Zugzwang

Fair enough. Thanks for clarifying.

I'm no expert on QM, but...strictly speaking, scientifically...does it have height? One could also mumble about how Everest is not the same from momen...

I think one could make a case either way, and that it would be a clever game. A particular practical context would treat the issue differently. Perhap...

I think the thesis that there's only belief is more an expression of attitude. Because it's itself not offered as a mere belief but as a truth about f...

Perhaps it has something to do with animals being forced to move, forced to act. 'Reality' is something like the model an animal is most likely to act...

I can imagine a valid sociological question in there somewhere. Perhaps that's what you have in mind.

Fun digression tho. The green knight awaits.

What form do you imagine a satisfactory answer to that question to have? To me it's very different than: 'how do helicopters manage to fly?' An answer...

:up: Yeah, this distinction is too important to go away. I'd expect it to be found in every language.

I think pain pills and hypothermia might be interesting, a whole psychedelic death journey, with my last moments being perhaps the most exciting. If I...

Before I do a deep dive, would you mind arguing for its practical relevance for me? Or for the species? My sense is that now you are talking about dat...

:up: :up: :up:

Yeah, I agree with all of this. If you want self-knowledge, talk to lots of other people. Even the meaning of the words we use doesn't belong to us. T...

Temperamentally I'm in the pragmatist-positivist-instrumentalist camp. I don't deny that metaphysical talk can make people happier or even help genuin...

Well, I prefer (so far) to just pick up Wittgenstein. Or actually, once W breaks the ice, to just start paying more attention to the barks and moans a...

The boring but honest answer is to just try it out. People go through phases and crazes, identifying with this or that heroic term or ism. Sometimes s...

I like that. I also like the idea of philosophy as a way to cut through the fog, be less confused, or, when confusion is inevitable, to be aware that ...

I'd say that, yes, we manifest something like faith in our ability to adapt as we try to make sense of things. This 'faith' seems innate. Perhaps 'nee...

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To have gone into meaning would have made him another opining poet-philosopher. Imagine sending a stream of bits elsewhere with each bit having a 1/5 ...

:smile: I mean that the concept of mind has allowed philosophers to generate centuries of argument without obtaining consensus as to what, if anything...

If you are asking semi-seriously, then I'd say that we don't tend to paste the word 'material' on funny stuff. We use the word for things like old tir...

Good question. How do we tell good food from bad food? Good art from bad art? It's something like: makes you happier, more effective. But what is 'hap...

Thx. :party: :death:

To me the everyday uses of 'truth' are safe and sound. It's one of those primary words. You just gotta know how to use and react to it. I guess the is...

I don't dislike that definition in particular. The point is how you came up with it. Instead of talking about how a token tends to be exchanged, it's ...

I find his insults amusing, to tell the truth. He's the straight man in his philosophical earnestness, and yet he'll shift into Tony Clifton when anno...

Yes, ambiguity. I agree. I suspect it's only practical concern that keeps us from floating away in the fog of our language. A beaver builds dams. We w...

Are you making empirical claims? Inferences from assumptions?? What case do you make ? My big point is that none of us control the use of these tokens...

That's another zinger. There's an anti-metaphysician within you, clawing its way out. But you'll have to fix the sentence above. As I asked elsewhere,...

Butting in, but isn't avoiding misery simply a good thing? If there's a discipline or hygiene or system of habits that at least reduces self-caused mi...

I like that. You almost save the word 'metaphysics' from oblivion.

OK, I grant that. But I'd frame this as a statement about usage as opposed to a science of truth, fact, and assent. "You can safely substitute 'true s...

That made me smile. I think you were chastising me for valuing the wrong aspect of your posts, but you couldn't help being funny.

I guess I've just been impressed by some holes that have been poked in the initially plausible Cartesian framework. Not just by Wittgenstein, either, ...

:up: Good point. It's like we start with a sketch, see something missing, and add to it. I'd say that no sketch will ever master/capture the complexit...

I do like that definition as definitions go. I'd remove 'can only be' to allow for uses of 'fact' to also be provisional. Is Gould's claim a fact? Als...

Hey, T. I was just joking with you. You jumped on me, remember? Yeah, I'm ambivalent about philosophy, but so is much of philosophy itself.

You posted that a moment before I made a similar point. I think it's a reason to not take such a definition of 'fact' too seriously, despite what it g...

That seems like a plausible description of usage. It's a difference that makes a difference. A 'fact' is more settled. 'Belief' suggests a distance fr...

My favorite thing about your posts is your jokes and insults. Seriously. That's where the artist in you can be free. Philosophy is no longer a serious...

Thx.

Damn right, sir. But I'm aware of it. Are you enjoying yours? Isn't it a bit absurd to define 'fact' anonymously ?

Confused question indeed. Consider it a parody of metaphysics. Is it a discovery that 'feelings are states of immaterial minds.' Who figured it out? I...

Well I guess none of us need to overthink this. I take it for granted that we can all use 'mind' in everyday chitchat. 'I don't mind if you smoke.' 'H...

To me its proposed obviousness is a hint that it's just 'grammar' (the way we tend to use the word 'mind'). What I object to is taking a vague, casual...

Excellent OP.

I can somewhat understand how all these features of this proposed mind-stuff were cooked up. IMV, a casual and basically useful way of talking is tran...

If I can offer a stubborn answer on a pet theme, it's hard to take this OP seriously. What is a fact? Could this be translated into "gimme some basic ...

I think of W as just one slap in the face among others, to wake foolosophers up from a dream. Some of his early metaphors still hold, IMO. The ladder ...