Pseudonym

I'm not sure I'd feel qualified to decide. I don't want to provide a load of work for mods just on the basis of what might be an extremely unpopular v...

You know you're absolutely right. Now I come to think of it, most of the people I know are sort of pinky-yellow. Some are positively tan. Where are al...

Thanks for all the replies. I'm going to pin this one to my computer for the next time no-one replies to one of my posts.

I see, then it's just a matter of you and I having a very different definition of what constitutes trivial or politically motivated posts. Or else the...

I hope this will explain, though I'm not entirely sure what you're asking. I'm vaguely in agreement with Quine with regards to the lack of a distincti...

If the objective is to improve the philosophical content of posts, are you not risking making matters worse by removing the lounge from the front page...

My post was intended to be entirely about ways to improve the site, or rather a warning about not going to far in certain directions. The fact that it...

Interesting. I'd recently taken a break from posting in part as a consequence of what I considered to be the low philosophical content of posts (thoug...

I'm sorry for the long delay replying. Interestingly (to me anyway), the reason I took such a long break is exactly the topic we're discussing here. I...

It's taken me quite a while (evidently) to decide whether to reply to this, or indeed any other post. I get a bit bored from time to time with the tre...

No, but @"Janus" has already replied with pretty much what I was going to say. Basically, not being able to understand what a statement means is a cau...

So what's the alternative, that isn't simply submitting to authorities? You suggest we absolve all moral autonomy to institutions. I'm not an economis...

I'm not sure I see what difference this makes. Even if no one knew what the claim meant it's still inductively true that if it has not been verified d...

Yes, I've not been clear enough in that comment because, I didn't think it necessary in the context of what CS was saying, but as a statement out on i...

I'll get to your main point next, but I just wanted to explain my position on this one first. I don't think we do need to know what a proposition mean...

I'll also just try to quickly refer you back to my previous comments. I'm not saying that all propositions of that form are meaningless, it is specifi...

Running out of battery on my phone so only time for one more comment, so I'd just like to agree that not all metaphysical positions resting on unverif...

It seems like we're getting back to the semantic issue again, we're going round in circles. If you want to define 'meaningful' in such a way as to inc...

But I can understand and find meaning in all of those statements; The first one is metaphorical and describes the draining of pond likening it the dra...

There's no such thing as a common language when using ambiguous terms. The commonality of language is based entirely on mutual agreement. Where there'...

So what does the word 'meaningless' do if there are no statements for it to be used on. Why do we even have the word?

So if I were to speak in German to a non-German speaker, my action would still be of high utility?

Yes. Yes. This just seems like bare assertion. How did you arrive at this conclusion from the statements above? What definition of meaningful are you ...

No, it's asking for the evidence so that I can reach my own conclusion about its meaning rather than simply accept whatever the APA says as gospel tru...

@"Marchesk" has opened a thread on this, but whilst fascinating, I don't see how it gains its importance here. As @"Janus" has pointed out, it just be...

If this is decidability then no metaphysical arguments are decidable because "We" evidently haven't decided. and if "we" do decide, then a comparison ...

OK. Your position seemed a lot different and certainly included a lot of extraneous points to this specific one, but I will, of course, take you at yo...

Absolutely, this seems so fundamentally obvious to me that I'm genuinely baffled when people seem to think that children need to be drilled into line ...

Just to let you know, for what it's worth, that your interpretation of my position is pretty much bang on, so feel free to carry on as if it were, wit...

(Just for ease of future writing, I'm a 'he'. It's slightly painful to see it laboured over, I really wouldn't have minded being wrongly assigned, but...

I can't examine it if you don't tell me which of Heraclitus's positions you are referring to. Are you seriously suggesting that there are no responses...

You haven't provided me with the evidence yet, you've provided me with the theory which claims to remain unfalisifed by the evidence. Have you no idea...

It's hardly a deeply personal revelation. I've outlined my parenting style in a short paragraph, not published my diary. And if you think asking for e...

For sure, I think providing children with the right environment is key.

Yeah, have you ever read a parenting book from the 50s? All that was 'fact' at the time too.

It's a 'fact' now is it? You should have no trouble laying your hands on the evidence then.

Well, I'll be sure to tell my children who are currently considerate, confident, calm, look after themselves and have achieved great things. They must...

Yes, but it's not just 'when' they have contradictory criteria for what counts as 'wrong', it is virtually inevitable that they will (if only in some ...

I'm not sure I see the relevance of this. I'm quite happy with the fact that we infer the chaos of the senses. What I'm saying is that the intelligent...

But lack of self-contradiction is easy. Name me an argument in metaphysics that is self-contradictory. Anyone who understands basic grammar can constr...

I'm not sure a full discussion of parenting methods would be on-topic, but broadly I don't believe I have a right to tell my children what to do just ...

Perhaps in another thread. I think it might verge a little off topic here.

Um, because you said that Western civilisation was better than hunter-gatherers and you cited "backwards" reasons for infanticide as one of your reaso...

I agree entirely with your intention here, but the trouble with such an approach is that to do anything about it (apart from antinatalism, which you s...

How do you know that there are essential properties for such words to be found? Is it? This just repeats the same error; that people would have found ...

I don't think the argument requires that assumption. Concluding that because a method has attempted to do something for thousands of years but failed ...

By one way and passive I mean that the philosopher holding the proposition plays no invested part in the process (one way) and that there's no competi...

That's not what 'they'd' say though is it? They'd say that every tingling of conscience is God, every feeling of mystical beauty is God, every time yo...

No, if it were then philosophers would have to be linguists and definitions could easily be resolved by the dictionary. The staff of the various dicti...

Exactly, now imagine this process like a decision tree (I wish I could draw in these posts, it would be so much easier). First fork in the tree is "wh...