PossibleAaran

I don't see the mere existence of disagreement as a problem. Some people think their heads are made of glass. They are wrong. No problem there. Here i...

I'm far more familiar with Moore than Witgenstein, but one issue here is whether Wittgenstein's view is a kind of Relativism - that there are lots of ...

Indeed, I wouldn't want to deny any of these sensible points. The receiver has to have some background knowledge in order to interpret the noises of t...

Perhaps not, but does this question have any bearing on whether language can move information from one head to the other? I gave a pretty clear exampl...

"Where is the library" "It's on 23rd street". The second person gives information to the first person, who thereafter knows where the library is. This...

In this sense, everyone has access to objective truth. Everyone (who knows at least one language) can say objectively true things in a language. As to...

Well now I get it. Thanks for the clear explanation. I think you might just be right. Do you think this same sort of error afflicts other examples tha...

What is meant by "access"? I suppose in some sense of "access" everyone has access to the objective truth, and in another sense, they don't. PA

I don't follow your basic point. In the job case, Smith is told that he will get the job. Because he knows he has 10 coins in his own pocket, he valid...

I agree. Though I guess they would say that we aren't perfectly reliable - just reliable enough to survive. I think the position is unintelligible. If...

I believe the usual line for an Illusionist to take is to say that, in the sense of "reason" that you have in mind, there is no reason at all to belie...

What are the problems that you think are solved by not believing in Truth, or by supposing that all truth is relative?

but its easy to spin it around. The wall isn't light, but the individual bricks are light.

There are some more obvious examples than the circle. One due to Bertrand Russel: a brick wall might be very heavy, although none of the bricks on the...

Like many here, I don't find the argument that convincing. The original argument is: (1) If there are no objective values then there are no facts (sin...

I'm working on my Philosophy PhD at the moment, and I agree pretty much entirely with everything that you have said. Your account of intuitions seems ...

I don't think that's all that is left. Rather, the people who get into Philosophy these days seem to, a lot of them anyway, have a huge obsession with...

By “accurate” I mean that my definition describes the actual practices of those who call themselves “philosophers”. Fair enough. I agree. PA

I don’t think this is a valid argument. It is true that if God did create a copy of himself then there would exist a being of equal power to him. If b...

Alright, well what is useful about including science and history in a definition of philosophy? Perhaps there is some purpose that I don't see. For my...

I don't disagree over "what counts as philosophy". I don't think there is a fact of the matter about what counts as philosophy. We decide what counts,...

A stance on what? If you mean something like a stance on "the nature of philosophy" or "what philosophy is", I don't think there is any fact of the ma...

It was never my intention to mischaracterise you. It also wasn't my intention to argue semantics in favour of "one stance", if that means to argue tha...

But I already agreed with NKBJ that there is an ancient use of the word "philosophy" that has it cover "the earth is round". I'll even agree that it m...

That's an interesting solution, but I'm not sure that "I believe that" really is an idempotent operator here. Saying that I believe that P does not me...

The reason I don't want to call "the earth is round" a philosophical claim is that I have no idea what you mean by saying that. You have both made it ...

I agree that good philosophy can be done by incorporating science and history. But that is no reason to say that "the earth is round" is a philosophic...

Nice research. I agree that a good scientist should do philosophy. PA

Yup PA

I'm not "reducing" anything. I gave a definition which describes the actual use of the word "philosophy", taking into account the community of people ...

I don't think your analogy here is really apt. If I left out conifers in defining "tree" I would be leaving out things which it is very useful to incl...

Yes, it's true. Scientists make claims about how the world is, and according to some philosophers, that's what metaphysics studies. But there are many...

I'm not disputing that philosophy, as you define it, includes metaphysics and epistemology and then science and history as subcategories. There is no ...

Well certainly I thought I was, but I wouldn't include scientific or historical questions under Philosophy, and you would. So you must be defining the...

We make some progress here, but I'm sure you know that "metaphysics" and "epistemology" are again technical terms which philosophers use in different ...

My question to you is the same as I ask NKBJ: what do you mean by "Philosophy"? PA

When you say that the natural sciences are part of Philosophy, what is it that you mean by "Philosophy"? Because when I use that word, I merely refer ...

It would be good to be clear about the disagreement first. I know you say "Philosophy includes the natural sciences". I don't know if I disagree or no...

I come and go. Sometimes I post every day for a few weeks, and then I don't post for months, and then I'm back again. There are quite a few people her...

So did mine, but they were dual; Philosophy and Psychology in my case. Philosophy and History for a friend of mine. These subjects were not listed as ...

I'll try to make the argument clearer. Consider a dialogue between your Relativist and, if you like, an Objectivist, who puts forward my own line of t...

Not quite what I said. The academic discipline that goes by the name of "Philosophy" today does not have the sciences as sub-disciplines. Go to any Ph...

What exactly is the disagreement about? I don't remember disagreeing with you about anything. PA

Well I'm not saying that it's good or bad. I'm just describing the academic discipline of Philosophy as a means of answering the OP. Philosophy has it...

Hi Devans, my thought is that the arguments as you present them are far too brief to be convincing. Take just this one: The first premise is an ancien...

Yes, I know. The distinction is a useful one. Between Philosophy in the wide sense and Philosophy in the narrow sense? Philosophy in the wide sense is...

I think there are still problems afoot here. Mum could well punish Jemimah for lying, but it would also make perfect sense for her to punish Jemimah f...

No, I'm afraid I can't. I agree with most of what you said. I'm an agnostic about quite a lot of conceptions of God, but there are those against which...

I find this quite curious. I would have thought that Mum, in saying "is that true?", is not merely asking Jemimah what she believes on the issue of wh...

Yes that's true, but collecting empirical data is to establish that the earth is round or that man evolved from prior species is not doing Philosophy....