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The study of atoms in the brain doesn't explain the redness of red;Materialism = FAKE

I can't believe you still didn't get it .

When we talk about politics, there are certain assumptions, axioms if you will, that we start from : that trump exists

Why? Why is "Trump exists" an "axiom" in politics but "Reality exists" not an "axiom" when talking about neurology?

This whole pompous "We're philosophy and we get to decide what kind of discussion we're having" thing is getting old.

Again this is all functionally going "I'm going to make the discussion happen on the level that lets me not be wrong."
 
Why? Why is "Trump exists" an "axiom" in politics but "Reality exists" not an "axiom" when talking about neurology?

This whole pompous "We're philosophy and we get to decide what kind of discussion we're having" thing is getting old.

Again this is all functionally going "I'm going to make the discussion happen on the level that lets me not be wrong."
Demanding that philosophers shouldn't be allowed to discuss what interests them seems kind of authoritarian.
 
Why? Why is "Trump exists" an "axiom" in politics but "Reality exists" not an "axiom" when talking about neurology?

This whole pompous "We're philosophy and we get to decide what kind of discussion we're having" thing is getting old.

Again this is all functionally going "I'm going to make the discussion happen on the level that lets me not be wrong."



Because politics has a definition of what it is concerned with. Even in videos games , we can talk about rules, even though nothing in the game exists in the real world.

Even if Trump doesn't exist, it can't change anything about our world.
 
This whole pompous "We're philosophy and we get to decide what kind of discussion we're having" thing is getting old.

Again this is all functionally going "I'm going to make the discussion happen on the level that lets me not be wrong."

The air quotes are usually what indicate when he's talking to his strawman opponent. They've been really going at it for the past ten pages or so.

Well, at least Joe has. I haven't seen hide nor hair of the other guy. At least Joe is being kind enough to let us know what he says.
 
Agree that we are off-topic.

The 'topic' as I recall was at least (2) fold:

(1) Do we know enough about the brain and consciousness to claim that the brain is sufficient to explain consciousness, and,
(2) Is there a 'hard problem' of consciousness? Is there an ontological divide between physical matter and only measurable quantities like mass, charge, spin, frequency, temperature, etc.; and any possible explanation of subjective experience.
 
JoeMorgue

As for proving whether logic systems are valid, that's the Universe of discource of metalogic, metalogic IS about what is true and why is true in our axioms.

And it has two fundamental axioms :

- Identity (that a = a )
- Law of non-contradiction ( that "A and not-A" is false).

Although I am not a metalogician, to prove that the system is reliable, I have to prove that the two axioms are true.


To do that, I may need to assume they are false, and see what I might get from this assumption :


- Assume : the law of non-contradiction (LNC) is false
- If it is false then LNC is both true and false.
- That is equivalent to : if it is not the case that (it is true and false) then it is true
- Which is equivalent to : if it is true or false then it is true.

That result, means that if the law of non-contradiction is either true or false, then it must be true.

Even if you assume that the law of non-contradiction is false, you always get true in the consquent.

Keep in mind that I didn't use it in the proof.

______


As for the the other axiom , the identity : then we prove that a=a


Let's assume a is not identical to a (a != a)

I start with the result of this assumption : if a is not identical to a, then it follows that a can have property and not have it ( P )

- If for all (x), (x != x) then it is possible that Px and not-Px (with P being a property)
- I already established in the first proof that the law of non-contradiction must be true, whether it is true or false.
- Therefore, it is not the case that Px and not-Px are both true.
- Therefore, x must be identical to x

That's at least the way I would try to approach such questions if I were to look at them from a metalogician perspective.
 
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The 'topic' as I recall was at least (2) fold:

(1) Do we know enough about the brain and consciousness to claim that the brain is sufficient to explain consciousness, and,
(2) Is there a 'hard problem' of consciousness? Is there an ontological divide between physical matter and only measurable quantities like mass, charge, spin, frequency, temperature, etc.; and any possible explanation of subjective experience.

As a side note, when I read the work of Koch and Tononi, and Integrated Information Theory, the answer to the above questions is clearly (1) no, and (2) yes.
 
The 'topic' as I recall was at least (2) fold:

(1) Do we know enough about the brain and consciousness to claim that the brain is sufficient to explain consciousness, and,
(2) Is there a 'hard problem' of consciousness? Is there an ontological divide between physical matter and only measurable quantities like mass, charge, spin, frequency, temperature, etc.; and any possible explanation of subjective experience.


Yes, agree, but the problem is that JoeMorgue introduced an analogy , that the topic of "what is nature of consciousness?" or questions of the sort are akin to us trying to prove what is already taken for granted in mathematics.

I was just trying to make the point that different branches are specialized, and that his objection is pointless , we certainly don't ask questions about numbers and functions in mathematics, but certainly we do in Philosophy of Math or Metalogic, which are branches of philosophy.
 
Demanding that philosophers shouldn't be allowed to discuss what interests them seems kind of authoritarian.

That's like saying only advocating of the Conspiracy Theory should be allowed in the Conpsiracy Theory Thread

Again this isn't the "Everyone agree with philosophy and tell the philosophers how deep and smart they are" thread.

Well, at least Joe has. I haven't seen hide nor hair of the other guy. At least Joe is being kind enough to let us know what he says.

You're too kind.

Believe it or not, I can't make you either way but I do think there is an interesting discussion to be had in the margins here that I wish it was actually possible to discuss.
 
Is this your first time dealing with "Philosopher?"

This is their whole shtick.

Clarity is not their friend.
Not mine.

Roughly thirty years ago, I was teaching microprocessor tech in a private college.

A colleague was teaching C programming in other classes.

Anyhoo, in conversation in the staff room it emerged that his primary degree was philosophy.

So I had to ask the obvious question. "You got a degree in philosophy and ended up teaching programming? How did that happen?"

And his answer was "Philosophy has never put food on anyone's table. I wanted to do something real."

We became friends and had many philosophical discussions. He was a genuinely good bloke. IMHO, he understood where the border between philosophical navel gazing and reality began and ended.

I only ever once saw him get angry, and it was exactly because of threads like this in a different context. I mean real life discussions with a clone of a number of philosophy proponents on here.

The guy never got bent out of shape in any way over any issue. Except when it came to the matter of the pronouncements of the many pretend philosophers. Then he went postal.

Well, TBH, thirty years have passed and I see exactly what so offended him all those years ago. Right now.
 
The air quotes are usually what indicate when he's talking to his strawman opponent. They've been really going at it for the past ten pages or so.

Well, at least Joe has. I haven't seen hide nor hair of the other guy. At least Joe is being kind enough to let us know what he says.

Think I asked you more than once to state clearly what exactly is missing in the explanation for consciousness. So far, you did not answer.
 
Think I asked you more than once to state clearly what exactly is missing in the explanation for consciousness. So far, you did not answer.

We have perhaps billions of data points of coorelation between personal testimony of subjective experience with specific brain structures . . . with not even a wild hunch of a causal explanation of how it might happen. We hear magic talk like consciousness is a computation or emergent property.
 
We have perhaps billions of data points of coorelation between personal testimony of subjective experience with specific brain structures . . . with not even a wild hunch of a causal explanation of how it might happen. We hear magic talk like consciousness is a computation or emergent property.

"Therefore soul."
 
Gotlob Frege.

1. Two "L"s not one, if you going to argue through name dropping at least get it right.

2. And? So? Your point?

"Lookit here! Lookit here! Here's a philosopher who said something about logic! Therefore you can never say anything bad about philosophy" is a stupid argument and it seems to be the only one you've got.
 
“Herp derp philosophy is stupid” derailment again.
At least there can be some valid criticisms of philosophy and support for it being stupid, rather than that "herp derp what everyone says about anything is philosophy" derailment.

I'd love for one person to honestly, earnestly try and explain if it's valid and why we should act as if it were true. To me, it's just like the 'god' argument when one does not define their meaning of the word 'god'; if it could mean anything, it means nothing at all.


My question is "Is there a fact of the matter about whether some action is right or wrong, even if that fact cannot be known with precise certainty?"

My answer is "No"

Science cannot tell us what is right or wrong because there is no fact of the matter about it. Nothing can tell us what is right or wrong.

So we are left with deciding for ourselves what we want to do and don't want to do and to negotiate with others about how we can compromise and live with each of our choices.

You don't even need science for that.
And I think you're demonstrably wrong. There is no "is/ought" dichotomy or whatever it's called, just as there is no "hard problem of consciousness."



Those are tools, that can be questioned in a topic about meta-logic.

Not in a topic about consciousness.

When we discuss consciousness, we use the tools not prove them.

The same goes for math : when you do 1+1 , you use the tools, not question them.

Sure, there are people who do in philosophy of math, and meta-logic.
You want to philosophize about consciousness, great! Knock yourself out.

If you really want to find how consciousness arises from matter, you have to use the language of physics which is actually mathematics.


Besides, if you want to prove that it works, you have to prove that it doesn't work, and see where that leads you.
Sorry but this is gibberish.


If you assume it doesn't work, then you stop there, don't use it.
Interesting. Using the scientific method, one actually does presume "it doesn't work" and even has a handy term for that presumption called "the null hypothesis." But they don't simply stop there with the scientific method. Perhaps that's why problems actually get solved in science and never get solved in philosophy.



An interesting thought. They had slaves to do all the work, so lots of time to kill. No TV in those days, they had to make their own entertainment.
Well they didn't manage to answer any of those questions. They never even seemed to achieve the level of awareness necessary to reject slavery.
Just want to say that, as always, a breath of fresh air you bring to these threads! Just wish you'd post more.


I can't believe you still didn't get it .

When we talk about politics, there are certain assumptions, axioms if you will, that we start from : that trump exists
Why?

Why wouldn't you assume Trump doesn't exist and then try to explain what's going on? Heck, I actually do this (I guess you'd then say I'm doing philosophy right?) in order to test my own mental ideas of how I see reality working and how that may apply to government and aspects of social behavior.


We can concern ourselves with that assumption when we are discussing metaphysics.

Because trying to prove everything in any discussion is crazy, not philosophy.
Well, that's your opinion.

What philosophers do is that they determine their topic, it is called : the Universe of discourse
And once they define that, then they lay assumptions or axioms they agree on ... And then start their arguments from that.
Really? Did you do that prior to posting? I honestly don't recall. How about other threads or other posters in this thread? Shouldn't these other philosophers know of and wish to follow these rules too?


I can't really believe you missed my point in the previous comment.
You can't believe it, really? Or are you implying an insult here perhaps? Do you not assume good faith in other posters or is that not a rule of philosophy?


Demanding that philosophers shouldn't be allowed to discuss what interests them seems kind of authoritarian.
I know, rite?! Or when other posters make several claims to "start a new thread" about "hating on philosophy" or who make several more statements about how their posts are the only on-topic posts and everyone elses were inappropriate by implication.



Yes, agree, but the problem is that JoeMorgue introduced an analogy , that the topic of "what is nature of consciousness?" or questions of the sort are akin to us trying to prove what is already taken for granted in mathematics.

I was just trying to make the point that different branches are specialized, and that his objection is pointless , we certainly don't ask questions about numbers and functions in mathematics, but certainly we do in Philosophy of Math or Metalogic, which are branches of philosophy.
"What is the nature of consciousness" -- what does this question mean, exactly? Define your terms, please.
 
Of course philosophy is not a science.

That's why it is called philosophy.

And Deepak Chopra? Spare me.

He is not a philosopher. He didn't train as a philosopher he trained in medicine.

He never worked as a philosopher and as far as I know no mainstream philosopher will give him the time of day.

He claims to be doing science, he keeps bringing up things like quantum physics to support his nonsense.

So I know some of you are apoplectic at philosophy for some reason, but please, keep Deepak, philosophy never wanted him.

Nevertheless, Deepak remains touted as a deep philosopher.

Personally, I remain on the side that he is full of it.

Yet some folks buy the nonsense.

I have no objection to philosophy per se, Dan Dennett springs to mind.

But Chopra? That is abject nonsense that he spouts.
 
1. Two "L"s not one, if you going to argue through name dropping at least get it right.

2. And? So? Your point?

"Lookit here! Lookit here! Here's a philosopher who said something about logic! Therefore you can never say anything bad about philosophy" is a stupid argument and it seems to be the only one you've got.

Philosophers literally wrote the book on logic.
 
Philosophers literally wrote the book on logic.

*Head desk* You don't get to define yourself as "Every possible way of thinking" and then take credit for every possible way of thinking.

What goddamn "Oh but a philosopher invented logic!" gotcha are you shooting for here?

Please, someone, anyone explain this "Aha! You fell into my clever trap! Everything is philosophy!" retort I keep getting various versions of.

It's like standing over someone's hospital bed after they got run through a carbine harvester pointing out that the life support machine keeping them alive is also "a type of machine."
 

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