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Millard J Melnyk

['Member']Joined: December 28, 2021 at 22:18Last active: November 10, 2025 at 02:275 discussions57 comments

Discussions (5)

Comments

You're reframing what I said. I'm not talking about propositions and their truth values. I'm talking about real-world behaviors: how people think, spe...
November 09, 2025 at 19:58
I have not seen any reason, let alone convincing argument, that establishes that claim. It continues as a baseless claim until someone can provide som...
November 09, 2025 at 18:15
You repeatedly reframe the matter in terms of belief, as if belief were foundational -- which is why I mentioned vindicating it. Actually, the first w...
November 09, 2025 at 13:21
Well, that's what we'd end up with, wouldn't we, if we found beliefs that didn't fit the nut structure? It's obvious that almost everyone wants to vin...
November 09, 2025 at 00:58
I enjoy your thinking. We're not on the same page, though. No, in the same way that I'm one thing, my role as a father is another, and "6-0 tall" is a...
November 09, 2025 at 00:30
I'm very much enjoying your thoughts. Kinda sorta. Knowledge is a construction: a collection of truths deemed reliable and operable. "Rational" and "i...
November 08, 2025 at 20:04
Well, we're not born tabula rasa, but neither were we born with indoctrination, presuppositions, etc. Since computer/Internet/AI analogies are all the...
November 08, 2025 at 16:09
Now why, if all belief is irrational, would I have a belief that knowledge/truth settlements start as belief? I don't believe that -- not because I be...
November 08, 2025 at 13:06
Not at all. I said we dig down -- under our biases, presuppositions, indoctrination, attachments, etc. -- until we find rock-hard foundations: hard en...
November 06, 2025 at 13:39
Not "perfect" by a long shot, lol. Plenty of valid criticisms have been raised, but the syllogism isn't the point. I posted it to provoke criticism to...
November 05, 2025 at 15:54
The likeness is legit to a point, except I fundamentally disagree with Descartes on his entire skeptical project. He sought to find a rock he could bu...
November 05, 2025 at 14:16
Thanks for the contribution. I don't subscribe to many of the categories you mentioned, let alone to their prioritization. For me, it's simple: Someth...
November 05, 2025 at 13:52
That doesn't seem "odd" at all. It, actually, should be SOP for anyone engaging in this sort of thing. You assess an idea on the same terms it was dev...
November 05, 2025 at 00:25
Yeah you hit the nail on the head. You're coming at this as an epistemologist would. That's why 3rd person is important for you. You're taking a bird'...
November 04, 2025 at 19:14
You showed the distinction, you didn't show how the distinction makes a difference to our topic. In sloppy usage, sure. Are you saying that the differ...
November 04, 2025 at 19:03
I haven't ignored it since you first brought it up, and I've said so. After working it through, tho, I realized it doesn't matter. We're dealing with ...
November 04, 2025 at 18:26
Sure. Simply put, epistemics includes whatever we do to make sure that something we think is true actually is true (or find out it's not.) Especially ...
November 04, 2025 at 18:03
NICE! Almost exactly, but far better job than I did. I suck at syllogisms, lol. I'd say "instead of 'I think'" instead of "above another prefix". Also...
November 04, 2025 at 17:37
Yes, fair point, but the question is: does it matter? If both work the same, it's all the same. Please explain how the distinction matters. The first ...
November 04, 2025 at 16:04
Nice catch dude! You're right. I'm not at all interested in the 2nd or 3rd person cases because I'm not trying to build a theory here. I'm only intere...
November 03, 2025 at 15:45
Hey dude, nice to discuss with someone who is actually thinking! :grin: I find that this kind of glitch often results from the clash between categoric...
November 03, 2025 at 15:03
One, they're premises. They don't need proof. You're right, I'm relying on the reader's own experience in using the terms and observing they're use. A...
November 03, 2025 at 14:06
Well, no, we're not in agreement, because I haven't said and don't agree that think can mean the same thing as believe. Nope. I'm not sure I can make ...
November 02, 2025 at 22:20
Probably. Again, what you mean by belief isn't relevant to the post. The syllogism can't be evaluated on the basis of your definition, because it does...
November 02, 2025 at 21:17
What you have in mind does, but it's not what I said. "I ____ that P" is a two-part assertion. (think/believe/know in the blank, makes no real differe...
November 02, 2025 at 20:35
Well, bad call. No "middle" excluded by me, although I won't argue it's not true of your interpretation of what I've said. I can't account for or answ...
November 02, 2025 at 20:20
It's doing there in an attempt to distinguish the assertion from the statement of relationship to the assertion (which failed miserably as can be seen...
November 02, 2025 at 16:14
You're, of course, welcome to theorize to your heart's content, just like I do. :blush: That was an enjoyable little read, but it's not responsive to ...
November 02, 2025 at 15:44
No, not even a little bit. Personally, I don't deal in belief at all. "I think" and -- rarely -- "I know" are all I need, precisely because overextend...
November 02, 2025 at 15:34
It does not follow just from that either that they're rational or irrational. Sorry, having a hard time following you and relating it to what I've sai...
November 02, 2025 at 15:29
Neither you or Banno can tell the difference between "identical" and "epistemically identical", apparently.
November 02, 2025 at 15:21
:rofl: Believing that believing all belief is irrational, is irrational, is irrational. And that's to ignore the irrationality of confusing what I've ...
November 02, 2025 at 15:18
Glad to see someone understands "epistemically identical". :grin: "Justified belief" is an oxymoron. Take any idea. If the idea is justified to the po...
November 02, 2025 at 15:14
Simple. You ask the person with the opinion what they did to justify it to themself. Most people did nothing.
November 02, 2025 at 14:59
Quote the statement where I said belief and thought are the same thing. You're hallucinating.
November 02, 2025 at 14:56
By "epistemic warrant", I simply mean that what is asserted as true doesn't cantilever past a solid, rational (adequately thought through and connecte...
November 01, 2025 at 23:15
Maybe, but not just cuz you say so. Specify. Point out and explain the gaps and/or leaps.
November 01, 2025 at 22:12
“Epistemically identical” and “identical” mean different things. I didn’t say that belief and thought are identical, period. I distinguish epistemics ...
November 01, 2025 at 22:09
I pretty much never go for argumentum ad populum. I generally assume that whatever is generally recognized in a world such as ours is must be incorrec...
November 01, 2025 at 21:46
Actually, no, they're not consequent because they're not subsequent. There is no "exists" without "exists somewhere" -- which would necessarily be a r...
December 31, 2021 at 21:31
The way I'd say it is that there might or might not be forces that "govern", but we have no way of knowing if there are any or if there aren't. We do ...
December 31, 2021 at 20:27
So far as we know, nowhere. Narratives about natural laws exist, but the laws themselves "exist" only in narrative, as far as we can tell. "Natural la...
December 31, 2021 at 16:47
My bad, I said I corrected you on that way up at the beginning. I did correct the inference, but I misattributed the statement I corrected to you. It ...
December 31, 2021 at 04:21
Why not? Because you ipse dixit so? "Presumably" is not terrible basis for making a truth claim like you just did. "Presumably" introduces a hypotheti...
December 31, 2021 at 04:02
I could have answered more simply, respectively: in the minds of people who use math and develop the field of mathematics, and in the minds of scienti...
December 31, 2021 at 02:38
Self-explanatory or not, the fact that math rests on axioms that seem self-evident does not ipso facto signify either that they do or do not refer to ...
December 31, 2021 at 02:34
PS. To all: several times I've mentioned Harari. You can read his books, of course (I've perused Sapiens well enough to broad-brush grasp his main ide...
December 31, 2021 at 01:07
Where indeed? In my schema they either belong in the ontological domain of narrative or of actuality. So you tell me, what actuality (Harari likes to ...
December 31, 2021 at 00:51
The question is legit and non-rhetorical. I do these kinds of posts all the time and I'm so surprised that so few people do it. I'm exposing my "defin...
December 31, 2021 at 00:35
You can reformulate my statement that way, but then that's not necessarily what I said. It's not necessary to reformulate it. I in fact did not say or...
December 30, 2021 at 23:37