But, supposing I am the first child of my parents, there would still be a first child. Why wouldn't that be me, but different? I happen to know that t...
In a sense, yes. Which is why I went back to the past before I existed - when there was no me for anything to be in relation to. To put the point anot...
Quite so. But if he was misled, doesn't that suggest that the conclusion of the argument is wrong, or at least may be wrong? Does that really make no ...
So maybe I considered moving the bishop and decided to do something else. When I did something else, it was no longer possible. But it was possible wh...
No, it does not. Because the person who would have been born 5 minutes earlier never existed and never could have existed. There's only person one who...
You frame this issue as "... but that wouldn't have YOU". In brief, I think the issue is partly created by the way it is framed. Given that I exist, m...
Yes. Isn't that implicit in "necessary but not sufficient"? I would say it has to reach at least 100%. But maybe you don't? I wish I had thought of th...
That's certainly true. I didn't distinguish carefully enough between Zeno's thinking and ours. We have the benefit of an established distinction betwe...
Yes. That's because, of course, there are, ex hypothesi no individual (actual) accidents to be averted. I don't see that Ryle is at all confused here....
Here's my summary/reconstruction of lecture III on Achilles and the tortoise:- The first part of the third lecture is about a real chestnut. But it is...
I agree with you. The only thing I would add is that it is a surprise, at least to me, to realize that "While it, is still an askable question whether...
That's fine by me. These summaries - at least in the case of this book - are not that easy to do, so I will appreciate having some extra time. That do...
So does this mean that the idea that I might have been a musician, or an accountant, or a Roman Catholic, are all nonsense? Odd, don't you think? Migh...
I'll do my best. As to the problem with his style, I can understand that would be disappointing. Perhaps my introduction should make it clear what the...
I can't say this thread is working very well, but if two or three people are interested and actually reading the book, I'm perfectly happy to continue...
That's what a discussion is about, surely. Listen to the other guy, adjust your view and on we go. With luck, we might even reach agreement! However, ...
OK. I'll skip the issue whether the baby that is born is the person who will develop over the next twenty years or so. But there is a development proc...
LaPlace's famous reply to Napoleon (I think) that he has no need of the hypothesis of God marks the point at which instrumentalism, which had enabled ...
There you go again. I agree that you can call that a different person, but I claim that I can decide on a case-by-case basis whether the difference wa...
Yes, I've heard that story. As a result that quotation has become one of my favourites. But actually, you can't just go on about differences without a...
Well, I have quoted the bit I just quoted again here. You originally said that just after you quoted a long argument from me, trying to explain why I ...
I could have fair hair and still be me. I could be six inches shorter than I am and still be me. I could have musical talent as opposed to competence ...
Thank you very much for this. Yes. I was more interested in the differences between the three than the similarities. But I didn't mean to suggest that...
Well, this is just a special application of the general argument framed by the fatalist. I guess you are not impressed by Ryle's arguments. It would b...
Yes, that sounds sensible. But that's an ideal and there may never be answers that are more than provision (see philosophy of science). Can you suspen...
I think that there are two issues at stake here. One of them is the definition of identity. You seem to have what I think of a strict definition of id...
Thank you for drawing my attention to that case. I missed it because I was focused on the second lecture. I had thought that there were two separate j...
Ryle was not really sure he has conclusively refuted fatalism. He says at the end of this lecture “I have produced quite an apparatus of somewhat elab...
I agree with what you say, particularly about the discovery that one's parents are not the people who are bringing you up. But I also think that minor...
I agree in the sense that it is a very difficult issue to give a clear answer to. But what circumstances are sufficiently different to make a problem?...
No, I didn't see that. It does seem to be a similar point. Except that Schopenhauer puts it in metaphysical mode, where Ryle puts it in linguistic mod...
Yes, I thought it was terrific! It seemed to me an application of the point that you can't identify a specific object and then say it doesn't exist. H...
The dilemma known as “fatalism” has been around for a very long time. In one form or another, it is found in pre-Islamic Arabia, in India and China as...
Why on earth would that be true? What is a "rejection understanding"? All that is at stake is a philosophical theory, a way of thinking about things. ...
Well perhaps so. But this has nothing to do with Ryle - or Wittgenstein, either. Ryle does wish to eliminate Cartesian consciousness, but that's a dif...
I agree. I'll post my summary later to-day. The discussion of categories is complicated. But I think the basic idea is quite simple. Since Ryle wrote,...
Ah, that's different. The infinite meta- debates. Quite so. That's why I very suspicious of the meta-concept. I'm thinking on the hoof here. But I thi...
That's a very good characterization, from Ryle's point of view. The key is that Descartes thought in terms of different "substances" which is how peop...
I think you are confusing two different things. If I say that the last bus goes at 10:30, the fact that someone can say "Oh, no! There's another bus t...
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