Terrapin Station

So when you sense the tape measure, the markings on it, you're sensing a point?

Relevance to? At any rate, I didn't say whether we can determine anything or not. I said let's be clear that ontological facts do not hinge on how we ...

Numbers? I was asking you about a tape measure. You said you can sense a tape measure, including that you can sense markings on the tape measure. I'm ...

Isn't that simply saying that just in case someone does something in a goal-directed or purpose-oriented way, the goal-directed or purpose-oriented ac...

Aristotelian nonsense? Seriously?

First, let's be clear that ontological facts in no way hinge on how we determine anything. Only ontological facts of our determining actions as such w...

When it doesn't change in the contextual frame in question.

So can you sense any length--any extension of the tape measure, or do you just sense a point?

So you can't sense the tape measure stretched between two rocks?

There's no requirement for objects to be identical through time.

Why would you believe that?

Abstracts/concepts are actually particular mental events. If you'd bother to learn something about nominalism, you'd see that conceptualism is one of ...

You remember that I'm a nominalist, right? We're antirealists on abstract objects. Abstractions only exist as something we do mentally. Maybe you coul...

First off, abstractions are mental acts that individuals perform.

No they aren't.

I'm not sure what you're referring to there re something I typed, but "you" across time, as a persistent entity, is an abstraction we perform. That ab...

I didn't say anything like that, and no, that's not my view. It would only make sense to figure that something like that is my view if one were to thi...

In other words, many different relations.

Someone walking changes for many reasons, including both relations of bodily position--legs change distance relative to each other, knees bend, etc., ...

There's nothing abstract about particles like electrons and protons. The idea that there has to be some nonchanging thing that changes, rather than th...

I read that a few times, but I can't make any sense of it. The past is changes that happened. I don't understand "but remains" or "as the present in r...

Because? It sounds nice as a bumper sticker, but what's the reason that one would believe that? Say that only a single electron exists. It ceases to e...

No, it doesn't. It simply depends on the fact that there is change. At any rate, you were supposedly taking issue with a post about reference. At leas...

How about sensing the tape measure stretched between the two rocks?

It just depends on the individual assigning meaning, of course.

I wasn't characterizing "the whole of your position." I was addressing something particular. Saying that something is an "aphoristic exercise I am try...

My list (meaning, connotations, intent) etc. wasn't meant as an "every one of these is a necessary property" list, so that if one of them isn't checke...

The idea of that makes no sense. What it is for an utterance to be insulting is for an individual to take it a particular way, to apply certain meanin...

I wasn't saying anything about how mind is or isn't involved. I was simply asking whether you sense the tape measure, whatever is involved with that. ...

What would that have to do with what I was explaining re reference and whether two people/two instances can refer to literally the same thing?

It depends on why you don't have an opinion on it. If "agnostic" doesn't fit, and you're at least somewhat familiar with the notion (otherwise "unfami...

An aphoristic exercise you're trying to undertake to sharpen your prose, via writing things you do not agree with?

We've gone over this a number of times, but the mistake you're making here is this: Relativists say that whether something is morally good or bad depe...

So we were talking about making guesses in the way of probability statements. You said that we could have educated versus non-educated guesses. So I w...

How are "robust" and "justified" any clearer re objective properties? Guesswork is educated if it's based on guesswork, but not if it's just guesswork...

We're can't refer to something in its own frame of reference? Again, you seem to not be able to grok the difference between our pointing and what we'r...

You should probably learn the details of my view first. At any rate, say that T1 is a span rather than a point. (If you would been honest enough to th...

It's not that I find it attractive, or a useful perspective or anything. It's what the world happens to be like. My like or dislike of that is irrelev...

How would you define the distinction between strong and weak evidence (preferably in a way that doesn't make it purely a subjective judgment)? And our...

Do you sense the tape measure?

How is a probability "guess" not just arbitrary?

What would you be basing probabilities on?

"We can be both referring to A (or P or whatever) at time T1" As I explained above, "what we're pointing to isn't the same thing as our pointing." We ...

Would there be possibilities that aren't equally valid explanations in your view?

But you were saying that the evidence wasn't evidence for something because there's another possibility, right?

We can be both referring to A (or P or whatever) at time T1. It's the same view I've had for decades. If it seems like I'm "learning" your view must b...

Yes, you are. You're talking about possibilities not being excluded. That's another way of describing the notion of proof.

Because that's a possibility and empirical claims are not provable. Right? Didn't we go over that already? Hence the whole point of this being a probl...

The subject is how empirical evidence supports claims.

That a change in one is a change in the other and there's no evidence whatsoever of the two being different. Also, the idea of nonphysical existents i...