cannot be grasp as an idea. That is exactly my point. When the bold is " all you can say &q...

Without energy there is no consciousness. Therefore consciousness arises from energy. Without water there is no consciousness. Therefore consciousness arises from water. Without air there is no consciousness. Therefore consciousness arises from air. Without proteins there is no consciousness. There...

All I can say is my experience, including over 30 years of meditation and a long time musician, is very different from what you describe. On the other hand, Idea is always a reduction of a reality that cannot be grasped as an idea. JW ... As mentioned earlier, I've been thinking of starting a music...

I am convinced it should be relatively easy to nail someones metaphysics down whether they regard metaphysics as some flawed western thought program that got ahead of itself and contaminated our mental habits like Jeffery or whether they believe it is alive and well, a field dedicated to connecting...

It isn’t a matter of taking “behind” literally, but noting its structural role impeding a real understanding of that time. It is difficult to avoid using metaphysical concepts because it is so hard for us to think without them; and when we slip up we project our habits of thought onto a time when t...

I have reservations about Jasper’s theory of Axial Age, but for here I’m limiting my discussion to the Greeks from Homer to Socrates, which is in that time frame. All we know of the Greeks of that time is from the fragments of poems and philosophy and can make no conclusions about how the general p...

I will just say again, this obsession with the outer form of this word "idealism", an obsession which itself is a result of modern philosophical abstraction, is causing a lot of confusion. What you write in bold is practically the same thing Scott is saying (although it is at tension with...