General Philosophy

What would happen if the theory of everything that physicts are looking for proved the universe had a design (but no designer). How do you think scientists would react?

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson's philosophy of innate rights: "unalienable Rights" "Life Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." In 1996 Adrian Bejan's discovery of a new law in thermodynamics: "constructal law" "For a flow system to persist in time (to live), it must evolve freely such that it provides greater access to its currents." Today we explore the science of rights with the following correlation: For a flow system to persist in time (to live) [Life], it must evolve freely [Liberty] such that it provides greater access [the pursuit of] to its currents [Happiness (positive feedback)]. This one-to-one mapping of unalienable…

From a non religious point of view, How is it not wrong to marry or sleep with your father ???? (non religious) I know the religious point of views being a Catholic.

Hi everyone, Do you think control over your desires are possible?

When I read about physics I cannot help but think that phycists maybe barking up the wrong tree, as outlined in an article titled 'Is Theoretical Physics Wasting Our Best Living Minds On Nonsense?'. They don't seem to be answering what is surely the most important question, in fact phycists like Laurance Krauss don't think its important at all, he seems happy to just take it for granted. So my question is what is the deepest mystery of physics and why is it so?

how would you overcome mental/physical torture? I have heard of some tribes that trained themselves to overcome discomfort and shows no signs of suffering while being tortured for long time, how is it? what do you think was their mindset or training that allowed them to overcome it?

How can you overcome schizophrenia or perhaps leverage it to attain useful insights in any aspect of life? It seems to me that it has the potential to make the mind infinite because of the exponential nature of the vicious circle created by the disease, if certain conditions are met, but may be I am wrong, let me know what you think. The paranoia part of the disease might connect unrelated ideas in the past, and the other part of the disease might generate more directions/viewpoints/divisions inside an imaginary graph(making it grow exponentially) of what's going on in a schizophrenic patient, as I understand. A similar question might be: imagine for a m…

Hello there, First of all. I barely have any knowledge on science or philosophy. And Englisch is my 2nd language. However, i do have a question regarding science. Is it true that a scientific theory can only be overruled if someone points out the flaws in that scientific theory AND has a opposing hypothesis or theory him/her -self? Or will a theory also be overruled if someone points out the flaws of that scientific theory without a opposing view (hypothesis or theory)? Thank you!

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This has been placed in philosophy, it is a metaphysical idea. Metaphysics is a generic pointer which could assist in the development of new physics and science, I have spent many year studying cosmology from the life cycle of stars, to the evolution of planetary systems. I have a clear conceptual understanding of relativity, time dilation and other matters. This idea may have already been debunked, but it is in my opinion it is important to publish it because it might develop a new line of thinking. The idea is simple and I hope I can explain it clearly in the next few paragraphs. Gravity is the enigma, which could be considered the final puzzle of m…

I think this may belong in philosophy, however not entirely sure. What is the meaning of mathematics? By this I mean what is its purpose/function? Is it a tool which is used to formulate relationships between different variables in order to develop constants in order to give characteristics/ properties to different things? Is it a whole different universe with distinct rules which are to be followed like our reality in order to develop and analyze this mathematical universe? Is it to model the real world and then see how they interact with this mathematical universe? Is it meant to capture changes in different things and there behaviors? …

im not sure what section this topic should be in, so feel free to move if necessary. i was discussing a topic with a work mate and wanted some input. also the topic/question may be hard to explain, but here goes. the way our brain works seems to be a mix of of calculations and feelings. we get up in the morning to go to work(calculation) we see on the tv that its snowing outside and get warm clothes(calculation) we go to the toilet (it could be argued this is a biological calculation) we are hungry(calculation) but then we have to choose what to eat (feeling). another scenario we can calculate that by driving faster we are more likely to cr…

Any ideas?

ive been having a philosophical debate with someone about the concept of who is to blame in an example. imagine a scenario where 2 neighbors have an issue. the neighbors generally get on very well until now. joe is happily washing his car when greg from next door comes strait over and starts screaming at him about a noisy party he supposedly had last weekend. greg kicks the tire of joes car a few times in anger. in retaliation joe starts arcing up and goes over and kicks gregs tire. he misses the tyre and kicks the panel, causing damage. and of course the problem escalates from there. joe could have handled the situation diffe…

In this thread I would like to discuss what the title describes, the possible boundaries in which knowledge can analogously extend towards. By this I mean what are the limitations in how much we can learn about the observable world in which surrounds an intelligent system, an intelligent system being one which can combine previous observations in order to develop new models and systems which can better describe that said observed world. I would like to begin by define a few postulates I have used in order to develop this understanding. Postulate 1) matter in this universe, no matter of scale, can neither be created nor destroy. Only changed Postulat…

But then again, anything without truth is a waste of time. Take history. I see that there is no history section around here. Which is just as well. Because Napoleon said, "History is a set of lies agreed upon." And Tolstoy said, "History would be a wonderful thing. If it were only true." Much of history comes about through the winners of some conflict. As it is said, "History is written by the victors." Also, it is said, "In war, truth is the first casualty." For the winning side, it remains a casualty. I could tell you truths about history and back them up that would cause the paint on your walls to peal. But not here. I know this because I have been banned …

Knowledge is a collection of memories that you have been taught to remember. Tests are merely a recollection of these memories. So there must be a more efficient way to implant these memories rather than the repetition of the education system. What do you guys think?

Hi everyone, Now, I know this question is very old and the subject has been discussed loads of times, but personally I've always felt a little bit disappointed by some of the answers - especially scientific ones, believe it or not. I'm not saying I'm looking for a religious or spiritual answer, but rather a more philosophical one. The scientific community will often say that there is something rather than nothing because there can be. Their theory allows for something to come into existence, seen as how nothing is not really nothing at a quantum level. I'm not even trying to dispute that, because they might be right - perhaps a whole Universe can pop into existence f…

The following is based on the supposition that unity comprises multiplicity in order to realize itself. The interaction of unity and multiplicity is called ConsciousNess and regarded as an inter-extrapolation that relates in a viewpoint which manifests ConsciousNess.* * (The particular spelling is to emphasize the relativity of Conscious: purposeful, aware – and Ness: being, existence) In 2750, an Egyptian priest of Ptah paraphrased it like this: “The seeing of the eyes, the hearing of the ears and the breathing of the nose report to the mind; the mind is the centre of cognition, the tongue expresses the cognized” – and since this cognition consists …

Punishment for the previously punished? or Revenge for the victims of the previously punished? Or???

Hi everyone, I wanted to create this thread because of the duration of time itself. Time cannot have a duration of more than zero seconds. Time having a duration of more than zero seconds means that when time is one second, an amount of time that is the duration of that time passes and time is still one second, which is impossible.

What is consciousness? I'll start this with an example, let's suppose someone has Alzheimer, he can forget his name, he can forget where he lives or who he are, but he won't ever forget he's something, by the way he doesn't even have to remember it, he just is. It's like there is a sense of existence in each one of us that goes beyond our comprehension - which we can call life -. When and how something inanimated became an animated being? When it started to exists? What is it that we call existence? IMO it makes more sense to believe there's "something more" we can't explain, it can't be just our brain and its impressions. Life itself is transcedental.

The way mind processes data reflects in its offspring, the computer. However, the coordination capabilities of latter improve continuously, whereas mind seems to have problems handling the increase of external & internal, objective & subjective data. More often than not, this is blamed on its hardware, i.e. the physiological aspects, yet rarely on the programs that coordinate the data, despite that many of them are obviously outdated, inefficient, hijacked by emotions and/or malwares which question the capabilities and sometimes even deny the functions of mind, thus impeding the possibility to repair & update its software. But to alter something requires…

A discussion started in the People who believe in God are broken thread which I think is probably off topic, so I have started a new thread. I will try to highlight the relevant posts but I suggest you read that thread to get a better understanding. Response, Villain: Response, imatfaal: Response, Villain*: Response to Villain*, imatfaal: Ecoli response to Villain* comment: My response to the above two comments is as follows: The primary function of sex in my mind is reproduction and the by-product is pleasure. No one is denying that sex is pleasurable, but to think of a baby as a undesirable hardship or risk …

So. I've been listening to an audiobook on Einstein's theory of relativity, introductory stuff. And in my basic knowledge of the subject direction, much like speed, is relative to the observer. If two people were on the same map but their compass key were different they both could navigate based on different directions. Could this concept be applied to people's 'moral compass'? Why does it matter in judging other people's choices or the direction they take if our destination is the same?