C
chuck.drake
Being open minded. How do you personally define it? What does it mean in the larger context of the proponent or "skeptical" camps?
Wilson thinks of “matter” as a metaphor. He defines a “liberal materialist” as “one who holds that materialism is a ‘relative best bet’ among competing philosophies, or the most plausible model around, whereas the fundamentalist materialist—either out of ignorance or philosophy or out of sheer bravado or out of blind faith—proclaims that materialism is the One True Philosophy and that anyone with doubts or hesitations about it is insane, perverse, or a deliberate fraud.”
Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.
I'm with you on agnosticism chuck. Unfortunately, Alex has spoken out against it on recent podcasts.I guess I consider myself unable to really declare that I know anything for certain. That is at least the starting point for open-mindedness for me personally.
I'm with you on agnosticism chuck. Unfortunately, Alex has spoken out against it on recent podcasts.
That's pretty much how I feel. I just get irritated when people assume materialism to be true and find idealism and dualism ridiculous.I don't even think materialism is the "best bet." I just think that idealism and dualism aren't any better. I guess that makes me sooper-dooper open-minded. ;)
~~ Paul
I'm with you on agnosticism chuck. Unfortunately, Alex has spoken out against it on recent podcasts.
I don't even think materialism is the "best bet." I just think that idealism and dualism aren't any better. I guess that makes me sooper-dooper open-minded. ;)
That's pretty much how I feel. I just get irritated when people assume materialism to be true and find idealism and dualism ridiculous.
great point! to emphasize... it's not like we lose our ability to function... in fact, it seems to be enhanced in a lot of ways... so, we have to conclude that this self and time stuff... the stuff we build our entire existence around is not fundamental to who we are -- science is dead!
Indeed, and why is "I dunno" any less of a hard problem? As far as I can tell, here's how it works:I like dualism as far as opinions go. At least as far as:
Though the mechansms for any of the three are promissory at best right now. :(
- Materialism has the hard problem of consciousness.
- Idealism has the hard problem of matter.
- Dualism tosses them both out and goes "I donno, but they're both here."
Closed mindedness, on the other hand is adopting a position and viewing all evidence through that lens. Look at this reply from Alex in the latest podcast thread:
Really? I find it difficult to follow the thought process here. I appreciate that may be my problem, but I'm not sure how you get to the conclusion - "Science is dead" - without some heavy duty preconceived ideas.
OK, fair enough... Alex may have realised that he's in the "entertainment business" more than anything else.I tend to give Alex a pass since it is his podcast and forum. I don't share his certainty on most issues. But I admire his doggedness in the same way that I admire that trait in a lot of people here. It makes the site more interesting for sure. If everyone threw up their hands and said ultimately nothing is knowable it would be a pretty boring place.
Indeed, and why is "I dunno" any less of a hard problem? As far as I can tell, here's how it works:
I just can't imagine how we could get consciousness from matter, so that's a hard problem.
On the other hand, if I assume idealism and then have a few beers or perhaps take some drugs, I can imagine consciousness "just being there in all its glory, all-of-a-piece, a wholistic wonder." Therefore there is no hard problem under idealism.
~~ Paul
None of the "isms" really seem to have a lock.
An adjunct to Chuck's question is: How openminded should one be?