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Metaphysician Undercover

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Right, that's my point. A rule can only exist as expressed by language. The rule requires language for it's existence, it is dependent on language. Th...
February 26, 2019 at 14:50
Yes, now what is the proper "cause" of existence of that baby? Is it the internal activity which happens within the sperm and the egg, or is it the ex...
February 26, 2019 at 14:39
What he does here is replace "the ideal" with "the goal". The degree of exactitude required in any particular circumstance is relative to "the goal". ...
February 26, 2019 at 14:28
Yes, I had good reason for asking. You used the phrase "normal circumstances", so I asked for an explanation, how would I know if the circumstances ar...
February 26, 2019 at 13:41
I don't believe this, I think you're fabricating again. How could there be a rule which was not formulated? There's no such thing as an unformulated r...
February 26, 2019 at 03:25
I'm not getting you. What's "a rule" other than the statement, do this under these circumstances, or do that under those circumstances? To understand ...
February 26, 2019 at 01:11
Right, so how would you know whether the circumstances are normal or not, to know whether you ought to doubt your reading or not? What even constitute...
February 26, 2019 at 01:05
Where's the rule? I don't get it. I don't see it. Right, so I'll repeat the point. If rules only exist as expressed in language, then rules are create...
February 26, 2019 at 00:27
What rules? Show us one of these rules. All the rules which I know of are expressed with language, so it takes language to make a rule, as far as I un...
February 25, 2019 at 19:52
Of course, Wittgenstein's empirical explanation is doubtful, and most likely incorrect, as I explained above. Instead of describing "explanation" as a...
February 25, 2019 at 14:20
I don't understand why you would call this process "external from you". Weren't you internal to your mother, in her womb? That was you in there, in th...
February 25, 2019 at 13:37
No I don't agree with that. No, I wouldn't say that the originating cause of my existence is myself, that would be nonsense. However, it looks far mor...
February 24, 2019 at 20:44
The situation is not so simple, as Terrapin explains. If you say that human beings were created at a certain point in time, and insist that the origin...
February 24, 2019 at 16:39
OK, I think I've satisfactorily proven my case. Yours is a metaphysics of extreme selfishness. It's reducible to solipsism: "I am the only authority".
February 24, 2019 at 15:43
In response to these questions, this is what I believe. If the Ideal is real, it must be immanent within us, and this would be what you call innate. I...
February 24, 2019 at 15:36
Welcome to the club. That's the history of the thread, in a nutshell. Yes, you reject all reasonable premises which could explain what you are talking...
February 24, 2019 at 14:27
I think it may be appropriate to call this section a "de-interiorizing" of rules. The rule is given a physical presence, it stands there, like a sign-...
February 24, 2019 at 13:59
That there's no one to interpret the dictionary definition of "rock", or the meaning of "rock" in any way,and therefore there is no such thing as "wha...
February 23, 2019 at 21:17
Yes, I agree with this, it is an objective fact that human beings make these decisions. The issue though, with objective morality, is whether or not t...
February 23, 2019 at 15:05
The problem here though, is that I've asked you to explain what you mean, in a way that does make sense me, and you've failed to do that. You keep res...
February 23, 2019 at 13:21
I explained this earlier, one may freely choose to follow a rule. The more relevant question would be whether one could act freely without following a...
February 23, 2019 at 03:15
Rather than this way is half of irrational, I'd say the other way is doubly irrational. It's just as nonsensical, to talk about years when there's no ...
February 23, 2019 at 02:54
Half an irrational argument still leaves us with something irrational. S likes to veil behind semantic maneuvers, the simple fact that without anyone ...
February 22, 2019 at 14:44
I think that this is the importance of 81. It is a separating of the notion of "perfect" from the notion of "ideal", such that perfection can be somet...
February 22, 2019 at 14:26
The terms of the discussion are specifically: You have failed to explain how "we all died an hour previously" makes any sense at all. Who is going to ...
February 22, 2019 at 13:00
I think we all tend to look at various different issues, or subjects individually. But the more that we can fit them all into one big picture, the mor...
February 22, 2019 at 04:08
We've been through this already. Time passes continuously. An hour is a measurement of time. You said it yourself, an hour is a unit of measurement. F...
February 22, 2019 at 03:19
It's not hard to propose a theory of causation which allows for libertarian free will. It is easily done with dualist principles, and a separation bet...
February 21, 2019 at 14:53
Right, as an intuition, time for Kant is ideal, just like space. So uniting time with space, as a dimension, naturally follows from this act of classi...
February 21, 2019 at 13:39
Brett assumes the existence of objective moral principles, so the changes in moral customs over time are downplayed, human beings at some times are ju...
February 21, 2019 at 13:28
Call "dimensions" "what make standards of measurement possible" if you like, but it's still ideal, just like the idea of "unity", or "unit" is what ma...
February 21, 2019 at 12:48
I like to put this issue in the context of habits. Sometimes we form bad habits, and they are often difficult to break. We know that the habit is bad,...
February 21, 2019 at 01:39
This is not a case of that person following a rule though, it is a case of the person's choices following a rule. So you cannot proceed from this prem...
February 21, 2019 at 01:10
I wouldn't accept the absolute ideality of time either. But S claims that the measurement of time, "an hour" in the op, could occur without a human be...
February 21, 2019 at 00:52
S continues in refusing to recognize the true nature of temporal existence. Human beings are living at the present, and there is a fundamental differe...
February 20, 2019 at 15:02
Yes, I would agree that empathy contributes to morality, but in itself as an emotion, it is neither moral nor immoral. And I believe that feelings, em...
February 20, 2019 at 13:58
If to follow a rule, in the sense of willful human actions, is to hold within one's mind a principle, and adhere to that principle, then all rules are...
February 20, 2019 at 13:31
As I said, I really don't know what you would mean by "mere logic". Human beings use logic, as a tool like S says, so there's no such thing as logic t...
February 20, 2019 at 13:14
Logic tells us a lot about the way that the world is. Consider mathematics for example. But I really don't know what you are insinuating with "logic a...
February 20, 2019 at 03:46
It's demonstrated by logic. That's what logic is good for, telling us about things we haven't experienced. But people like S refuse the logic by findi...
February 19, 2019 at 13:47
Do you know what non-sequitur means, or do you just use any words in any random way that pleases you? A simple statement of observation cannot be a no...
February 19, 2019 at 13:41
Plato demonstrated that morality is not simply a matter of knowledge, when he argues against the sophists who claimed to teach virtue. It is often the...
February 19, 2019 at 13:32
Really, if a piece of writing is literally a clusterfuck, does this qualify as a fallacy?
February 19, 2019 at 01:17
What? You just now realized that my objection to your thought experiment is based in semantics? Right from the beginning, I objected to your use of "a...
February 19, 2019 at 01:13
Is clusterfuck a fallacy?
February 19, 2019 at 00:37
If you want to learn about logical fallacies, take an introductory course in logic, or do some reading. It's a good idea. Get real Harry. Do you know ...
February 18, 2019 at 14:51
You'd have to explain to me what you mean by "our morality is innate". I find this statement to be very vague, ambiguous, and actually not representat...
February 18, 2019 at 14:47
I don't see how that proves your point. It just indicates that the numerous people measuring the same object use the same standards, and therefore com...
February 18, 2019 at 14:24
The rock is not "of a certain length" until the length has been ascertained. To say that it is, is contradiction plain and simple. If you really belie...
February 18, 2019 at 03:44
OK, try this thought experiment. You and I are walking in the woods, and we come across a rock. You say "that rock has a measurement". I say, "no it d...
February 17, 2019 at 21:02