Operant Philosophy

Posts about #behaviorism, #psychology, #skepticism, #logic & #science. Follow/RT ≠ endorsement.

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

If the 25th amendment is not invoked today, Congress must reconvene immediately for impeachment and removal proceedings.

[Dan Rather @DanRather]

Now imagine if he had been re-elected.

[David Pakman @dpakman]

Trump can't keep it together enough to have access to Twitter for the next 12 hours and yet he still has access to nuclear weapons. Think about that.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

Say what you will about 2020, at least it didn’t start with an attempted coup...

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed @philosopheritz That’s only the case for some cultures. Others thought it would release spirits. The point is all cultures that practiced it recognized the brain served a function in behavior

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed @philosopheritz Well again the pre-supposes that ontological precedence... but yes materialism isn’t sufficient for 100% knowledge. It is merely the best we’ve got.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed @philosopheritz Not precisely, but close enough. If everyone agrees that the earth was flat everyone would still be wrong, even if we hadn’t gotten the right data to conclude otherwise.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed @philosopheritz Possibly but again why accept this without some evidence/data?

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @philosopheritz @TooBadger @megawhelmed Or to say “I don’t know”. You create a false dichotomy here, when we can merely say we have insufficient data to draw any inferences

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

Sorry folks. I rather wish it weren’t so but #freewill doesn’t seem to exist in any way. We react to our environment based on our needs and desires. And we can’t control either. Hard #determinism seems to be the way behavior operates.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed @philosopheritz Depending on your usage of “faith” yes. It certainly appears like the world is mind independent, considering most of the world has no minds near it. But again we can’t know anything with certainty so the same can be said of mind dependence.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed @philosopheritz Only the sense data that I receive

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @philosopheritz @TooBadger @megawhelmed Yes. Everything you mentioned. I fail to see your point.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @philosopheritz @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed I mean... the VAST majority of the universe appears to exist independent of a mind and appears to have done so for roughly 14b years prior to minds...

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @philosopheritz @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed We don’t. And this is key here. There is insufficient reason to assume the universe is either mind dependent or mind independent. But since the former depends upon one more supposition than the latter I don’t see how you can justify taking that stance.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @philosopheritz @alancolquhoun1 @megawhelmed 1) I fail to see how you determined it was kind dependent because brain dependent (since you state they have different properties) and 2) how do you know it’s mind dependent?

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @philosopheritz @megawhelmed It’s an event composed of the material. I still don’t see how you get around that

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @philosopheritz @megawhelmed So I disagree with almost all of that tweet. Number 1 I don’t see how a ghost “could”. Also, it depends on what your definition of a ghost is. If a ghost is merely the contents of experience how is it different from a hallucination?

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @alancolquhoun1 @philosopheritz @TooBadger @megawhelmed I use action in the psychological definition. Which is apt because brains and minds are in the realm of psychology.

[Operant Philosophy @TheCogitoBlog]

@MisterBadger1 @philosopheritz @alancolquhoun1 @TooBadger @megawhelmed By hypothetical I mean we have no other data apart from our private observations (the faultiest of observations) and thus they are limited