Scepticism vs. Faith: the analysis of tulpa guides

[Myshkin]

I disagree.

The world is not deterministic, especially not when humans come into play. Give a group of people a meditation script and let them train for a certain period. Results will vary widely depending on a multitude of intrinsic and extrinsic factors.

 

While the statement does not hold universally true unless certain qualifications are added (such as the sufficient specification of the action taking place and the relevant context in which it takes place), it's still generally true that certain actions (not necessarily all actions, mind you) produce certain results.

 

I assumed this is what the forum sans Metaphysics and Parapsychology was about. Or at least the Research board. But you are obviously right, this is not the right place. I tried creating such when I came here, quite some people did but it never got anywhere.

 

Why?

 

I personally don't care either way about there being a "science of tulpas" or "tulpology", but in my opinion, part of the reason at least is that no one seems willing to lay the philosophical groundwork necessary for tulpology to actually be capable of becoming a coherent field of study. People here are all like "Science FTW!", but even science itself is based on certain philosophical principles which give it its coherence and its explicative power. Expecting that you'll be able to jump right into the science part of this new field of knowledge without even establishing solid philosophical foundations is like expecting to learn how to play the piano without any practice whatsoever.

 

What are the goals of tulpology? What does it seek to achieve?

To what degree can the methods of science help reach those goals? Are there other methods that could prove more useful?

Could tulpology even be considered a science? Does it fit in better among the humanities?

Or is it perhaps better described as a discipline, like martial arts or singing, whose focus is the transmission of a skill, not of knowledge?

 

Not only have these questions not been answered, I don't think they've even been asked. Small wonder, then, that what little progress has been made is a scattered set of facts that have yet to be fit together into a coherent narrative.