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Metaphysician Undercover

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I was very skeptical about Mongrel's representation of Leibniz' concept of free will. It really didn't seem reasonable to me, that a man of Leibniz' c...
September 14, 2016 at 01:39
This is what we observe in the existence of things, the potential for a thing is prior to the actual existence of that thing. However, when we ask, wh...
September 14, 2016 at 01:14
This was might point, "existence", as Jorndoe used it in reference to the PSR, refers to a concept. So we cannot apply the PSR to the thing called "ex...
September 13, 2016 at 19:35
There is a problem here, because "physical laws" are laws which are produced by human beings to describe the processes of the world. So they are inter...
September 13, 2016 at 10:59
I can't remember the precise context, but he argues, I think in Metaphysics, that adhering fast to the LEM creates absurdities. This is how I remember...
September 13, 2016 at 02:26
I could choose to do something which is logically possible, but physically impossible, such as I might decide to grab a hold of the moon, or the sun, ...
September 13, 2016 at 00:43
Let me get this straight. Suppose I did X. How could it not be contradictory to say that I did not do X? It appears like you have defined free will in...
September 12, 2016 at 23:56
Perhaps you could explain what you mean by "free will just amounts to the absence of contradiction in some alternate action being performed", so that ...
September 12, 2016 at 23:26
To say that the PNC does not apply to bare potential, is the Hegelian conception, not the Aristotelian conception. Under the Hegelian conception, bein...
September 12, 2016 at 23:21
We treat the possibility as different from a logical possibility. We assume that the way in which one throws the die will influence the outcome. There...
September 12, 2016 at 11:01
You don't seem to be addressing the point. The point was that there is a fundamental difference between talking about someone's future, and talking ab...
September 12, 2016 at 02:15
This is what Aristotle outlined as the fundamental question for metaphysics. It is not to inquire of a thing, why it is rather than not, in the most g...
September 12, 2016 at 01:17
There are no cases where the principle of sufficient reason does not apply, if there were, they would be unverifiable as unknowns. Your claim is a tri...
September 11, 2016 at 13:08
Actually it makes a big difference. Do you recognize a difference between the numerous logical possibilities of what may have occurred in the past whe...
September 11, 2016 at 12:35
There seems to be some inconsistency in your choice words here, which creates ambiguity. You refer to all the "consistent histories" which we "may exp...
September 11, 2016 at 02:11
It's not so straight forward as you make this out to be. Space and time are concepts. They are the means by which we understand objects and processes....
September 11, 2016 at 01:53
Is there some way to know which discussions I have taken part in, and even how recently? I'm too old and alcoholic, so I keep forgetting where I am ac...
September 10, 2016 at 20:16
I think that by the time we engaged, we were off the OP anyway. Then StreetlightX acted to revisit or revise the OP, such that my original comments we...
September 10, 2016 at 13:54
That's a problem with how we describe the way that we learn. We observe our teachers, and we say that we are learning from those people. In actual fac...
September 10, 2016 at 13:14
I still haven't found this paradox you are referring to. The problem appears to be that you are incorrectly describing your erection as "desire for se...
September 10, 2016 at 12:56
It's not begging the question. If observation of existing things leads to the inductive conclusion that all existing things are contingent, then this ...
September 10, 2016 at 12:45
It's not definition which I am talking about, it's more like description. It is to describe how a word is used. So perhaps it is closer to poetry than...
September 10, 2016 at 02:05
You can actually learn something from Donald Trump?
September 10, 2016 at 01:56
Why is that illusion so stubbornly persistent?
September 10, 2016 at 01:54
There is a tradition in philosophy for philosophers to develop the meaning of a term. This means that one has to read much of the philosopher's work t...
September 10, 2016 at 01:42
What a moderator posts in a reply on the forum, and how a moderator moderates the forum are two distinct things. I'm sure we all know that. But be car...
September 10, 2016 at 00:58
Yeah, I can see how, through the blur of alcohol, someone who is being fucking offensive might appear to be an offensive fucker, or if someone called ...
September 09, 2016 at 19:03
This is where we meet the vagueness of the external/ internal boundary. I don't see how an erection is external. My penis is part of myself, just like...
September 09, 2016 at 10:58
No, the point is that such axioms result from a description of what is, reality, not from dichotomous reasoning. The dichotomous reasoning follows the...
September 08, 2016 at 22:28
You are contradicting your proposed axiom though. The axiom was that boundaries are continuous. I objected, saying that this is not self-evident. How ...
September 08, 2016 at 19:26
No, I don't see a problem here. The successful completion of eating requires an external physical object just as much as the sex act. That is the poin...
September 08, 2016 at 19:00
I don't think it is self-evident that boundaries are continuous. A dotted line makes a non-continuous boundary. I think the best example of boundaries...
September 08, 2016 at 01:59
It appears to be X, therefore it is X, is faulty logic. You have no premise to exclude the possibility of mistake. You can look at others, and draw yo...
September 07, 2016 at 23:38
There is an important issue here. In philosophy, an axiom is a self-evident truth. In mathematics, an axiom may be anything which does not contradict ...
September 07, 2016 at 20:39
To you, it appears to be insane, because you haven't taken the time to consider the reality of these issues. You simply accept as true, something whic...
September 07, 2016 at 20:10
I eat every day at pretty much the same time. If I miss this eating time, then I get hungry. Maybe you always wait until you get hungry before you eat...
September 07, 2016 at 11:15
OK, but isn't the light, colour, and contour something external? So isn't this "feeling of light", an awareness of something external? As I explained,...
September 07, 2016 at 02:42
Why do we have separate terminology then, awareness and self-awareness? I wouldn't say that "all feeling is a feeling of oneself". Sensation may be de...
September 06, 2016 at 11:00
The problem is, that awareness is prior to self-awareness, and to be aware is to have a particular type of relationship with your surroundings. All li...
September 06, 2016 at 01:41
I would instead say that maths is a branch of logic. It's a specialized form of logic, and that's what makes it so precise. But the same thing which m...
September 06, 2016 at 01:28
I find this very agreeable. It is by recognizing that others are living, thinking, beings, that we apprehend the mind as an object which needs to be u...
September 05, 2016 at 19:24
Check my preceding reply to Hoo, for an interpretation of this issue.
September 05, 2016 at 16:21
Well, the description of a square wave, as a wave which instantaneously changes from crest to trough, and vise versa, seems somewhat naïve to me. Wiki...
September 05, 2016 at 16:14
Try this. Consider that reasoning is something which you do, and it is also something which others do. Therefore it is something which goes on inside ...
September 05, 2016 at 15:53
Oh good, here's someone with some technical knowledge. Can you explain what a "square" wave is, or is that just a metaphor in itself?
September 05, 2016 at 12:59
I explained the alternative, it involves first, the recognition that our measurement techniques are inadequate for measuring some aspects of the world...
September 05, 2016 at 12:51
I don't dispute that there are different senses of "know". But I think that they all involve some form of identity. Familiarity involves recognition w...
September 05, 2016 at 01:23
That's what a difference of opinion amounts to, your series of assertions versus my series of assertions. The question is, who's series of assertions ...
September 04, 2016 at 19:33
In that case, what is known is the formal relations, the logic of the conceptual structure, and these relations are identified. It is simply a differe...
September 04, 2016 at 16:29
True, but to identify is a necessary requirement of to know, a step in the process of knowing. You cannot know what you have not identified.
September 04, 2016 at 16:19