MetaphysicsNow

I think @"jkg20"'s point is that whilst you might disagree with it, neither you nor Steve Klinko have given an argument that he/she is wrong about thi...

I heartily agree. IQ tests provide an excellent means of ascertaining how good people are at taking IQ tests, that we can say for sure. People in the ...

But does case (3) involve a representation of a red snooker ball as well? If so, what's the vehicle for the representation in that case, is it the sam...

I think Dummett became a Roman Catholic in the end, so that he ends up with a theistic anti-realism isn't a big surprise to some extent. As for the ha...

Yes, with God in the picture, Berkeley's idealism becomes a kind of realism, at least insofar as bivalence can hold of propositions that human beings ...

You are kind of missing jkg20's point I think. You seem to imply that in all three cases that there is an instance of redness that we are aware of. Th...

Not quite sure what you are getting at here. Anti-realism does allow for there to be sensible questions that we do not know the answer to - at least, ...

Maybe a fourth case needs to be added that might (and let me emphasise the might) push one to look for a common factor: 4) Visually mistaking a red sn...

I was aiming for the deputy but the sheriff got in the way.

Well, if you don't want to answer my questions, answer @"jkg20"'s question then: Well, I don't know about you, but I don't intentionally read letters ...

I don't think "truth consists in justification" is the same as a deflationary account, although it's been a while since I've thought about these issue...

I'm not sure being an anti-realist about truth is to be skeptical - at least, I'd need to see the argument. As far as I'm aware anti-realism about tru...

Incidently, if one is an anti-realist about truth in general, wouldn't that entail anti-realism for all domains about which true statements can be mad...

Isn't it more along the lines that whilst both the anti-realist and realist can accept that weather reports/general facts about tree stability in the ...

Depending on the system of rules of inference you have at hand, it could be as simple as 1) ?x.?y.p(x,y) Premise 1 2) ?y.p(a,y) 1, Universal Eliminati...

I wouldn't bother with Tomseltje, or Flux23 for that matter - they just avoid the issue. Flux23 got the hump and stormed off with a parting "do you kn...

@"Srap Tasmaner There's something niggling at me that makes me want to say that the difference between an actual state of affairs and a possible state...

Under relational logic there will be some relations that are are reflexive and some that are not. In this case, q is a reflexive relation. Think of th...

Thought, language and world meet at the crossroad of perception, at least that seems to be a reasonable idea, and obviously would have occured to W, a...

There's a lot in your main post, and it's late where I am so I'll be replying tomorrow, although I think you might be right that I have overworked the...

Here we go then - some reflections and remarks on propositions 1 to 2.062. A point about terminology first of all - the translation I have uses "facts...

@"Wayfarer"@"jkg20":up: I'm going to stay over here in the dunce's corner, now that two more able people are here to stand in my stead. I am hoping th...

No.

And tom is one of his altar boys.

Wrong, the Deutsche principle applies explicitly to two things and two things only, finitely realizable physical systems and universal model computing...

Take it up with Akl and co. - the paper I linked to draws a parallel between Godel's work on completeness and consistency in arithmetic and the imposs...

Playing it by ear to begin with anyway - there's so much secondary literature. I'll have a shot at expressing my understanding/problems without recour...

Hi - yep, sorry, apart from a few off the cuff contributions to other threads, I've been a little bogged down with other stuff. I'll put my thoughts o...

@"tom" To the first question, I suggest you read the papers referred to - and note that the remark was about Turing machines and their extensions (Deu...

Point taken. In fact when I admitted that the Deutsche principle applies to physical systems, I should have more accurately stated that it applies onl...

Hmm - I'm not going to speak for jkg20, but neither statement (1) nor (2) has any "on the surface" implications about visual images or internal consci...

The claim made is not that computable functions cannot be computed, that would be a contradiction in terms. The claim is that there are computable fun...

I think you are missing @"jkg20"'s point. Note the use of the personal pronoun in both the statements.

@"tom"The Deutsche principle applies to physical systems. Physical systems are part of reality, sure, but whether or not human beings are just physica...

Whatever Babbage's Analytic Engine was, that it was the realization of a universal computer is what the computer scientists I am talking about deny. S...

"Every finitely realizable physical system can be perfectly simulated by a universal model computing machine operating by finite means" That's what De...

@"FLUX23" Why are you parading your credentials? Does having a PhD in chemistry - or indeed any subject - provide immunity from conceptual confusion?

@"Tomseltje" Exactly what I have I said that entails skepticism about the science of human physiology? Plenty of what I have said manifests skepticism...

I'm using the terms"measure" "measurement" and so on in exactly the way they are used in science and daily life. Scientists measure things all the tim...

I'm not convinced it is just terminology. The point is scepticism about there being a thing called intelligence that comes in amounts and can be measu...

Well it kind of is and kind of is not off-topic. Do you have a link to a paper where it is scientifically established that brains perform measurements...

Well, there are probably some fine-grained distinctions to make between testing the temperature of something with ones hand and measuring the temperat...

So you do think that mental states have functions. So what exactly is your problem with the first premise of the argument for functional state identit...

So we can unconsciously measure things? Here is your definition of "measurement" " the act or process of ascertaining the extent, dimensions, or quant...

I'm sorry, but I'm having difficulties with the way you are expressing yourself. Do you mean that, although you believe that there are mental states, ...

If I change "Mental" for "Brain" in premise 1, for the argument to remain valid has to have for its conclusion: 3) Therefore, brain state and occurenc...

You can hunt the philosophical-zomby argument without being a functionalist, pragmatist or instrumentalist. The philosophical-zomby argument is just o...

The terms "instrumentalism", "functionalism", "pragmatism" mean different things in different contexts and in some contexts are not even compatible wi...

This is a strange question - does it really make sense to suppose that we think with our brains? I wash with soap. I wave with my hand. I laugh with m...

Let's recap where we are on this particular line of thought. I claim that people can recognise intelligent behaviour without having to measure anythin...