Metaphysician Undercover

Actually sanctions can have the reverse effect. If the sanctioned country can establish a black market, the price might be lower and the oil could flo...

The problem of irrational numbers arose from the construction of spatial figures. That indicates a problem with our understanding of the nature of spa...

How would you suggest removing a moment from time? We cannot even mark off intervals of time by designating instants, because as special relativity in...

Of course they accepted that. It was well described by Plato, accepted by Aristotle, and described even more thoroughly by Augustine. The solution to ...

Your argument assumes that time consists of distinct and individual moments. But we experience time as continuous. These two have not been shown to be...

That appears to be what he wants. But his diplomacy is terrible. The Iranian say it's that of a terrorist. Should we expect them to negotiate with ter...

You never thought I ever had it, that's why you'd tell things like get back on your meds. Is the fact that you keep addressing my post with such nonse...

I do not think that "there cannot exist any fundamental minimal length of physical space" is a reasonable starting point. If space has physical existe...

It's a good thing we all have a sense of humour here. LOLOL!

That's right, we covered this earlier in the thread. We need to distinguish between three things, the symbol, what the symbol means (abstract concept,...

I think there are two issues becoming evident. One is that we do not know how to properly represent space. The irrational nature of the "square", and ...

I can't relate to your analogy. We haven't established that there is such a thing as a "numberline". I think the other thread demonstrated that there ...

It appears like we need to go back over the law of identity, and the difference between identical and equal. Remember, I don't accept set theory on th...

The construction procedure you described is never ending, just like the never ending digits. How is that any different? Without reaching the end, you ...

Seems we have something in common. The problem is that you do not address the substance of the argument. You go off on some tangent using mathematical...

No, I most definitely would not want that, and I've already explained why. I don't think it's a good idea to do a second bad thing to cover up an orig...

That sums it up pretty well. Irrational ideas are incoherent, so there is good reason to rid our conceptions of such things. What we like in our conce...

There is no rational number which is equivalent to what is represented by "square root of two". So the problem is not as you say, one of numerical rep...

OK, so we agree that if so-called "mathematical objects" are things which can be measured, Euclidian geometry creates distances which cannot be measur...

The issue though, is that we are talking about measuring the ideal square, just like set theory talks about measuring the ideal numbers. We are not ta...

I accept the fact that the square root of two is irrational. That's not the issue. And I actually use the Pythagorean theorem on a regular basis worki...

I am satisfied with this principle if we can apply it consistently. We do not measure mathematical "objects", they are tools by which we measure objec...

How is this evidence that continuity is real?

Sorry, I didn't understand your challenge, you said something obscure about making you go away. I'm afraid you have your own free will and I can't mak...

Colour is a fascinating subject. When I see an array of flowers, each having its own unique special blend of hues, on a summer day, I am awestruck by ...

This is the unsupported premise, the thing taken for granted which no one seems to be able to back up with reasonable principles. Until real continuit...

You seem to be lacking in reading skills tim, it's no wonder you're so confused. I was talking about what someone can do with Euclidean geometry, not ...

Aquinas clearly distinguishes independent Forms ( God's intellect, and angels) from those forms dependent on the human mind (abstractions). I think yo...

Thank you fishfry. I'm vey impressed that you actually took the time to read and try to understand what I was saying. Most just dismiss me as incompre...

The incommensurability which produces irrational numbers.

Infinitesimals are within a continuous medium, and they also require boundaries. Therefore they are artificial, according to what you say here. Exactl...

Human beings may have gotten over this, but they did not resolve the problem. Consider the problem this way. Take a supposed "point". Now measure a sp...

I know, I explained this, the boundaries between moments are vague. That's why we can throw the "point" out the window. The "point" does not apply, as...

Do you not see the problem here? You yourself said "there is still a role for points--not as the parts of a line, but as the discrete boundaries betwe...

As I said, these "discrete boundaries" cannot be real, because they would break the continuity. They are arbitrary and artificial, imposed as our prag...

Even your ears have physical limitations. There's no way you could distinguish an infinite number of different notes. And if you just assume that ther...

Yes it is incomplete, but I think what I meant was that there is contradiction in math but it's acceptable because it's unavoidable. It's unavoidable ...

Are you not aware of the difference between infinitesimal and infinite? Let me rephrase that then, Peirce replaces the "point" with the "infinitesimal...

Aristotle's cosmological argument denies the possibility of prime matter (the fundamental potentiality), as an asserted possibility, which is actually...

I'm not as familiar with Scotus. I found him rather shallow and uninteresting in comparison to Aquinas, so I focused more on the latter.

Did you read my last post? I quoted from your referenced article on Peirce's synechism, and offered a critique from my own "Thomistic" perspective.

The climatic conditions change from day to day, season to season, year to year. What would you mean by "not too dissimilar to what we have now"? The l...

It appears like you want someone to agree with you, not someone to delve into "differences".

For anyone interested, here is the subject to be discussed: The problem with Peirce's metaphysics is that he allows that pure, absolute continuity, wh...

In mathematics, to "truly understand" is to accept the axioms without question. This allows that contradiction within an axiom is acceptable as unders...

This is why "x=x" is not a good way to express the law of identity. It really doesn't serve that purpose.

That's not what I was trying to say. I was saying something more along the lines of "for many of us there is no such thing as ok".

I think that "infinity contained within the finite" is contradiction pure and simple. That's like saying that a finite thing is inherently infinite. C...

Volcanic activity can put a huge amount of ash into the atmosphere, lowering the atmosperic temperature significantly. Maybe the "balance" has not yet...

The irrationals are relations which cannot be resolved, like the ratio between the circumference and the diameter of a circle, or the distance between...