Gregg R Thomas

2-2=4 (base 10) was true before the universe came into being and will remain so after the last atom falls apart.

The simplest definition of “the truth” is “the truth is that which is the case (whether you know it or not.”

Unseen wrote:
If something is true, it’s true even if no one knows it or will ever know it. If no one had ever discovered the Higgs boson, the thing would still exist.

Yes, but is truth the same as existence?  Surely truth is a quality of a measurement of existence.  This measurement is an accurate representation of existence; or not.  This prop…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
Exactly.  We can’t have truth without a knower.  What is truth without someone to judge it?  When I say, I ought to help this old lady across the road, I am saying I feel I ought to do it.

If something is true, it’s true even if no one knows it or will ever know it. If no one had ever discovered the Higgs boson, the thin…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:
I believe that meaning in life is when things affect my goals, so those things are significant or have meaning for me.  I attend to those things that affect my goals and that therefore have meaning to me.

The philosophical question is not about what your life means to you.

The meaning of life?  What does that mean?  The pu…

[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
We’re just the result of billions of years of accidental survival, and replication, that happen to feel profound. Which I’m happy with.

Exactly.  We can’t have truth without a knower.  What is truth without someone to judge it?  When I say, I ought to help this old lady across the road, I am saying I feel I ought to do it.

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Philosophy was once alive.

This article is super-interesting.  If I had to spend my life doing that kind of philosophy, I don’t think I would do it.  It would make me feel like shooting myself.

Their whole problem is, with their meaning of life theories, is that they don’t have any idea what they’re talking a…[Read more]

Thanks Reg!!!

Have a great week!

@ Robert

It’s not like I never considered or explored the solution you offered.

You still use the window which has to be closed shut. That loses the window as far as I’m concerned. A further complication is that units in my building have windows that swing on side hinges. They don’t slide up and down. So a normal in-window installation is…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Just search portable air conditioner in Amazon to see them because links don’t work.

I have a small apartment with two windows. One I don’t want to give up to an A/C unit for practical reasons and I feed birds at the other one.

_Robert_ wrote:
Yeah, old folks in urban apartments are particularly at risk for heat stroke as all that concrete absorbs and reradiates the heat in the evenings. Many don’t have air conditioning. Miserable.

I’m 77, live downtown in a brick apartment building, and like many in Portland don’t have A/C because (at least in the past) you’d only r…[Read more]

My brother has gone to Long Island for the week as it is only 86f with a breeze rather than 98f in Atlanta and very humid.  At the moment in Dublin (7PM) it is a cool 51f after a very windy day. Perfect for an evening run.

As for the world getting too hot for people to survive, Portland, OR, where I live is expecting three record-breaking days Fri-Sun with temps in the 100-103 range, breaking the old records by several degrees each day. I think it was two summers ago when Portland registered a 116f degree temperature, more than 10 degrees higher than Phoenix and Las…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Moral progress is annoying.

The article seems to say that we find new norms odd, and therefore stupid, and therefore wrong, like the norms of foreigners (those swine).  That sounds very plausible.

Our norms coordinate our group.  A person from a distant area can know how to do things with me.  If we change norms, we…[Read more]

@ Robert

Speaking of “going under,” when someone wonders aloud what death is like I tell them that if they’ve had general anesthesia, then they do know what death is like. “You know that period between when you go under and when you wake up? That period of lost time? That is death.”