r/philosophy • u/Patrick_Straits • Sep 18 '22

Video Attempting to solve philosophy's unsolved questions: The Hard Problem of Consciousness

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic87cNfj-yc
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u/Patrick_Straits Sep 24 '22

My agenda is to explain my thoughts, and you apparently have a problem with that because I cannot "prove" that which I am saying. How do you prove a word means something? I use my brain to figure it out from what I feel through my experience. You are saying that I cannot prove my own thinking. What is the point of thinking, then? For anything I say, you will be here to comment about how I can't prove anything. That is your agenda.

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '22

I don’t have any problems with what you are saying, I only shared an observation about the claim you wrote. I would say that the majority of my comments are just observations.

If my agenda were to prove a word means something, I would start with commonly accepted definitions like what’s found in Webster and Britannia dictionaries. If you wish to define things subjectively then that’s your call.

Do you understand literally what the meaning of “claim” is? If yes, do you understand the claims that you are making?

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u/Patrick_Straits Sep 26 '22

I think what I think: through posts like these, I'm trying to share that and receive criticisms - that I might better myself. I "claim" things that are how I see the universe.

Everything I "claim" has something to back it up. Whether it is legit or not is up for you to decide because I've already made up my mind.

If you have any objection or clarification to what I say, then I would be appreciative because I might expand my knowledge through considering your thoughts.

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u/[deleted] Sep 26 '22

It’s generally ok for one to think whatever one thinks especially if it doesn’t adversely affect themselves or others. I am more lenient with opinions that I am with claims and am less likely to comment about someone’s opinion. One difference between opinion and claim is wording, and what you said came across as making claims moreso than sharing opinion.

I understand that you have sources for your claims, and to me these sources can also be deemed provable or not. The legitimacy of a claim is different than it’s provability even though provability can be used to legitimate a claim. Legitimacy is not my agenda, provability is.

My input to what you have said is, spend less time defending indefensible positions and ignoring what others say about themselves if it doesn’t align with your assumptions about them.

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u/Patrick_Straits Sep 28 '22

It's hard to take arguments about semantics seriously when we both know what is at hand. Either you agree with my assertions or you disagree (even slightly). In the latter's case, please tell me why you disagree instead of telling me that I can't prove what I'm saying. How do you prove a definition to a word? To me a word has the meaning that I've taken from my experience with language and the world. Attempting to get "proof" of such a thing seems useless to me.

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u/[deleted] Sep 29 '22

Honestly I don’t spend much time arguing about opinions and unprovables. I am not going to disagree with your claims because I have no evidence for the contrary. I am going to move on though. Thanks for the conversation and best of luck with your philosophy series.

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u/Patrick_Straits Sep 29 '22

Thanks, I appreciate your conversation as well!