Philosophical Speculations

What does science tell us about the universe? ⁠ 1. Start with sense perception. 2. eliminate EVERYTHING about the experience except measurements. 3. Discern invariant mathematical patterns (otherwise known as laws of nature - I'll refer to them as IMPs) and compare the mathematical behavior of varia...

Hi folks: I tried this in another post. Perhaps presenting it as a formal, point by point argument will be better. 1. Before an alternative ontology is proposed, it is necessary to establish as clearly as possible that empirical (as defined by present day science) data does not provide ANY evidence ...

Wonderful essay and interesting critiques. Just a few brief suggestions: BK's analytic idealism vs intuitive idealism: I think there's room for both. I don't think BK has done a good enough job playing by the rules of materialism and explaining his ideas. The problem with materialism is not really a...

Here is what I think is the single best approach to challenging materialists.

Please note that he starts by talking about the fundamentals of physics in terms of "particles' - please don't let this lead you to reject it; he revisits this at the end.

also, you have to specify the nature of just what "It" is that exists in the absence of qualities. There is no direct evidence - at least, evidence that counts as evidence - that science has certain knowledge of anything that is nonqualitative, or to put it another way, knowledge of anythi...

My understanding was not that Hoffman was claiming there's NO accuracy in learning/memory/perception (I'll refer to this as LMP) but rather, it's very limited. It's limited to that much information which is sufficient to support survival. in that case, I don't see that your critique is relevant to h...

Good questions. of course, Berry is not being literal but symbolic. Here's a "non-thought" experiment: Notice thoughts arising on their own. Notice that the contextual awareness which englobes the thoughts has no boundaries. Notice emotions arising. Notice that the thoughts and emotions ha...

The British poet Owen Barfield has a brief passage in a book of essays on "the coming tragedy of materialism" in which he - to my mind - sums up the simplest, most fundamental challenge to physicalism: in the very small area of types of knowledge that modern science generally allows, there...

Since first coming across Bernardo's writings in 2013, I've felt that a wonderful accompaniment to his philosophy would be various contemplative art forms that inspire a calming, a peaceful awareness which allows the conceptual boundaries which seem to separate us to be seen as mere overlays, not co...