Metaphysician Undercover

I've decided on a new policy. I'm going to use "colour" when the op uses "colour", and "color" when the op uses "color". This way no one will ever mis...

Color is an interesting example for "natural code". The vast majority of the different colors which we experience are created by life forms, flowers f...

What if there are no stated laws? Would he be guilty in the eyes of God if he believed in God, and not guilty if he is atheist?

To say that nothing is everything, is to state a self-contradicting misconception.

Hey that's cool. I wrote colo(u)r using the correct form of brackets, and it underlined instead.

Don't you mean "...when red by members..."? If the past participle of lead is spelled as "led", then the past participle of read ought to be spelled a...

I agree that Cornford's statement is inaccurate. Let me put this in context. Theaetetus claimed that knowledge is perception, and they had discussed t...

Another good reason why the mind is radically different from a sense, and ought not be classed as a sense.

When you learn to suck on it just hard enough, you'll know it, because it will feel just right. And it will actually be fun. The Goldilocks principle.

How would you deal with goals and intentions under this scheme of "bodies"? A body has a past, and by inertia tends to continue to be as it was, in th...

It's at the beginning of Bk. 3, On the Soul. Basically, if there was one common sense (the sixth sense), which could receive the objects of multiple s...

Different preparation process. The result: an inferior product with the same name. I can go online, and buy myself a "voodoo doll", stick pins in it a...

Why would you class the mind as a sixth sense? The idea that the mind acts as a sixth sense was dispelled by Aristotle, a long time ago. The mind unif...

I'm not seeing your point. Socrates surely deals with JTB in the Theaetetus. The bulk of the problems confronted within in this dialogue concern the r...

Hmm, "became the word jerky in English". Seems to support my "own imagination". I guess that means my imagination is a good reliable one.

"Uniform existence" is having an unchanging presence, as in not being acted upon by forces; what is described by Newton's first law, which is commonly...

What Aristotle proposed as the fundamental question of metaphysics, is the question of why a thing is the thing which it is, rather than something els...

I would say, only if they are inclined to speculate about the true nature of reality. Otherwise they should be satisfied to carry on with the calculat...

This issue is very similar to the question of how long (temporal duration) the present is. Each of your three proposed beings has a different length o...

What is exposed in Theaetetus is that all the conventional ideas about knowledge, and what knowledge is, are faulty. When they look for something whic...

I believe it's a matter of cultural appropriation, which is not inherently bad mind you, if it's done with respect. Adopting aspects of each other's c...

I do respect that difference. I think I was portraying jerky as a cheap imitation. I don't think the similarity in terms is a coincidence. But even ho...

I would say any university with a good philosophy program, and adequate courses in metaphysics. I'm not about to judge the merits of any particular un...

The advantage is versatility. This versatility is what allows things to be "equal in one respect and unequal in another", as Socrates points out in Wa...

"Equal" is an arbitrary designation. https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/comment/777555

Actually the "idea" got reduced to the way that the word may be used. Endless possibilities for use got reduced to "arbitrary" actual use. I don't rea...

If the word may be used in any way one wants, then how is it that the idea of equality is not arbitrary? Put it this way, there's a word I can use, "e...

Jerking is a way of slow cooking for the purpose of preserving, like smoking. The commercial form is jerky, a prepackaged snack available in every ret...

Leave the metaphysics to be done by the physicists? Surely that's a mistake. Metaphysics consists of different principles which physicists have not be...

I agree. At first glance, it appears to me like "equal" is a completely arbitrary designation. But such a designation must be justifiable, so it requi...

Try looking at it this way noAxioms. By the principle of relativity no body can be truly at rest unless all bodies are at rest. So "inertial frame" is...

I figured you wouldn't easily follow the post. It's an unconventional perspective, therefore adjustments to fundamental assumptions are required for u...

See, the ace is not a one, it's an ace. In some cases a person might be able to use the ace as a one. But having multiple possibilities is just part o...

If you do not grasp that a priori truths, and universal rules of logic like the law of identity, non-contradiction, and excluded middle, make statemen...

In philosophy axioms are supposed to be self-evident truths. But this is not the case in mathematics. In mathematics axioms are simply stipulated. Thi...

Thank you Andrew. Compliments are very rare around here so they are appreciated when received. I believe that the notion of a 'passive' observer is ac...

The "observer effect" is actually the significant feature of relativity theory in general. I believe Galileo showed that observations of planetary mot...

I have been trying to adhere to the dichotomy proposed by Janus in an effort to show that the application of this dichotomy is not useful toward a tru...

Wow, I definitely like the most unwanted better than the most wanted. But I guess that's how it goes with modern music, the badder you get the gooder ...

We'd better get this clear, an observation may be of a particular, if that is what is observed, a particular. But I do not think we should jump to the...

Speak for yourself Zettel. Employing a vague unqualified "we" like this, is rather pointless. It's one thing to state an unsupported sentiment as "I b...

Why'd you poke me buddy? I'm trying to get some work done here. Hey, wanna go for a beer?

:up: Excellent album

This is a category mistake. Characteristics of objects "in general" are not publicly available. What is publicly available is particular instances or ...

So what's your argument then? A bit of rock in the ground here is "similar enough" to a bit of rock in the ground on the other side of the world, that...

Yes, so the fact that our observations of external things can be confirmed down to the "minutest details" only proves that your and my internal self a...

This is incorrect. You tell me your observations of your internal self, and I compare them with mine. There is nothing more problematic then scientifi...

The best way to consume as much of a person's time as possible is to encourage them to "poke" as many people as they feel comfortable poking, and to p...

It's not really a matter of what's on the mind of the singer, but more the image that they want to conjure up in the minds of the audience. So you mig...

It is when we move from the question of what is consciousness, to the question of why is there consciousness, i.e. ask for the cause, that we are incl...