Reading Time: 6 minutes I am, brought on by a section on phenomenology in a forthcoming book, looking back into the school of philosophy known as idealism. It’s been a long time since I have written and researched on this particular subject and I am enjoying it immensely. What are phenomenology and idealism? Well, Phenomenology is the study of structures of […]
physicalism
Posted inEthics and Morality, Philosophy
Making Moral Claims Without Doing the Groundwork
Reading Time: 16 minutes This post was recently posted on Facebook by someone I know and I was added to the link. I want to deal with this here because it is not only something this other person does all the time, but it is a really common occurrence when arguing about morality and moral claims. I have talked about […]
![By Inside_my_head.jpg: Andrew Mason from London, UK derivative work: -- Jtneill - Talk (Inside_my_head.jpg) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i0.wp.com/onlysky.media/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/psychology.jpg?resize=550%2C290&quality=89&ssl=1)
Posted inPhilosophy
Qualia Are Physical Qualities…
Reading Time: 4 minutes Qualia – what are they? Qualia (sing. quale) are subjective experiences, in simple terms. Whether it be looking and experience a colour, such as having the subjective experience of redness, or any other such experiential event. These are qualities of ‘phenomenal character’. There are other, more restrictive definitions which are worth looking into and […]
Posted inPhilosophy
The Good Place Series: Janet, Mary’s Room and the Chinese Room
Reading Time: 8 minutes I have got into the Netflix series The Good Place, thanks to fellow ATPer Jeremiah Traeger. It’s well worth a watch for its philosophical content, dealing with it with a light-hearted touch. As a result, I am going to use it as a stimulus for a number of posts. You don’t need to have watched the show at all. […]
Posted inDeath & Dying, Music
SIN Series: Death – Physicalist cowboy reincarnation
Reading Time: 2 minutes Yup, you heard it here. This song and lyric seems rather oddly out of place in its rational, skeptical outlook! [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNuCbQcZe5w[/youtube] MICHAEL MARTIN MURPHEY Where Do Cowboys Go When They Die – Reincarnation Lyrics Where do cowboys go when they die?Is there a place in the sweet bye and bye? Where the water is […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Philosophy 101: Qualia
Reading Time: 8 minutes As part of my introductory series which has looked at different philosophers and the philosophical questions from the 2009 philpapers survey, I am going to look at qualia, as asked by a friend on facebook.
Posted inPhilosophy, Science
On editing memories
Reading Time: 2 minutes I reported in my Free Will? book that we can laser in memories to fruit flies, so it was only a matter of time before such procedures were contextualised to humans. Scientific American reports:
Posted inPhilosophy
Meaning is an Illusion
Reading Time: 8 minutes The “meaning” of life comes purely from emotional experience, which is chemically based. We know that emotion, and even spiritual experiences, are chemical in nature. It is already possible, using current science, to use drugs and/or direct manipulation of the brain in order to induce “spiritual” experiences.
Posted inPhilosophy
First footage of a thought being formed is caught on camera
Reading Time: 2 minutes So you might well have caught this on various science websites, but the thoughts of a fish, a zebrafish, have been caught on camera. As Gizmodo report:
A team of Japanese researchers has achieved something incredible: they’ve captured, for the first time ever, a movie which shows how thoughts form in the brain.
Posted inUncategorized
Consciousness as rhythmic oscillations
Reading Time: 3 minutes This really is a fascinating article. Properly. Could it be that we are starting to unravel the neural basis for thought and consciousness? Discuss. Rhythmic Brain Waves: Fluctuations in Electrical Activity May Allow Brain to Form Thoughts and Memories ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2012) — One of the biggest puzzles in neuroscience is how our brains […]