General Philosophy

I recently posted a discussion in one of my online college courses wherein I laid out a case for determinism. Explaining that free will is actually an illusion, that everything is predicated on prior causes, whether they be environmental, situational, biological, neurological, etc. Pretty much all of my classmates rejected my case, each of them citing various ways in which they have free will (beginner/newb arguments, all of them). One girl said that she had a best friend who got murdered by her boyfriend who wrote a facebook post prior to committing the murder, which showed premeditation, and showed that he had a choice whether to commit the crime or not. I tried to expl…

QR: (Quantum Reality), Infinite particle possibility, speed of light the infinite freq wave.

This is a consequence of Special Relativity and ,although it has been empirically demonstrated it still seems "unreasonable" to common sense. It seems like it is a fact of life nonetheless and I was just wondering can we generalize from the result or do we just take it "as is" and just apply it to such circumstances as it applies to directly. I realize this question must have been asked on countless occasions. I don't think I have an agenda but hopefully I may learn something if anyone has a view;

I'm currently thinking of a fallacy where a person - usually angered by an accusation they believe is false - attempt to retaliate against their accuser by engaging in the very acts which prove the accusations true. To fit this criteria, the accused person cannot merely act in a dishonorable way. Rather, he must engage in the very specific actions which landed this accusation in the first place. For example, suppose a man is accused of being violent. Enraged at this accusation, he then proceeds to beat the crap out of his accuser until that accuser withdraws his statement. Alternatively, suppose a man who believes he is being persecuted by corrupt government g…

The scenario: There's an inbound planet-killing comet, one week out: Would you want to know? But in order for you to know, everyone knows. would that change your answer?

A very simple question but one that is quite likely the product of a garbled thought process (so apologies in advance): Is it possible to conceive of motion without the concept of time (either time per se or time as measured by a clock and a signal) ? Are Motion and Time joined at the hip? PS I am only posting in Philosophy because I fear my question may be too insubstantial for the Relativity Forum where I intended to put it

If you have to choose, which one do you think is more important and why? With experience you can gain knowledge..... and with only knowledge you gain and learn from other people's experience.

I'm sitting at my farm right now. Sitting and thinking...and writing as well I suppose. Obviously! Lol! I was working on the gardens earlier and stumbled upon a rabbit hole. Made me think of Wonderland. Maybe you are trying to picture what a real rabbit hole looks like? They're quite plain actually. Nothing more than a dug out hole in the ground. Bits of nibbled grasses around it, and some droppings, tufts of white fur. When you look in though, all you see is black. The smells of distured dirt and aggravated roots emanate from its depths. Want to go down there? Of course you do. Let's go! Ah you made it! What took you so long? Never mind that right now, we're here!…

Do you think people that meditate will find it easier to get into states of flow? Why or why not?

Studies have been found that once all of your basic needs are met, any more money that you make is only going to bring you temporary happiness but then you go back to your base line of happiness. Do you all think it is not possible for a homeless man to be happy? Can the brain be trained to be happy no matter what the situation?

My first time here…maybe just a stupid thought… If you put empty space inside an empty space…do you then end up with two empty spaces? Or is the one now no longer empty because of it containing the other empty space? Do they add up to more emptiness? Does emptiness absorb added emptiness without growing because you add nothing? Would that mean that all emptiness fits into nothingness since it actually can contain itself inside itself? If so then it is impossible to have an actual empty space…so emptiness should be able to expand… That’s strange since how can nothing add to something? Emptiness is a nonexistent thing; always something is? What exists outside som…

This question rattles in my head for a long time now. Is it possible there are milions of layers uppon layers of "realities" and we are barely scratching the surface of the first layer with our current understanding of the universe? Is it possible that each of those milions of "realities" have their own distinct physical laws completely incompatible with each other? On one hand this might seem a little depressing but when you think about it from evolutionary and existencial point of view this might be an atractive concept. If we would find the "holy grail" of physics and understand everything that is, was and will be we would loose our curiosity and essencialy our main dr…

I have some different ideas about how the brain works, and want to know to what extent they make sense. I a recent college graduate but have only ever taken one psychology and one philosophy/linguistics class, so it is difficult for me to see to what extent the theory adds up with the science. I think that words, language, the imagination, and consciousness as we know it are results of an evolutionary adaptation to the vocal-auditory system that produced the first "thought". I think the mechanism that allowed this was sub vocalization. Internal, self-referential gestures. As you know, how did language evolve? is a very difficult question to approach. However, I think…

Is motorbike riding as dangerous as everyone claims? Is there any chance that driving cars may be more dangerous than riding a motorbike? What does everyone here think? If you had to pick either being a car driver only or a motorcyclist only, which would you rather be and why?

I was about to post this song in the thread "What are you listening to now", or words to that effect. When I realised how poignant the title and lyrics of this song were, John Steinbeck, would be proud... Let's hope the outcome this time round is just as positive and we find our Tom Joad... Famous Tom Joad's, include: Nelson Mandela Gandhi Malcome X Jesus Mohamed etc... Otherwise we:

As we have had another one of those crazy types who insist that science is a cult with arrogant high priests, etc. here is an excellently argued refutation of that sort of ignorant, closed-minded nonsense: https://thelogicofscience.com/2016/08/01/are-scientists-arrogant-close-minded-and-dismissive/

After searching Google I couldn't find a definition of life that everyone agrees on. Maybe trying to find a working definition of life is really a futile attempt but many times I get the impression that we just don't have a good (or working) theory of life. I mean if scientists will one day be able to create life from scratch then maybe only then we will have a definition of life. But right now do we even have a good theory of life? Do we know what differentiates living things from non-living (or inanimate) things? After searching Wikipedia I have seen many different branches and outlines of biology and the life sciences but what I have not been able to fi…

I'm curious what are purely philosophical opinions on this subject. For me it's mind boggling how could someone lean towards a pre-determened nature of reality. Then again a lot of modern science is extremely counter intuitive for me, quantum mechanics beig at the top of the list. What do you think ?

Is it the Universe created alone? Yes or not? Only Yes or Not. And which answer is more irrational? Yes or Not? Nobody knows the answer, but the question is very interesting by itself.

Caster Semenya's physiology leads to controversy and endless testing, with a constant murmuration of unfair (undertones of cheating) “she's just too good”. Usain Bolt's physiology leads to adoration and hero worship “he's just too good”.

So according Peta, FDA reported 92 out of every 100 drugs that successfully pass animal trials, failed in humans. If this is true, why are we then keep using animals for testing? here's the link: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-experimentation/us-government-animal-testing-programs/food-drug-administration/ good news is as technology advances, human chips will eventually be used instead of animals in the future: http://wyss.harvard.edu/viewpage/484/

Do you believe in solipsism?

The interactive surveillance operation following you around while you're homeless is somehow able to produce a high-pitched ringing sound in your ears. You are convinced it isn't tinnitus, and you've conluded that the purpose of it is either some form of emotional or other direct manipulation, or indirect manipulation, i.e. just messing you up by getting you to think about it. This morning, you played a song on the piano and then went to the park and looked at some swans, then googled whether swans could fly or not. You sit down to watch TV, the same song you played eariler is being used in a trailer for a documetary about kakapo's (flightless parrots). Do you co…

Did you read the book "Why the World Does not Exist'? If you did what do u think about it?

What do u think about the claim that human mind creates and shapes reality?