On Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at 1:42:20 PM UTC-5, Philip Thrift wrote: > > > > On Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at 12:18:45 PM UTC-5, Lawrence Crowell wrote: >> >> On Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at 9:25:11 AM UTC-5, Cosmin Visan wrote: >>> >>> That's such a silly argument. This only proves there are interactions >>> between consciousnesses. >>> >>> On Tuesday, 22 October 2019 14:25:04 UTC+3, Lawrence Crowell wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> I think Samuel Johnson had a good reply to Bishop Berkeley on refuting >>>> idealism, "If I kick this rock thusly," which Johnson did, "It then kicks >>>> back." This is not a complete proof, but it works well enough FAPP. >>>> >>>> >> It is not silly. It is empirical. If you are interested in some sort of >> firm "mathy" type of proof, then I would suggest the burden is more upon >> you to prove your case that idealism is true. I have no particular >> interest in the subject to begin with, so I put the ball in your court. >> Prove your case. >> >> LC >> > > > > Empiricism cannot say whether it's (all) matter, consciousness, or numbers. > > What makes the latter two dismissible is they do not explain what we know > of our own consciousness - that it is finite in time and bounded in space. > > @philipthrift >
I am not saying "if I kick it it kicks back" means everything is matter. In fact the total mass-energy of the universe is zero. However, it does lend weight to the proposition there exists at least locally matter that is external to mind. Matter does not conform to what my mind might otherwise desire things to be. Statistical mechanics even shows that what we see as a desired order is just one rather small macrostate in the energy surface of phase space. Besides, our conscious lives are pretty fragile in the face of things. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdf5EXo6I68 LC -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/625a046a-3536-4a5f-94b4-39d1869d1222%40googlegroups.com.
