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Humanities Section => Philosophy & Rhetoric General Discussion => Topic started by: SoldierofFortune on January 11, 2020, 12:55:16 PM

Title: Materialism versus Idealism
Post by: SoldierofFortune on January 11, 2020, 12:55:16 PM
IF a newborn ready to go out of her mother's womb can dream, so the philosophy of Idealism must be true…

Because the newborn's brain should be empty, he or she has at least no ''visual memory''...but may have auditory memory… and can hear something in his or her dream…

Or i ask you if you can see in your dream ''an elephant'' IF you have never seen an elephant in your life...

Or then, materialists are right…, right?
Title: Re: Materialism versus Idealism
Post by: Baruch on January 11, 2020, 03:41:45 PM
Quote from: SoldierofFortune on January 11, 2020, 12:55:16 PM
IF a newborn ready to go out of her mother's womb can dream, so the philosophy of Idealism must be true…

Because the newborn's brain should be empty, he or she has at least no ''visual memory''...but may have auditory memory… and can hear something in his or her dream…

Or i ask you if you can see in your dream ''an elephant'' IF you have never seen an elephant in your life...

Or then, materialists are right…, right?

Not quite.  A baby is open minded, from an infantile POV.  A sage is infantile from an adult POV.  Some people reach second childhood, but only get incontinence for their trouble.  Other people reach second childhood, but have dumped all the falsehoods they learned when innocent and gullible.

The mind of an infant, less than one year old, is dream like.  They have no basis for distinguishing reality aside from instinct.  The mind of a child, less than 7 years old, is not like the older child, not like the adult.  For them, dream and reality freely mix.  Hence dolls and teddy bears, children talk to them.  And small children actually develop their own language to talk to each other, before they get a handle on adult speech.

I don't know about any paranormal phenomena in dream of younger children.  They would have a hard time articulating.  When I was pre-school, I have memories of that period, but I can't tell if they were real, or I dreamt them at that age, or even later (and associated with earlier times).

Dogs and cats dream, and they are like small children, but fully physically developed.  It seems they dream of dog and cat things ... playing, barking, hunting, eating etc.  I don't think they dream about being people.  Tests show that they actually think we are weird dogs/cats.
Title: Re: Materialism versus Idealism
Post by: Gregory on February 28, 2020, 08:44:54 PM
Dreams are not to be trusted.  Benjamin Franklin never trusted his subconscious, and neither do I.
Title: Re: Materialism versus Idealism
Post by: Baruch on February 29, 2020, 01:48:15 AM
Quote from: Gregory on February 28, 2020, 08:44:54 PM
Dreams are not to be trusted.  Benjamin Franklin never trusted his subconscious, and neither do I.

Life is a sustained pragmatic hysteria (we all come from our mother's nether region).  I trust nothing except repeated observation (Sun comes up) … aka David Hume.
Title: Re: Materialism versus Idealism
Post by: Unbeliever on February 29, 2020, 01:57:19 PM
Quote from: Gregory on February 28, 2020, 08:44:54 PM
Dreams are not to be trusted.  Benjamin Franklin never trusted his subconscious, and neither do I.


People don't generally become conscious of their subconscious, so it's seldom a problem.
Title: Re: Materialism versus Idealism
Post by: Baruch on February 29, 2020, 08:16:22 PM
Quote from: Unbeliever on February 29, 2020, 01:57:19 PM

People don't generally become conscious of their subconscious, so it's seldom a problem.

The unexamined Id … kill, kill, kill ...