Ludwig V

I have only just discovered this message of yours. It certainly changes things a lot. It shows how easy it is to get things wrong if you don't read th...

I don't disagree with you. But I would go much further. We warp our understanding of philosophy by thinking that rhetoric is something that can be rem...

I hope, at my age, I can at least claim to something like philosophical maturity! I'm not saying I couldn't be convinced. The core of the problem is t...

I have no problem with the code on this (or other) forums. But laying down, and enforcing a code on philosophy as such seems like a futile project. Th...

I can see that he has thought about what he is doing, and is not just doing it for entertainment or on some other impulse. But I can't pretend, to mys...

I would say that there are facts about what is useful, but that they are contextual, not absolute. My answers are "yes" and "needs clarification". Tha...

Thanks for the explanation. It would seem that there has been considerable progress on this issue since the bad old days.

I don't want to disrupt the discussion that is actually going on here. I hope that it is possible to ask a question in the margins, as it were, withou...

Certainly we can say that. My arguing that he is wrong does not mean that I don't think he is a great philosopher (though it might mean that I think h...

Oh, I don't doubt his sincerity and I do take him at his word. But his move removes doubt from its usual context, and especially it's usual consequenc...

Yes, I have seen it expressed that way. I don't think it does more than make an interesting beginning for a theory. Hamlet's version is somewhat diffe...

A preface. David Hume draws a sharp distinction, between what he calls Pyrrhonistic or radical scepticism and what he calls judicious scepticism. It i...

He may well have had that target in his sights. H'm. That is certainly what was happening, though paradoxically during the next century or so, the hum...

I'm not sure I understand all of this. But I do agree that representing our "cognitive system" as representational does indeed set one up for sceptici...

I've very tempted to engage with this, but I'll have to save that treat for another time. For now, let me just say that even if Cartesian scepticism h...

I'm sure it is not meant to be traditional philosophical sceptical doubt. On the contrary, that background of certainty is what prevents it running ou...

The explanation (analysis) of solidity is a surprise - counter-intuitive, if you like. One can see why some people want to say that solid things are n...

Fair enough. I wasn't quite clear where you stood. I'm pretty sure that every day there are more discoveries that do not defy science. But they are no...

That nicely brings out the paradox in the conclusion. It's not a question of mistrusting everything we see, but of deciding what to trust. Mistrusting...

This is very sad. I only knew Vera from her posts. But I always found them worth reading. Her voice was always distinctive and, in my view, constructi...

I apologize. This was carelessly and badly written. I don't see what I can do to make things right but to apologize and delete this paragraph. I hope ...

I thank you for your patience during our debate. I have learnt quite a lot from it, especially that I need to think through more carefully what I have...

I've developed a habit of using "reason" when I'm talking about a limited sense of reason, which has to do with truth/falsity and logic. When I'm thin...

I'm simply considering your idea from various angles. I don't see a problem. Judging from your reference later on, you classify mathematical propositi...

But there is a third possibility, to recognize that tradition has good and bad elements and that reason has its power, but also its limitations. Less ...

I can't see why you allow the "perhaps". Socrates would not get started without Laches and Euthyphro and Alcibiades. Equally, Plato needed Socrates to...

Yes, of course that's right. I was lazily using what I thought was a standard formulation. Let me try to put the point another way. A dictionary defin...

That's an interesting thought. Do you have an example? I'm sorry I made a mistake. I was trying to do your work for you. I should have just asked the ...

Yes. But that assignment happens before the assignation of individuals to predicates. So, presumably, predicates can play no part in assigning individ...

Yes, I hoped you would want to add propositions like that. Do we call them necessary or analytic? Or both? I don't think this is a key idea at all. It...

Thanks.

Thanks very much. Perhaps I should have paused before posting. Thanks. It's good to know I was not wrong.

I don't have one. But I did wonder about feelings like the feeling of falling, or the feeling of an insect crawling up your arm, or feeling sick (naus...

Well, there is a theory that reading in the ancient classical world was always reading out loud. Reading to oneself in sllence developed later. Sadly,...

Oh, I see. Emotions = feelings. That's a new one to me.

It certainly is. I'll do my best. This is the remark that I responded to. I took truth-apt to mean true-or-false, (i.e. empirical) and responded becau...

Well, I was thinking that beliefs about people name, age, address place of work - neutral facts - don't count for anything like as much as about how t...

I think your view is being skewed by the religious use of faith - which does seem to be about beliefs. I agree that one can be faithful to one's belie...

Yes, that is clearly true. The question is, what more can we usefully say? There's two more difficult terms. Sometimes the self is me, not a part of m...

Not in so many words, but you did say this:- and I think that what I said follows from that. It is trouble because you have to covince me that "God ex...

If P is not truth-apt, then S need not be truth-apt; but then S might be truth-apt. So if P is not truth-apt, then S might or might not be truth-apt. ...

I have a problem with any theory that divides the person/self into separate elements like this. When we do the wrong thing, we are usually anxious to ...

I agree that ways of life and propositions cannot be neatly separated. For me, at least, that was the significance of accept Hadot' remark. Thatl woul...

We do indeed see a great deal of stuff about people who have succeeded against the odds, and, as you point out, not only in fiction. We don't see near...

Yes, I understand that the ego is the ox. But who is it that tames the ox/ego? The story would lose its point if we could imagine the ox willingly sub...

I can see that. I can also see room for a good deal more philosophy. But I think that going there would be a bit off topic for this thread. Thank you ...

Forgive me. I get your drift. However ways of life, unlike propositions about them, are not true or false. But they can be validated by or founded on ...

That's right. I was feeling for the point at which dogma etc. becomes a problem that needs to be addressed by social action. Which is a delicate but i...

OK. But when I hear "There's a possible world in which P", I understand this to be equivalent to "It is possible that P". So far, I haven't identified...

Broadly, I agree. But I think we have to modify what we have been saying a bit. Putting it crudely, it is not dogma, ideology and fundamentalism in th...