Philosophy Now Forum

You first need to understand that the traditional view of free will, being an agent or being within us which is the beginning of the causal chain which produces action from nowhere is a troublesome and useless concept, and one which is nonsensical. The idea that somehow the mind can produce somethin...

Wow, this is really interesting and I kind of half wondered if astronomers could really account for all the mass of the galaxy by observing, and it seems there really is alot of mass that has gone unobserved. I never really liked the idea of dark matter, always saw it as more of a placeholder for an...

If one Planck time is defined as the time it takes a photon to move 1 Planck length then surely this is the same as regularly perceived time slowing as well. The speed of light is incorporated into the definition of the Planck length. If you change one, you change the other. If time were "slow...

I like this idea of time slowing down and have actually wondered it myself, but instead my thoughts drifted towards a variable speed of light. I wonder, would this aparrent slowing of time explain cosmic expansion? I imagine the speed of time would be proportional to the density of the universe and...

I like this idea of time slowing down and have actually wondered it myself, but instead my thoughts drifted towards a variable speed of light. I wonder, would this aparrent slowing of time explain cosmic expansion? I imagine the speed of time would be proportional to the density of the universe and ...

Interesting concept, and I hope you get a reply from smolin. I can't really comment on the acceleration concept as I haven't really grasped it. However another thought occured to me regarding the possible granularity of space. Suppose a single light source emits light in all directions, and evenly, ...

Consciousness allows the detection of a novel situation AND the ability to respond in a manner which is not predetermined and automatic. Norman Bacrac, "Epiphenomenalism", Philosophy Now, Issue 81 Nov/Oct 2010, p10ff Neuroscience says otherwise. Consciousness is an epiphenomenon, which ob...

I have been pondering this question lately after considering how we perceive time, and how the smaller you divide time into the less you can fit into it. This lead me to wonder if time actually is divided into discrete moments, similar to a planck length but for time, or if it is indivisible and co...

Consciousness allows the detection of a novel situation AND the ability to respond in a manner which is not predetermined and automatic. This is awareness. If an amoeba can detect a threat, and respond by selecting an action which is not an automatic response then there is a chance it is aware. The ...

I have been pondering this question lately after considering how we perceive time, and how the smaller you divide time into the less you can fit into it. This lead me to wonder if time actually is divided into discrete moments, similar to a planck length but for time, or if it is indivisible and con...