Our server costs ~$56 per month to run. Please consider donating or becoming a Patron to help keep the site running. Help us gain new members by following us on Twitter and liking our page on Facebook!
Current time: December 23, 2024, 2:25 am

Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
#1
What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
Materialism is dead nowadays as a serious philosophical theory. I think the Kantian realization that the world is dependent on our senses causes us to to doubt that we can contain the world in language or our thoughts. Science has not disproved the existence of other dimensions.


Why would people be unwilling to acknowledge the possibility that spiritual entities exist? I talk to them every day and they talk back to me, using English words and language. I am sure this is real and most societies have had some sort of concept of this. Why would people be unwilling to acknowledge there could be other life besides human life?
Reply
#2
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
Philosophy is not an actual science, dear.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Reply
#3
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
Fear and hubris for some, "ain't got no time fo dat" for others.
"Leave it to me to find a way to be,
Consider me a satellite forever orbiting,
I knew the rules but the rules did not know me, guaranteed." - Eddie Vedder
Reply
#4
What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
Why would anyone willingly accept such a claim without evidence?
Nay_Sayer: “Nothing is impossible if you dream big enough, or in this case, nothing is impossible if you use a barrel of KY Jelly and a miniature horse.”

Wiser words were never spoken. 
Reply
#5
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
(August 29, 2016 at 10:31 pm)Maelstrom Wrote: Philosophy is not an actual science, dear.

Well maybe not, but philosophy establishes the definition of what science is based on argument and reason, rather than a magisterial argument (like citing a Scientific Academy's definition) which is based on an argument from authority.

Try to establish the bounds of science inside of the methods of one discipline of science and you will fail.

(August 29, 2016 at 10:34 pm)LadyForCamus Wrote: Why would anyone willingly accept such a claim without evidence?

But there is evidence, virtually all human societies have records and testimonies of people who had contact with spiritual entities. This is universal. Why be hostile to it?

Why not seek it out yourself? You can make contact with another type of life, I do it every day. I promise you it is real.

I am not asking you to believe me, I'm asking you to seek it out yourself because virtually all societies have testimony evidence and there is zero evidence to say that it is impossible.

Wouldn't that change your life if there were other forms of life besides humans? What if those spirits had a role in the origin of life on earth (as Richard Dawkins admitted was a possibility).
Reply
#6
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
(August 29, 2016 at 10:35 pm)joseph_ Wrote: Well maybe not

With those three words you supported my claim.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Reply
#7
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
(August 29, 2016 at 10:35 pm)joseph_ Wrote: But there is evidence, virtually all human societies have records and testimonies of people who had contact with spiritual entities.

That is not evidence so much as it is thoughts led astray by fancy.
"Never trust a fox. Looks like a dog, behaves like a cat."
~ Erin Hunter
Reply
#8
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
(August 29, 2016 at 10:47 pm)Maelstrom Wrote:
(August 29, 2016 at 10:35 pm)joseph_ Wrote: Well maybe not

With those three words you supported my claim.

(August 29, 2016 at 10:49 pm)Maelstrom Wrote:
(August 29, 2016 at 10:35 pm)joseph_ Wrote: But there is evidence, virtually all human societies have records and testimonies of people who had contact with spiritual entities.

That is not evidence so much as it is thoughts led astray by fancy.



Science is, in general more rigorous than philosophy, but it makes no sense to try to generalize what "science" is since the definition invokes philosophy and it changes very rapidly. Many of the scientific fields today did not exist before the 19th century. It is also impossible to do science without philosophy or to critique the nature of science without philosophy.

To call something a "science" is to make an argument for its epistemic reliability. There are so called "sciences" of textual criticism that presuppose much more and are less rigorous than philosophy. There are fields within, for example, quantum physics where the scientific status is in question. Philosophy is thousands of years old and every single distinguished scientist has had some acquaintance with it, especially since all natural science comes from Aristotle.
Reply
#9
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
(August 29, 2016 at 10:49 pm)Maelstrom Wrote:
(August 29, 2016 at 10:35 pm)joseph_ Wrote: But there is evidence, virtually all human societies have records and testimonies of people who had contact with spiritual entities.

That is not evidence so much as it is thoughts led astray by fancy.
Right. Testimony and "records" are anecdotal. There hasn't been, as of yet, any actual evidence. It seems odd that as technology and data gathering exploded, the number of these accounts had dropped dramatically. It's almost as though people were just telling stories, and as our ability to test and call people out on these stories, they just decided to stop telling them.
Reply
#10
RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
Quote:
Why would people be unwilling to acknowledge the possibility that spiritual entities exist?

All you need is evidence, friend.  Philosophical babble doesn't cut it.
Reply



Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Does the fact that many non-human animals have pituitary disprove Cartesian Dualism? FlatAssembler 36 3334 June 23, 2023 at 9:36 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Metaethics Part 1: Cognitivism/Non-cognitivism Disagreeable 24 2418 February 11, 2022 at 6:46 pm
Last Post: The Grand Nudger
  Video thread for interesting philosophical discussions on YouTube and elsewhere GrandizerII 2 420 August 26, 2020 at 8:43 am
Last Post: GrandizerII
  In Defense of a Non-Natural Moral Order Acrobat 84 9736 August 30, 2019 at 3:02 pm
Last Post: LastPoet
Video Neurosurgeon Provides Evidence Against Materialism Guard of Guardians 41 6169 June 17, 2019 at 10:40 pm
Last Post: vulcanlogician
  The Philosophy of Mind: Zombies, "radical emergence" and evidence of non-experiential Edwardo Piet 82 15197 April 29, 2018 at 1:57 am
Last Post: bennyboy
  Philosophical zombies robvalue 131 19787 March 7, 2018 at 3:58 pm
Last Post: polymath257
  A Philosophical Conundrum BrianSoddingBoru4 11 2074 October 27, 2017 at 9:23 pm
Last Post: ignoramus
  Testimony is Evidence RoadRunner79 588 136839 September 13, 2017 at 8:17 pm
Last Post: Astonished
  Non-existing objects KerimF 81 24869 June 28, 2017 at 2:34 am
Last Post: KerimF



Users browsing this thread: 4 Guest(s)