Philosophy Now Forum

With regard to 'Driving the Ghost from the Machine ' in Philosophy Now, consider an irresistible impulse in the context of someone being tortured. The impulse to stop the torture is well-nigh irresistible, so it is one of the poles on a continuum between maximum choice and minimum choice. Freedom t...

It is likely that Descartes was right in seeing the body and mind as too separate elements or substances. It is also likely that he was wrong in seeing the mind as non elemental, comparing it to the soul. The material or physical consists of gross elemental matter and fine elemental forces, also mat...

People are not willing to make lifestyle changes or they do not know what a natural diet is and their doctor does not know either. Many doctors are unhealthy themselves. Alternative medicine that is genuine and engages the patient in lifestyle changes and proper nutrition, plus natural remedies, can...

Maybe what is external to us cannot be known ‘as the thing in itself’ so long as it is perceived as external to us. If there is an external substance and an internal substance and the latter, forces and fields, are responsible for how they are connected, it is apparent that mind, the sixth sense, in...

Many today have a knee jerk atheist attitude to religion, while others reject its mythic/literal stage while still believing in spirituality. The stage religion is at today and its future and on-going evolution is ably explained by Ken Weber in his presentation on YouTube entitled: Introduction to I...

Spinoza was deeply religious and was expelled from his community because he did not conform to its orthodox beliefs. Both he and Einstein believed God was all that exists, that is the universe itself, nothing more. For Spinoza God was deeply personal, present in him as an entity that was part of the...

Walker, It is the case that in any individual’s lifetime or even in the span of a whole epoch can the nature of time, whether cyclical, or linear, be known other than in the portion of time that is experienced in a lifetime, or in the transmitted versions of epochs, either recorded or handed down by...

Walker, There is a lot to unpack in what your wrote. It is true that modern life does require concepts. We investigate, classify and name things in order to know what they are, what their function is and we may have some idea, not always, of how they relate to their environment, which requires some ...

Time on the wrist can be slowed down or speeded up. But don’t expect to be on time.

Walker, As I commented in a different post the ancient view and the modern view are also likely related to how things are seen. Either through perception that is in touch with surroundings and knowledge of the ‘thing in itself’ or through cognition; a formation of beliefs, and the ability to make de...

Time is likely due to the Precession of the Equinoxes. A duration of 26,000 thousand years in Western astronomy. A duration of 24,000 years in Vedic Astronomy. The latter likely to be more accurate as derived from higher ages. Epochs come and go and humanity adjusts and adapts accordingly. The Great...

The seeds of everything were there from the beginning, otherwise they would not sprout. Kant dealt with cognition whether it was from sense experience or abstract idealism. He did not address perception, which if psychic evolution is cyclical, as posited in the documentary ‘The Great Year’ we may be...

A nihilistic view is just that, a point of view. It is possible to hold the opposite view, to be optimistic that life has meaning and value, and that love is real. We can think ourselves into any frame of mind. An antidote may be to read philosophies that are not nihilistic and see how that feels. ‘...

Nothing supersedes anything else mentally. Each mental category has, rightly so, its own space. The human psyche is not one-dimensional. It is capable of more than one worldview based on its triune diversity of mind: subconscious, conscious, superconscious. It is possible to balance a rational, intu...

“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, The men below and saints above; For love is heaven and heaven is love.” *Stanza 2 from the third canto of ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel, by Sir Walter Scott. The problem of resistance or opposition to the Deity may be because of fear of a loss of autonomy....