It's worth remembering that in geometry, it turned out that rules other than Euclid's (with all their intuitive plausbility) turned out to yield consi...
I have a distinct sense that some level of consensus is developing. :smile: And I'm sorry I didn't. He seems to come out so close to W that there does...
An afterthought. Kriipke's sceptic does not escape from all this. Posing the problem takes for granted that we can recognize ("get") the difference be...
Of course, applications of "+1" include practical applications. The point is that the rule must be applied to each case; it does not reach out to the ...
If they don't make any difference, how are they alternative? On the other hand, it is perfectly possible for two or more of us to get along quite well...
Counting makes sense as a genesis of arithmetic. But is doesn't escape from the sceptical question. There is no fact of the matter that determines whe...
Yes, I see that Janus is chasing the same point about action, and has reformulated the first premiss to avoid the ambiguity of "it". I didn't understa...
Perhaps I should stay away from this. Perhaps other people have recognized what seems to me to be obviously wrong, but I haven't picked it up. So - Su...
Yes, this problem seems to me a special case of the general problem about whether there is a reality that exists independently of observers. This seem...
I was going to ask about that. But then it had struck me that the companion formula (contrapositive( of the identity of indiscernibles -- (?x)(?y)(x=y...
Wouldn't Occam's razor deal with both of those? Come to think of it, wouldn't it deal with any unobservable noumenon? After all, ex hypothesi, there w...
I'm wondering whether the second sentence is a threat or a promise. It would stretch my boundaries, but if one can't take risks here, where can one? T...
I must say, I do find the last few posts very difficult to follow. That's probably my fault. But to comment would likely be unhelpful. Thanks very muc...
The article doesn't seem to be readily available to me, though a number of criticisms of it are. Sticking to the topic, then. This has to do with refe...
Another metaphor, but still, it works for me. I think this is OK. Where do we go from here? We are saying roughly that believing uses a proposition ra...
The last sentence, in particular, nicely reconciles the issue about the object of the belief. There might be more to be said, but it is a good startin...
The standard way is to post an "intentional object" (in this case a proposition). But then, what's a proposition? The standard "meaning of a sentence"...
Well, if you are happy for me to say that beliefs explain actions, I'm content to do so and to leave the notion of explanation undefined because it is...
I wouldn't object to saying that a given belief may never be expressed in action, only that it would be if circumstances were right. Though I would lo...
That's true. But is it absurd to go counter-factual and say that a belief would show in action (where thinking counts as an action) if appropriate cir...
That's a very good way of putting it. I think I agree with you, only I'm not sure what you mean by "this image" (which image exactly?). It is certainl...
If I may comment on some of these issues.... There seems to be some disagreement and confusion about beliefs and actions. Surely we can confidently sa...
There is no difference of meaning, except that "you have the experience of falling freely" suggests that there is some kind of entity/thing that you i...
Do you mean that I'm using tricks of the mind to express my doubts? I believe that I'm exposing the tricks that make plausible the idea that we have a...
Well, you've identified/described three experiences quite clearly. You used a sentence, which consists of a subject, a verb and an object. So it looks...
Mine too. That's why I object to it so much. Wittgenstein says somewhere that the philosophical solution he is looking for is the one that enables him...
I can't give a straight answer to that, because the question presupposes that qualia exist, which I'm not sure about, especially since I'm not clear w...
It's really hard to know how to proceed with this. I'll do my best. It depends what you mean by correct. It's not as if there is an existing definitio...
Consciousness may not be physically reducible now. But that doesn't mean it always will be. One day, I'm sure, there will be a physical account. If yo...
Yes, a distinguishing between frequencies of light is different from distinguishing between colours. Neither is an attempt to describe experiencing co...
I asked the question because I wanted to check that you agreed with me and to make the point that we don't need any more explanation. But I hesitate t...
Fine. But you don't want to say that rainbows don't exist just because they are fully explained by physical processes, do you? Now, we don't know what...
H'm. We're talking about slightly different things. "Phenomenological properties exist" and "Phenomenological properties do not exist" are indeed cont...
Something like a picture or a model. It certainly is, if such things as inner experiences exist. The issue is whether they exist. I read the Nagel's o...
I didn't know about Spain. This is indeed a dilemma. But the real point is not quite what it seems. One side will say that what matters is successful ...
Our collective knowledge has put together an impressive (I don't suppose it is exhaustive) array of explanations. It reveals that language is just as ...
It depends what you mean by "of the same nature". They are clearly radically different, since there's no dagger. But they are clearly similar because ...
An observation - standard grammar was originally developed as a teaching aid in Alexandria at some point in the last few centuries BCE because lots of...
I'm impressed by the discussion that has emerged from the initial question. I'm sure that if my observations are merely disruptive, everyone will igno...
Quite right. I shouldn't have allowed habitual forms of speech to take me over. But it illustrates how difficult it is to avoid misleading ways of put...
I think it has, in the second paragraph. My point there is that the idea of an internal image makes better sense in the context of an illusion or hall...
Excellent! The next step is a standard move in philosophy. When we see something, there is something that we see - a table, a goal, etc. We can draw a...
I'm sorry. I made an assumption and I was wrong. You're doing well. Illusions exist, all right. They are perfectly objective. The tricky bit comes whe...
[ I agree with your point of view. But I'm inclined to be a bit more than sceptical of phenomenal properties, understood as a kind of screen or veil b...
H'm. I'm not sure that there is, or has to be, a "true" identity. Certainly, if you consider the multiple roles played by most people during their liv...
We don't, not until the end of the story. Stopping is like dots at the end of the sentence, or the fading out of the music as the end of the song. You...
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