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Metaphysician Undercover

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https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/physicists-are-philosophers-too/ This follows from the trend of mathematicians who employ platonic realism ...
February 14, 2022 at 19:24
I find 3.14 is sufficient for my practical purposes. I suppose if you're a cosmologist, or someone who is multiplying pi by a googolplex or something ...
February 14, 2022 at 13:47
The real problem is that the person can choose not to play that game. And that is why the whole game analogy, and the described "hinge propositions", ...
February 14, 2022 at 13:34
I've never been able to understand the basis of this claim that abstractions do not have any effect in the world. All a person has to do is open one's...
February 14, 2022 at 12:36
You claim to have a scientific perspective, but I think the trend by modern scientists, especially physicists, is toward idealism. What's commonly acc...
February 14, 2022 at 03:48
I'm waiting for you to address the issues I raised. Show me where I might find one of these laws of reality that you insist I must obey. Where is the ...
February 14, 2022 at 03:22
You've lost track of the premise. There is a succession of universes, one every moment, stacked like pancakes. The "order" is the relation between the...
February 14, 2022 at 03:11
If you do not understand that "occupy space", and "possess mass" are both conceptual, then please read some philosophy before posting on a philosophy ...
February 14, 2022 at 02:35
Let me state the problem using other words then. If you proceed in this direction, you have no "truth" as correspondence, because you've denied that t...
February 14, 2022 at 02:16
Anything defined with "in general" is conceptual, so "physical substance in general" is purely conceptual. And so is "occupies space", as well as "res...
February 14, 2022 at 01:08
Matter is just a concept. Unless you can clearly define your concept of "matter" you might just as well be saying that the brain is made of pixie dust...
February 13, 2022 at 12:38
That's the way I find reality, complicated. If you think my description of reality is needlessly complicated then you probably do not share my opinion...
February 13, 2022 at 01:31
I think that action is generally based in probability rather than in truth. We usually act when we believe that there is a probability for success, no...
February 13, 2022 at 01:06
OK, I'll go with that description. The first thing to come to grips with, is that there is no such thing as "the universe", "our universe", or "my uni...
February 12, 2022 at 13:40
Yes, I see your point, but facts are not propositions, and this is what gives so many people the problem in understanding what supports the hinge prop...
February 12, 2022 at 12:35
Wittgenstein's notion of "hinge proposition" is really useless. All propositions are "hinges"; "hinge" describes the use of a proposition. Some propos...
February 12, 2022 at 01:44
Yes, in the paper you referred, the author argues, as I do, that there is no reality to "hinge propositions" as described by Wittgenstein. A real "hin...
February 12, 2022 at 01:12
We cannot deny these things, which were in the past but no longer are now, and which might be, in the future, from reality. Clearly they are in some s...
February 12, 2022 at 00:18
I was going on Real Gone's interpretation of what you said, that God is outside the universe. Under that proposal there is no question as to whether G...
February 11, 2022 at 12:41
I don't see the basis for your claim. If God is the creator, then God had real existence, prior to your existence, just like your grandmother had real...
February 10, 2022 at 20:56
The problem with expressing the picture in the propositional form, is the gap between the particular and the universal. A picture is always a particul...
February 10, 2022 at 13:26
How can you have a relationship with your dead grandmother? The fact that the named entity does not presently exist in your universe does not deny you...
February 10, 2022 at 12:40
I'd answer both those questions with no. And I agree with your relating Kuhn to Wittgenstein, I think Kuhn most likely built on Wittgenstein's idea. A...
February 10, 2022 at 00:39
Why do you dismiss the idea of God having been "designed"? If we do not dismiss this idea, then we are confronted with the possibility of an infinite ...
February 09, 2022 at 12:54
We actually agree on something here Luke. But how we both interpret this is bound to differ. I see what you describe here as clear evidence that there...
February 09, 2022 at 12:26
Being confined to an artificial structure in an extremely hostile outside environment is definitely not my idea of utopia. Many of the political issue...
February 09, 2022 at 12:02
That's the problem, the axis itself (the proposed hinge proposition) is not fixed, so it revolves around something else, another "hinge", and so on. I...
February 09, 2022 at 03:38
I think what Wittgenstein demonstrates, is that the idea of hinge propositions is fundamentally mistaken. Hinge propositions are simply something we w...
February 08, 2022 at 16:25
I think that the other planets are known to be fundamentally uninhabitable, any colonization would be within an artificial structure, just like the sp...
February 08, 2022 at 11:58
Why not? Hasn't the International Space Station already turned into a sort of melting pot, with people of all different nationalities going there? Wik...
February 07, 2022 at 12:54
I really can't see the distinction you are trying to make here. What would it mean to obey a rule without following it? Notice "follow" implies a temp...
February 07, 2022 at 12:42
The new melting pot: Mars. I thought Antarctica is already owned by Nazi Germany.
February 07, 2022 at 01:29
I assume this means let's make a baby.
February 07, 2022 at 01:22
Yes, that is the problem, isn't it? What are you going to believe, your own experience of thinking, acting, and living, which demonstrates the reality...
February 06, 2022 at 12:19
Consider the possibility of "time zero". This would mean that there is a future without any past. Why would there suddenly be a past? "Time zero" itse...
February 06, 2022 at 12:12
I believe that we all live and act as if we have free will. So to deny free will is a self-deceptive attempt at hypocrisy, to force oneself to belief ...
February 06, 2022 at 12:01
Appeal to authority, another failure.
February 06, 2022 at 02:06
So you say, but you failed in justifying this claim.
February 06, 2022 at 02:05
And we haven't even gotten to the issue you intentionally avoided, the relation between the brain and the senses.
February 06, 2022 at 02:03
Now you seem to be catching on. Each depends on the other, so we cannot say that one controls the other. If the brain existed first, and created the h...
February 06, 2022 at 01:59
The brain is not "self-perpetuating" by any definition. The heart pumping blood is external agency. Who is being stupid here?
February 06, 2022 at 01:52
Self-perpetuating is to continue in existence indefinitely. If it dies it is not self-perpetuating. Obviously it's not a closed system. The brain is n...
February 06, 2022 at 01:35
Do you know how to do long division? Or, the calculator just does it for you?
February 06, 2022 at 01:30
Garrett, my brain is not your brain. And both of our brains have come into existence and will pass out of existence. "The brain" is not self-perpetuat...
February 06, 2022 at 01:18
Since you obviously think that this paragraph supports your claim that the brain is "self-perpetuating without fail", I see no point in discussing thi...
February 05, 2022 at 22:28
This is the same distinction Aristotle makes then. What one sees as good for oneself is called the apparent good. The common good, or good from the pe...
February 05, 2022 at 21:55
I'm sorry if this disappoints you, but I find your conception of "will" to be completely incoherent. Premises which are essential for your conclusion,...
February 05, 2022 at 13:13
It easy to say "the will is itself", but unless we can demonstrate that there is actually something real which is being referred to as "the will", suc...
February 05, 2022 at 02:27
I don't know if the notions of will and freedom here are outdated, I'd say they're just heavily influenced by determinism. The best a determinist can ...
February 04, 2022 at 13:31
This is a good indication as to why Arendt is dealing with a faulty description of "will". It leads to contradiction in the description of the self-sa...
February 03, 2022 at 21:32