Originally posted by BigBlueHead
In some ways I am a materialist and in other ways not...
I'll take that as meaning that you aren't a materialist.
I think that it's possible that the universe is represented entirely by physical things, although I'm still not quite sure about some aspects of the universe (numbers, for instance... it's hard not to be a Platonist about numbers).
Aren't numbers just concepts?
However, I do not believe in the material determinism...
Definitely not a materialist.
I think that this is a blind alley that Phil of Science has wandered into, partly because of the modern conception of time in physics as something that has already happened and is just being played out.
It is scientists, not philosophers, who tend to believe in materialism, or physicalism.
I don't think that an entirely material universe logically implies that there is only a single cause, way back at the beginning,
But unless matter is eternal or arises uncaused from nothing then surely there must have been a first cause.
and I don't think that the arguments for material determinism are convincing, since they rely on the pre-set concept of time, which seems to me to be a vast presumption made on little evidence.
I don't quite get what you mean about time.
However, morality can be sufficiently described as a series of states and behaviours of a creature that follows a logical set of rules.
If all they're doing is following rules then there is no moral aspect to their behaviour, They are not capable of performing an act that can be morally evaluated.
We may feel that those rules are external, but they don't need to be for morality to be functional.
The rules must be internal, unless there's a cosmic rulebook of some kind. Even if there was it wouldn't affect the situation unless we actually knew what was in it.
Your dictionary presupposes a higher plane of reality on which morality exists; hence my question "Where is morality?" [/B]
My dictionary presupposes that we are conscious, that's all, and assumes that this is the higher plane of existence where morality exists. I don't see how it can be wrong really. A machine can't do right or wrong in principle, right and wrong are conscious concepts.
Mind you, I think we may be using 'morality' in slightly different senses.