Philosophy Now Forum

Correction - 'its'.

Sure, and on the face of it it's truth would be unknowable, and maybe further empty/ non-meaningful. BUT I do think something like it is true, and transparently so, given a certain Realism about time. So, any other takers?

Understanding can be defined as state in which a person thinks, feels, and senses the reality of the external world as a whole. Ok.... This is interesting, but not close to any everyday English usage of the word, I think. What is it that one 'understands' here? It sounds like an 'enlightened state'...

Is anyone of the mind that 'eternal recurrence' IS true?

Is there any necessity at all to hold onto any opinion at all? Hello. Pretty much I think not. I think we must act sometimes, and how we act will imply a position in terms of beliefs/ opinions, etc, but that position need only be 'the best information we have at the time'... They need not have any ...

Their intellect knows why they must lose weight. Their senses know how good they taste and their angry emotions decide they deserve to eat the whole box so they do. What does this person understand? Good, an example... This person probably understands very well what they're doing, although their be...

Which we do, 'pre-philosophically' as it were. And so we work on what it means to 'understand' too; try to understand 'understand'! As a work in progress I'm reluctant to define, but I think it must admit of degrees, which is problematic - it's not just a '0/1' game. So one is looking at an accumula...

Open-Mindedness is impossible as a matter of fact Fortunately enough individuals don't exist in perfectly splendid isolation from one another. Criteria for truth of this or that will need to be found in the shared world. But then what we're after testing the truth of will derive its meaning there a...

Hi Joe Very true but how do you define understanding? Why do we know so much but understand so little? Hi Nick. 'Understand' and 'Know' are of course connected, but I think it's important that one is PURSUING understanding... This activity is important, and benefits from open-mindedness (of course).

Isn't open-mindedness in a philosophical context more to do with pursuing understanding than forming beliefs or opinions - one is after 'why think (/ believe/ argue) this or that?' rather than after believing (/ thinking/ arguing) the 'best' of them...?