I had the opportunity to listen in and ask a question on a Zoom call on a discussion/debate between Robert Sapolsky and Eddy Nahmias. It was hosted by the Agency and Responsibility Research group and moderated by Thomas Nadelhoffer. We can get their bios off the actual discussion itself. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2uSJbW3RUw I won't go through the … Continue reading Nahmias
Tag: consciousness
I thought I would have a crack at Hinduism. I asked ChatGPT to summarize the core aspects of Hinduism, and it gave the ten sections (in italics), which I reordered. Overall, it is not a tradition or set of traditions I can buy into. There are about 1.2 billion Hindus worldwide, with many traditions and … Continue reading Hinduism
People have a strange capability of believing weird things. Some examples: The world is flat The moon landings were fake Vaccines are harmful and microchips The Earth is only six to ten thousand years old Donald Trump was worth voting for a second time Angels and jinns Karma and reincarnation Afterlife Divine Birth of Jesus … Continue reading Beliefs
Scientism is used as a pejorative. I could argue it is a reaction of philosophy to science, in a similar way that Luddites react to technology. Generally, scientism is seen as a use of science that is in some way inapplicable to a phenomenon or circumstance. ScienceBut first, what is science? Well, it is a … Continue reading Scientism
Here is a summary of where I think I am. Subject to change. The Chat AI suggested the following "pithy" descriptions:1) Process Monism2) Naturalistic Realism3) Agnostic Pragmatic Realism4) Causal NaturalismI think I will go with Process Monism, as it "Emphasizes [my] belief that everything is part of an unfolding, interconnected causal process rather than discrete … Continue reading My Position
I have not posted in a while, so I thought I'd post this brief interaction with ChatGPT on the subject of consciousness as an epiphenomenon. The program, I have to say, is a smooth-talking bastard, but in a good way (a way that I like).Incidentally, the image is created by ChatGPT (DALL·E 3) I asked: … Continue reading Epiphenomenon
In his book Things That Bother Me: Death, Freedom, the Self Etc. Galen Strawson gives some of his fellow naturalists a hard time. The book is a collection of essays and two of them deal with consciousness is some shape or form. The interesting thing is in the second of the two essays Strawson argues … Continue reading Real Naturalism
I am going to tackle a difficult problem here. I am not an expert here, not even an expert on my own experience of consciousness. Quite often it is described as The Hard Problem. Some pundits don’t see it as a problem at all. Problem or not, all is not well in the house of … Continue reading Consciousness
A little while after James died, I got into discussions on what is sadly now the defunct AgnosticForums website. More than one of its threads touched upon free will. Initially, I thought the discussions trite, I believed I had free will, and even if I did not have free will, the whole thing was pretty … Continue reading Free Will
rom's corner 