Snakes Alive

Not at all. Even if I can't unplug, I can imagine what it would be to unplug, or I could recognize a story or movie in which someone unplugs, and tell...

If you thought I was claiming that a question about how many stars there were was a metaphysical question, you didn't understand the post.

That depends. Depending on whether the terms have been set out, it may not be cognitively meaningful (though it may be if by 'best' people have certai...

I know. That was the point! You clearly didn't read very carefully!

Did you read what I wrote about the Matrix above? I do think the claim that we live in the Matrix is intelligible, but that's just an empirical claim ...

No you will not. The point is, again, not just that the question is difficult, but that one does not know what it would be to answer it, in principle.

I'm trying to be nice when I say this, but I sincerely have no idea what you're talking about or what it has to do with my posts. I would suggest you ...

Or just a paragraph, or short story, or anything. For example, can you write or imagine two scenarios, one in which there are universals, and one in w...

Yes.

Demonstrate you understand them using the novel-writing test.

Whether a claim is meaningful to someone depends on whether they can understand it, yes. I can't speak to your mind, but I doubt you understand it eit...

Because I don't know what it means. Decent sciences tend to converge on conclusions even starting from widely diverging prejudices. And I don't think ...

It sounds like nonsense to me.

I think philosophy should be studied externally as a kind of folk religion or practice, by anthropologists, and that meaning should be studied by ling...

I'm not doubting that philosophers have written books in which they deny or agree with various claims. The question is whether any of those denials or...

What is the difference between there being universals and there not being universals?

But the point is that those additional posits can also be cast in either framework. You will never find a substantive difference between the two.

Cognitively meaningful ones, yes – ones that attempt to tell us 'how the world is.' Of course 'meaningful' can mean lots of other things, too, but we'...

Meaningful statements describe the world in some way – that is the purported aim of metaphysical statements. They distinguish, if you like, between wa...

I don't think naive realism is meaningful. We'd behave the same way and do the same things regardless, and I cannot imagine what a 'naive realist' wor...

If you do not have an example, I will not take the claim seriously.

I don't know what you mean by this. I don't think unreflective experience of the world has metaphysical consequences, since metaphysical claims have n...

I should also note that there are two defenders of metaphysics in this thread right now, one of whom says metaphysical questions are not (by definitio...

Sure, but it actually isn't such evidence, as we know. Hence why such arguments are in principle ineffective, since some alternate account can always ...

That's right, but the difference is that one knows in principle what it is for such alien life to exist. One does not know what it is, for instance, f...

The history of metaphysics is one of argumentation without any particular decisions made or consensus reached over any of the core issues. This is at ...

So what are you taking issue with, then? This seems to contradict your previous claims. If it were meaningful to the participants, then they should be...

OK, but we're not visitors from another planet. We're natives of the very tradition being criticized, and have grown up with it from birth in the same...

The point is that those engaged in the discourse also seem to have no understanding of it. That is why it is puzzling as a genre of discourse. Of cour...

I don't think it 'doesn't take that into account' – sure, it comes to a different conclusion. But I don't think those that do metaphysics or have done...

The three works across which Lazerowitz articulates this position and applies it to specific examples are: -The Structure of Metaphysics -Studies in M...

As I understand it, on this view naturalism itself is a metaphysical position in Lazerowtiz's sense (I can't remember him saying this specifically, bu...

Alright, here's the deal. You can't really define philosophy any way you want, since it's a historical discipline that has had actual content and conc...

I think it is fair game to offer the answer 'no' to a question when someone asks it. The fact that Pfhorrest did not like the answer and refused discu...

'Woah, woah! When I asked the question, I didn't mean I wanted an answer!'

What's interesting is that when asked to defend itself from the discipline's apparent shortcomings, philosophers resort to the very same sophistical m...

It's telling that when defending itself, philosophy is pulled in two directions. On the one hand, it insists it has made progress. On the other, it as...

No you're not. Philosophy is in no way responsible for any of these vague epistemic virtues. It has had both proponents and opponents of them, and con...

Probably not. You'd probably have to have a decent historian to answer the question in any interesting way. A philosopher would definitely NOT give yo...

No it isn't. Philosophy has never succeeded in 'grounding' the sciences, and the sciences don't take seriously any attempts it's made to. Scientific m...

I don't know why you need to be told this, but the physical sciences are not philosophy.

Well, provide any instance of philosophy ever figuring anything out, or doing anything interesting.

It pretty obviously doesn't. This is the straightforward answer, and denying it requires lots of cognitive dissonance and moving the goalposts, so I d...

I think any definition that's not historical is not going to cut it. An actual summary of analytic philosophy would be somewhat boring, and would resi...

If your position forces you to accuse people of not thinking unless you accept some intuitively absurd proposition like 'actually, the enforcement of ...

Ah. It seems we cannot even think without doublespeak.

It follows from the assumptions of a certain kind of naive set theory. The point is that it's not a set, but from the naive set theory it follows that...

In practice, though, I think we all understand what is meant, and what lies at the end of the road. I'd prefer if people just specify who they want to...

Definitely. War is peace, too – people just don't get it!

I'm not 'for' it, I doubt it's even a substantive question. I just think it's a matter of what kind of language you want to use, and using a language ...