GENIUS FORUMS

[1.] An individual mind can only experience reality via its own unique sphere of perception or "perceptual bubble". [2.] The individual perceptual sphere contains the perceptions of the individual mind, therefore the perceptual sphere is a type of set. [3.] A thing that exists can only be ...

http://www.24hourscholar.com/p/articles/mi_m1200/is_4_166/ai_n6151880?pi=scl Generous players: game theory explores the Golden Rule's place in biology Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection seems to describe a brutal world in which creatures compete ruthlessly to promote their own survival. Ye...

The Totality is not really a unity Your ad-lib ad-hoc philosophising is amusing DQ. There can be only one totality of "everything that exists". If two separate totalities existed then their combined relation would be ONE relation, the single TRUE totality. Therefore the totality is a unit...

Leyla Shen wrote:So, would there be any difference between the two?

I mean, why have two different words?

Perhaps the difference is emotional?

Perhaps.

Leyla Shen wrote:How is "unity" synonymous with "Totality"?

Totality is not to-tal-i-ties ...which means there is only one. One is a unit. The totality is a unity.

Analog wrote: DQ: In reality, neither causes nor effects exist because everything is beginningless and endless. The entire Universe - past, present and future - is really just a single instantaneous event. There's no room for either cause or effect. A: What precipitates the "single event"...

In reality, neither causes nor effects exist because everything is beginningless and endless. The entire Universe - past, present and future - is really just a single instantaneous event. There's no room for either cause or effect. - What precipitates the "single event"? On the one hand, ...

Conceptually speaking, from a purely materialistic standpoint, "objective reality" seems true enough, that we should not question it; but in truth, our objective realities are merely virtual reality creations of the mind and are actually subjective reflections, or shadows, of an ostensible...

DavidQuinn000 wrote:
Analog wrote:

Cause precedes effect.

why?

It precedes it by definition.

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How does the abstract correspond to the concrete, such, that one can define some observed aspect of physical existence as an absolute truth?

so in effect, you are saying that the map IS the territory?

Round and round the garden Like a teddy bear One step Two step And a tickly under there! Treebeard: Hobbits? Never heard of a Hobbit before. Sounds like Orc mischief to me. They come with fire, they come with axes. Gnawing, biting, breaking, hacking, burning. Destroyers and usurpers. Curse them!

If time is infinite then causality goes infinitely into the past and infinitely into the future. That means the universe is also spatially infinite but all observations point towards a finite universe. There are several paradoxes associated with infinite spacetime also. I hope you can answer them wi...

DavidQuinn000 wrote:Blind causality is God.

"Everything happens by God's will" is simply a more poetic way of saying "everything is caused".

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Cause precedes effect.

why?

I'm happy to affirm the reality of free will, as long as it is kept in mind that, deep down, it is really God's will. Even this affirmation is God's will. - Please explain how blind causality is concordant with God's will? And should any "teleological imperative" arise anywhere in the wor...

We make choices – some trivial, such as to buy a newspaper; others, rather more consequential, such as to buy a home, or to get married, or to go to university, etc. – but these choices are not forced upon us by the laws of nature. It is a law of nature that the past determines the present. The...

DavidQuinn000 wrote:There's not much point discussing it any further. You obviously have a large mental block about this issue.

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I certainly would like to see a debate between you and someone more qualified than I, on the topic of free will.

DHodges wrote:

analog57 wrote:They say that the square root of 2 is not encoded within pi ...but I suspect that it probably is, as a sequence of separated digits

You mean, like taking every 3rd or 19th digit, something like that?

The sequence would appear to be random.

Analog wrote: DQ: And should any "teleological imperative" arise anywhere in the world, that too is ultimately composed of blind, aimless cause and effect. A: Your statement appears to be a contradiction. There's no contradiction when these things are properly understood. You're just not ...

And should any "teleological imperative" arise anywhere in the world, that too is ultimately composed of blind, aimless cause and effect. Your statement appears to be a contradiction. An interesting perspective on "free will": http://www.sfu.ca/philosophy/swartz/freewill1.htm#th...

There is no evidence, nor can there ever be any evidence , for "variation" that happens in a non-causal manner. Self determination is a form of self reference. There exists degrees of freedom, allowing for intentionality and purpose, guided by higher order teleological parameters[higher o...

Diebert van Rhijn wrote: Of course determinism doesn't mean that 'everything is predictable'. How could one calculate infinite variables? Real life calculations always approximate answers, models them for this reason, since even randomness obeys some invariable laws.

[Infinite variables] = [free will]

The potential for a thing to exist is either an accident or it is caused. Since all accidents are caused, there is no difference. http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/accident Logic: A circumstance or attribute that is not essential to the nature of something. Spontaneous events ha...

Is a forest fire caused by the wood which is being consumed or is it caused by something else? A forest fire is an event, or more correctly, a sequence OF events. When one event intersects with another, for example, a rock falls and sparks are generated, it forms a sequence with other past[and futu...

Nothing has changed with this new formulation. The same basic problem remains. You are simply assuming that the cohesiveness of Reality requires sentience or mind. There is no evidence for this. It could just as easily be caused by something else. You're basically stating that cohesion and order re...

[1.] Everything *within* reality, is self referential and also relational. Things relate to other things, e.g. [A or not-A], as well as being self referring, e.g. [A=A]. [2.] The totality of all that exists can only refer to itself [A=A] because there is no outside reference. [3.] Because the totali...

Your argument starts off well, but begins to unravel at point 4. There is no compelling reason to link the cohesive unity of Reality with the concept of mind or the concept of a conscious God. This is true. point 4 needs to elaborate on how the coherent unity of the totality is essentially the same...