Ludwig V

I can see that. The confessional is a possible example - except, of course, are priests independent? It depends on how you rate their religion. My pre...

I like that. Though some analytics don't cut themselves off from their tradition, but re-interpret it into their own language. Mind you, a lot of all ...

Thanks for the clip. There's a lot in it that doesn't easily come out in prose. It depends what you mean by primary, and the point of view. I think yo...

There is no criterion beyond agreement between us. So if I am understood and understand, everything is in order. (It's not a question of chastisement,...

I agree with that. Yes. But I thought that was one of Wittgenstein's points. Because you said it was a counter-example, I thought that you were saying...

I'm not saying that if to-day is Sunday, the probability that yesterday was Saturday is anything other than 1. Of course not. I'm saying that because ...

I guess I can get this gist of the joke from the general context. I don't remember much about the movie. Was that an actual scene, or something that y...

Quite so. Nature and nurture are so intertwined that we should be very cautious about what distinctions we want to make. It is even possible, isn't it...

I'm puzzled about what you mean by trying religions out. You must mean more than going through some motions - something closer to taking them seriousl...

Fair enough. We're obviously not going to reach agreement. For what it's worth, my diagnosis is that we disagree about the boundaries of the relevant ...

I'm afraid few decent philosophical arguments can easily be refuted by counter-example. Someone else can read the note, so it doesn't count as private...

I didn't think your comment was silly. And we are discussing metaphors.

:smile: Yes. Empty sets, etc., are defined in a context, which assigns a use to them (though perhaps not a meaning!). So that's different. The critici...

As it happens, I'm in the middle of reading this. However, I was hoping to find something that questioned the need for bedrock assumptions. I was also...

Well, even the expanded metaphor makes a good point. Foundations need to be in a different category from what is founded. More logic doesn't give you ...

This is a bit embarrassing. I was using a bit of philosophical jargon, which seems to be out of date. You must have been wondering how empty sets were...

I don't think I have any more to say about probability = 1. So let's agree to disagree. I think I understand at least where and why we disagree. I'm s...

1 Singer doesn't ask himself what "needs" and he doesn't distinguish between relative and absolute poverty. (There may be stuff about this that I'm no...

Probability = 1 We are very close here. However, I take the fact that intermediate probabilities don't apply to mean that in a context where intermedi...

Yes, I get that. In the sense that we've discussed, it is a speech act either way. However, axioms and definitions are not the same kinds of speech ac...

Oh dear! That's a real can of worms, isn't it? Some philosophers would argue that the engineers have got it right. Perhaps it is best to start with th...

Thanks. One has to do something when one doesn't have the keyboard for the symbolism. Handwriting is much more flexible. I didn't realize that argumen...

I'm afraid I don't know what "^" means. But the paradox in the concept of the infinitesimal - that it both is and is not equal to zero - Is not diffic...

Believe it or not, I can see that. I'm a bit confused about infinitesimals. Are they infinitely small? Does that mean that each one is equal to 0 i.e....

Yes. Is that a definition or an axiom? Whatever it is, it isn't just another assignment of a probability because it enables the actual assignments to ...

I see your point. I don't quite get that "fork" argument. The notation using lower case beta for a member of the set and upper case beta for the set i...

I apologize for this post. I'm just flailing around. Actually, I'm still not sure where the best place to begin is. This is about categories or concep...

That's exactly what I have been trying to say all along! :smile:

I don't think you have derailed anything. If there's any derailing going on, it's me that's doing it. You can do that, but it's very misleading. It su...

Thanks.

That's a complicated thought process. This is a story. It was made up. Speculations about what Athena thought or didn't think beyond what we are told ...

OK. I wondered if it worked a bit more widely than that. I don't think that it would work for sqrt2, since Aristotle could prove that it was "incommen...

For me, this issue has a wider context. This may be a step too far. But there are many people who turn up on this forum - and elsewhere - who deeply b...

Yes. I assume you mean all the terms of the infinite sequence? And I'm puzzled why you think I'm disagreeing with you. So it is. But what is the eleme...

It's probably just that everyone who joins needs to be taken through it. Each person has to learn everything for themselves.

I look forward to mankind's return to the Garden of Eden.

Thank you very much for those. If I've understood, your argument shows what the sum of the infinite series is. Right?

It probably saves time and energy. Actually, you mentioned it and I got curious. I'm afraid I innocently asked a question and set off a land-mine. Wel...

Is there a non-existing dog? If there is, it doesn't exist. If there isn't, it doesn't exist. Exactly. I've been bitten by that infinity more times th...

I do appreciate your help. But this doesn't seem to work with other similar sequences, such as 0.333... or 0.444... or 0.1212.... What have I got wron...

The transcendental food was a joke, playing on the absurdity of transcendental dogs. I must be more careful about jokes. What is the criterion for Zen...

I don't know the math well enough to be sure, but I think it is possible to place numbers like ? or sqrt2 in order among the natural numbers. So every...

I don't recall mentioning any non-existent dogs, nor any that don't eat anything. I didn't realize, though I should have done, that you are placing th...

I can see that point. I didn't look at the issue in the light of infinite series or take on board that it was a question of the sum of an infinite ser...

Here's how I look at it. I think that everyone will agree that a formula is not about anything specific and, in itself is neither true nor false. x + ...

If I said anything about that, I would be way out of my depth. So I'm afraid I shall have to ignore it - until another time, maybe. .. in the context ...

Which one do you think should be rejected?

That makes 0.999999..... = 1 just an illusion created by the notation you have decided to use. It is not a proof. In my opinion. You might have a diff...

I'm deeply flattered. But that is far too much for me to grasp in less than a month or two. Perhaps it would serve our purposes. I could probably get ...

I'm not deeply versed in Aristotle, but my impression is that he did indeed resolve the issue, as it was understood in his time (and what more than th...