Metaphysician Undercover

It's difficult to grow okra in maple syrup country. If you wait too long after the last frost you meet up with the first frost. Digression warning! Od...

OK, suppose a god can know the result of a proposed coin toss prior to the toss occurring. How would this type of knowledge work if there is no reason...

Consider that every time we make a temporal measurement there is necessarily a t=0, the point at which the measurement starts. And, as you explain, "o...

That necessitates a division between thinking and choosing. It's part of the reasoning which led Augustine to propose a three part intellect, memory, ...

Start with the premise that this "thing" has a memory. And the thing's existence has temporal extension. Memory allows the thing to revisit its past e...

I think the more appropriate question is, does God learn something new if Mary sees red. It appears necessary that God must learn something new every ...

This seems to be self-contradictory. If it is supporting the ideas, how could it be called "prattle"? That reams of material is required to support th...

To begin with, a "whim" is a sudden, unpredictable, and very subjective, inclination. Because of the idiosyncratic nature of whims, the logical first ...

I don't see why it has to have caused itself. I think it's commonly known as "reflection".

Isn't it shown by Wittgenstein, that any sort of completeness to "finding our feet with them" is actually impossible? To understand them requires comm...

A state has "whims"? I would think that eliminating whims from the ruling system would be a defining feature of success.

One can know it by self examination, introspection. It looks like you haven't tried it, or gave up to soon without the required discipline.

Until I see one with a smoking reefer in hand I won't believe it.

The point was that people act in ways contrary to their own logical process. They know that it is illogical to buy lottery tickets, yet they still do....

I think this thread shows that mathematics is insufficient for explaining the reality of physical existence. That's why we've developed philosophy.

Yes, in practice people commonly act illogically. Your truck example is just so extreme, it would rarely occur. Take something more simple for example...

How do you know what would make me feel more comfortable? I'm not about to drink some.

I am assuming that humans do not necessarily follow the results of logic in their actions. This is evident and common, every time one is "overcome by ...

Th difference between the physical structure which interprets, what you call the logic gate, and the human mind, is that the human mind does not neces...

Those don't quite look like fence posts as "timber to your posts" implies. Or maybe we're talking about timber stamps. Is it wintergreen that birch ju...

Anyone here ever try the wintergreen sap from yellow birch?

I think that's quite true. I once thought of an experiment where instead of tapping maples once a year, I would tap them hundreds or even thousands of...

You gave me something which I could not understand though. The problem is that I've already researched, and what you say often seems inconsistent with...

The separation of electromagnetism into distinct electric and magnetic fields is something I've never really been able to understand. But I know it's ...

Blue on the flavour wheel I linked is the "foreign environment" section. That includes flavours like solvents, soaps, petroleum, cardboard, drugs. Som...

It does claim to have a flavour, in great big letters MAPLE. And if you haven't the foggiest idea of what "maple" tastes like, don't let it stress you...

Now I'm confused, what's the proper spelling? How about a pronunciation guide?

You can't go wrong with plenty of maple syrup. That makes anything edible, even yoghurt, in much the same way that sugar makes cocoa edible.

Ok, thanks for the references Dfpolis. You know my principal interest, as I've developed it in this thread, the concept of mass in physics. Can you di...

You claim you have been trying to teach me, but you really don't seem to be making much effort. I know that I am of the very skeptical sort, and as su...

Wave mechanics does not explain the behaviour of quarks. I believe the proper terminology is "field theory". And, there are many aspects within quantu...

I suppose, potatoes were so valuable at that time, every person stepping on board the ship was strip searched to ensure the potatoes remained. Newfoun...

Thanks for the explanation DF. I'll expound a bit on my own perspective, to clarify why I think your idea of "matter waves" is insufficient. Like I ex...

I suppose that would be one possibility.

Well you got me there Dfpolis, I really don't know what you know so I clearly do not know what I'm talking about. But that's because you're not very f...

The problem being that these equations do not describe waves, and you know this. A description of the medium, and the restrictions placed on potential...

It's an Irish thing, sort of like a potato pancake. And the Irish know their potatoes so it's very good. I used to think the Irish invented potatoes a...

Wouldn't that be a boxty, or hash brown, or something like that?

This is where we disagree. "Wave structures" refers to conceptual structures composed of mathematical ideals. They are mathematical descriptions witho...

OK, in truth, I forgot the topic. I'll have to reread the op, because the title doesn't seem quite consistent with the op. The problem is that there i...

Without an underlying substance which is waving (the proposed aether for example), these are not real "waves", and cannot constitute matter. Being "id...

Quantum waves, or more properly called "wave functions" are ideals, mathematical constructs. They have no physical existence. We ought to start with t...

Try scraping the mold off some blue cheese ... a fine example of something which can only be done to a certain extent*. *Notice the qualification, "ce...

This is incorrect. If you take any time to study the physics of waves, you'll know that waves cannot be described simply by space and time. A wave is ...

@"Dfpolis" Quantum field theory and the standard model of particles are composed of immaterial ideals which have no direct correspondence in the physi...

The whole idea that coin-flipping is evidence of natural random chance is fundamentally flawed. The production of this random chance type of event is ...

I think the problem you are demonstrating is that if you switch to "universal purpose", you need to adjust your premises accordingly. You can no longe...

Not necessarily.

When you consider that "survival" in evolution theory refers to the species, which is a type, rather than to individuals, this becomes even more evide...

Not necessarily, because it depends on how you would conceive of, or define, "something". It's possible that all that is does not fit the criteria of ...