General Philosophy

Axiom 1: A perfect thing is symmetric. Axiom 2: Our universe is not symmetric. Axiom 3: Imperfect things must have a cause Axiom 3a: Further, the cause of an imperfect thing must be different from the thing itself. Axiom 3b: Further, the cause of an imperfect thing must be perfect. Accepting these five axioms gives Theorem: Our universe was caused by some perfect thing (other than itself). One model of these axioms would be: "Symmetric" means having rotational or bilateral symmetry other than the trivial symmetry. "Perfect" means having bilateral symmetry. "Our universe" means the letter "Q". "The cause of X" means the letter "I" for any X. Yes -- under your assumptio…

Brought up here; I'd never heard of this conundrum http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norton's_dome http://www.pitt.edu/~jdnorton/Goodies/Dome/ Basically, there is a dome shape and the top is a point of unstable equilibrium. There is a solution where an object at the top can spontaneously move off of the top, and once it does, continues accelerating. This is offered as an example of a violation of determinism, as the motion is purportedly spontaneous. But I have a quibble with (at least) one of the arguments I don't think that creating a new version of the first law means that you can claim this is consistent with Newton's laws. The emphasis on "uniform mo…

Does alternate reality have alternate truth? Do all our laws and theories and ideas belong to one reality alone? Does this therefore make truth and law relative? Is the principia relative? Is relativity relative? It is more profound to ask a question to which there is no answer than to give correct answers to thousands of questions. In this reality alone is there no answer to a particular question. Is there an alternate reality? One truth is that we might never know. Knowledge which has no end and no beginning is absolute. But even this is one truth alone To know much about two truths is a greater achievement than to know everything about one

I argue that everyone 'should' respect the planet, and thus everyone has a compound respect or faith; one respects his mother because she gave birth to one, and one is brought up by her bosom, at her side. Whether or not you accept this fact, the Earth played a crucial role in your birth; and you grew up by it's side, or at least of it's material. Without editing the universe, Earth is vital to our existence; it's the pursuit of knowledge for self or selves-empowerment that draws us further away, seemingly ability-wise, from the planet, but this is just in thought, it's barely put in practice. Sure we can visit mars but we can expect hundreds of years until we create colo…

I was thinking, as usual and put my finger on something I would like to discuss. The idea of Role Model Capitalism, which is a phrase I just made up until something better comes along. It's the idea that culture at large has changed, from children looking up to their parents, Hereditary Role Model Monarchy, to it becoming socially acceptable at large to rebel from your parents, to believe they are out-of-date and out-of-touch with how things are for the younger generation, and to find social acceptance outside of the home, in whichever social group that happens to fit. This creates a situation of Role Model Capitalism, where different social groups compete against each ot…

Well I am taking offense. The first casualty of sophistication is integrity -- always. When there is no integrity, there is no truth. No philosopher worth his/her salt would advocate a position of sophistry. Gee

min 13.8 billion. On the level of information which have evolved to my current appearance. And to yours. There is no same as you in the entire Universe. The physical circumstances and the individual interactions in proportion to the whole system can not be changed. Our current physical moment of now is individual. Humanities big question is that what happens with the information after the separation from the biological appearance. Do we belong to the physical system? Of course. You evolved here as I did. The physical age of mine is 13.8 billion years. As yours too.

Question: how can 1 and 1 make 2 when 1 and 1 make 1? I have proof that 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 and so on ad infinitum are all the same number. The proof is everywhere. It's a simple case of common sense. 1 and 2 are only different numbers relative to one observer. To someone half my size they are 3 and 4. This can't be denied. That's why it is proved. The universe in a nut shell. So how do 1 and 1 make 1? How do 2 and 2 make 1?

OMG, we've been spammed ! Can someone please clean up and take out the garbage. ( and maybe ban the jackass responsible for it ) Maybe we should be like Dr. Sheldon Cooper. If someone wants to join our 'group', they need to be able to answer a few science questions ( 5th grade level ) or pass an aptitude test.

What would it take? Let us not resort to global threat, in this discussion, such as an alien or other external threat; yes, of course, that type of jeopardy would unite us but for how long, after the threat dissipates? Can anyone imagine a strategy or event, other than that described above, that could lead to a long term peaceful world? Would, for instance, a purely secular society instigate such a peace or is a new religion or pseudo religion required?

This opinion and it is an opinion is that in travelling 20 miles and returning along the same route instead of having travelled 40 miles you have travelled 20. If you were to travel there and return and travel there again and return you have still only travelled 20 miles. This is because the distance is 20 miles. If you were to use a different route but returned still to the start of the journey, 20 miles is still the distance covered. You can only travel more than twenty if you keep travelling without returning. To travel 20 miles and one step is a further distance than travelling 20 miles and returning.

When reading this thread I started to wonder why it matters so much that what we see as correct information should be digested and understood. Shortly after xytz suffered an emotional meltdown in this thread. The level of knowledge seems to make little difference, so why is it reasonable to expect others to understand what I do? Maybe the anger comes from a need to control others or maybe it comes from the illusion that knowledge equals understanding.

Most people that I talk to seem to think that emotion is unruly thought; or thought that is difficult to control. But is it? Emotion and thought have different abilities, different limitations, different functions, and don't work the same way at all. I suspect that emotion and thought are as much alike as blood and bones. Blood and bones are both part of our bodies, both made up of cells, both necessary, but definitely not interchangeable. It would be difficult to walk around using blood as our body structure and using bones to supply our organs. Another thing that people seem to think is that emotion is produced by the brain, just like thought. I seriously doubt …

You claim my post had no "definition of point" Please elaborate.

Imatfaal (selfadmitted) layer. If you want to debate then I am here.

Hi everyone! The term herd immunity is widely used but carries a variety of meanings. Some authors use it to describe the proportion immune among individuals in a population. Others use it with reference to a particular threshold proportion of immune individuals that should lead to a decline in incidence of infection. Still others use it to refer to a pattern of immunity that should protect a population from invasion of a new infection. A common implication of the term is that the risk of infection among susceptible individuals in a population is reduced by the presence and proximity of immune individuals (this is sometimes referred to as indirect protection or a herd…

I am actually really annoyed I haven't seen this come up in the public political debate. Scientists have successfully removed a blastocyst, about 200 cell embryo, cryogenically frozen it, for 20 years, and successfully implanted it into a surrogate and a healthy baby was born. Why couldn't politicians just settle the debate and make it so that doctors, as they usually do, attempt to preserve life. The doctors, instead of destroying the embryo during the abortion procedure, would attempt to preserve it. There are already embryo adoption agencies opening up. While we are beating around this bush, I think we need more gender equality around this subject. The mother-…

Many times a person is faced with a causality dilemma. Is there a general framework for solving such problems? For example, if "A cannot happen unless B happens, but B cannot happen unless A happens", one possible approach to solving the problem is to guess or assume something about A, determine B, then repeat until A and B hopefully satisfy some desired outcome.

A Hegelian Dialectic is when you take two opposite and seemingly contradictory things and combine them to create something new, the thesis, the anti-thesis and the synthesis. I am attempting to come up with a compromise between Moral Universalism and Moral Relativism. While oversimplified, I will define each. Moral Universalism, people believe in a logically consistent morality, a morality that is intuitive, that transcends the subjectivity of culture. They believe right is right and wrong is wrong no matter where you live or what culture you were brought up in. While there is overlap, I believe most modern supporters of Moral Universalism believe all victimless acts shou…

Plants and microbes are considered to have some ability to use memory. I am curious if this ability to retain and recollect information should be considered instinctual, and to what degree as they have no brain or nervous system. http://phys.org/news/2014-04-bacterial-immune-memory.html http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-mimosa-plants-memory-01695.html

Event W happens. John uses W as an excuse for not doing Event X. Suddenly, Event Y happens, which negates the alleged deficiency from Event W that supposedly exempts John from having to do Event X. However, John argues that he cannot comment on, or respond to, Event Y until he's had time to do Event X, an omission which, as of Event Y, he has no excuse for not doing. Obviously, John is just trying to avoid work. His boss isn't going to buy into that, and the boss is going to fire John's butt. But, what is the official name of this logical fallacy that John is trying (unsuccessfully) to use to avoid work? Here's an example that involves tangible events: …

Famous sayings "Never judge a book by its cover" Never judge someone on their past because they are no longer at that stage in their life. Never judge a person by his/her appearance. You don't have the slightest idea what they've been through. Bible says "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned." I have read a touching story, you too must read A doctor entered the hospital in hurry after being called in for an urgent surgery. He answered the call asap, changed his clothes & went directly to the surgery block. He found the boys father pacing in the hall waiting fo…

We Humans were always creative. As Neandertalers we created tools to survive and artwork to show heritage. But why? Why do we do this? Why aren't we like the other living beings on earth, that 'do what they have to do'? Why do we sometimes want to know more than we have to? Our human nature is very interesting. It reacts to differently to other situations. That's why humans are called intelligent beings. What are your thoughts? IAstroViz

bad reasons of believing anything are 4: 1. tradition 2. authority 3. general agreement: crowd opinion 4. private Revelation but what are good reasons of believing anything? any idea?

Throughout my long life I have accepted as fact the existence of a 3-D material world more or less identical to the world I am currently experiencing and which is common to each of us. Years ago, when I was actively involved in the brain sciences, I felt that I and others were being objective in the research we were doing and that brain activity could, or at least at some time in the future would, explain all behavior, human and otherwise. During this time I knew intellectually that each of us has our own subjective reality (our private world), but this has not changed the previously described fact of a common material reality as I am currently experiencing it. As I h…