Human beings bodies are composed of molecules. Human beings are the products of billions of years of natural selection. The primary purpose of the human brain is the survival and sustenance of the human body in an environment.We have a number of trained academics here now on the forum who do not believe in the three propositions above. Unfortunately, they are too clever, too trained, too cowardly, and too passive-aggressive to simply come out and challenge these propositions on factual grounds. Instead they have been trained in the art of sneering and jeering these propositions from the sidelines. They paint them with "Dog-Whistle Phrases" whose purpose is to deride and denigrate the propositions through institutional smearing.
e.g. user Hobbes' Choice referred to them with his dog-whistle: "hard materialism"
e.g. user hammock referred to them as, quote, "becoming trapped in a particular narrow view".
user hammock then dog-whistled these three propositions as "speculation-stifling prejudice"
No doubt, in the course of our interactions here we will see even more of the academically-inspired dog whistles that are common tactic of woo-woo peddlers. .
e.g. we will hear of "Eliminative Materialism"
e.g. we will hear of "the Materialist paradigm"
e.g. we will hear of "naive Physicalism"
e.g. we may even see "logical positivism" used as a sneer.
These phrases certainly appear to be academic. They sound "official" and "jargony." But in all cases these dog whistle phrases are not used to clarify nor denote a philosophical position. Rather their use in academia has become to be sneers that the "cool in-crowd" uses to wink at and acknowledge each other across the room.
Their underlying, unspoken, motivations is to use the ruse of philosophical authority as a tool to peddle mystical woo-woo. And when called out on this in the light of day, when challenged, their passive aggression kicks in to save them and they excuse their own behavior as, "Well -- our trade is to be open to alternative possibilities". Don't buy this crap. They are snake oil salesman and crackpots. Do not buy their goods. Their "trade" in praxis is to proselytize mysticism and spirituality, and do it in a sneaky underhanded way by prettying it up with academic-sounding jargon.
And praxis is what?
