Terrapin Station

Thanks for these links, by the way.

I plan on participating in those, too, and I'll be doing the same thing there that I'm doing here. The only direction that I think would be handy woul...

I think everything is a physical object*, including numbers. Yet we agree that it's a category error to assess numbers for hardness *understanding tha...

Yes it is. It's evidence that there is no elephant in the room. Elephants aren't invisible, microscopic, massless, etc. things. When we hadn't observe...

I mean that it makes sense that you meant it simply as a visualization tool. I don't recall ever thinking that the Earth was flat. And re the broader ...

Ah, that makes sense.

Difference is my wheelhouse--one of my pet projects so to speak. I think it's important that we acknowledge, tolerate, accept, embrace differences. Wh...

Why, in a 2D universe, do you think that people would be stationary while other things are moving? That seems arbitrary to me.

All sorts of different things in different situations. It's not just one or two things. And yes sometimes it's pleasure or pain, and sometimes other t...

I don't think that's very clear, though, especially not on net, and especially not re something that anyone should be (morally) concerned with. Re the...

Re not speaking for you, it may very well be that you are only motivated by pleasure or pain. You'd need to be careful not to project yourself onto th...

That may be the case for you. I wasn't speaking for you. As I said, there are things I do as routine just because they're routine. There's no other re...

In other words, the reason it doesn't make sense or doesn't translate is that an individual molecule is the "wrong kind of thing" to have hardness.

The category error is in the "doesn't make much sense" and "doesn't translate" parts.

Note also that you're shifting from a claim that my motivation must be pleasure.

What is that claim based on?

At any rate, here is one of many other things I'm sometimes motivated by: routine. I don't have any particular emotional disposition towards routine, ...

Wait, first, why are you writing the phrase, " the only currency humans understand " if what you're sayig is "humans are only motivated by"?

That's clearly false off the bat. And that's completely arbitrary.

? Not sure why you're inserting modality all of a sudden but it's certainly not the case, unless you do more work in setting up a particular logical s...

The whole idea of "empty names" stems from a theory of reference that is very misconceived.

The reason it's considered a category error is because "hardness" doesn't actually make much sense if we get very microscopic. The initial concept (ju...

The problem that underscores is not a problem with the notion of realism per se but the wonky, completely unsupported and kinda dumb notion of the wor...

Again, only in the trollish way that consciousness is "linguistic." Because for one, no one is saying that consciousness is learned ostensively, even ...

Moving on with the book: 21 One can think about language, not just meaning, but grammar, etc., in different ways, where tone of voice, context, etc. m...

So say that you're a young person just finishing medical school now. In the 2020s, you're a doctor in your 20s and 30s. In 2030, a child is born. That...

You're imagining there being a person, S, who isn't born yet, that we then deprive of life if we make certain decisions so that S isn't born. There ar...

No, it's irrelevant to the question of whether you can learn language ostensively that the student is doing non-linguistic things mentally, because "l...

Since you probably won't want to do thousands of words back and forth, I'll respond quickly to this, since you're asking me questions. Re hiring a hit...

Every sentence in your response has serious problems. Do you want to start back and forth replies that are thousands of words ever-increasing, or? Re ...

It's irrelevant to whether we can ostensively learn language. Re the counting analogy, it's the same as saying that the student can learn to count to ...

If we're just saying that in counterfactual (or "possible worlds") talk, we can refer to things so that they're "the same x" as they are in the actual...

I didn't start rereading Naming and Necessity yet, or even read the vast majority of this thread, but that, surprisingly, is something I agree with. I...

I could see calling it that, but you're still describing it as two steps. You said that impulses were among the causes of choices. If we call a seemin...

That brings to mind another big problem. Indirect culpability is problematic period (for example, I don't at all agree with charging someone with murd...

Which premise do I have a problem with? Both, plus the conclusion (which also doesn't follow; it's not a valid argument as stated) Re premise 1, "unpl...

From that silly, robotic perspective, why wouldn't you just talk about the "net pain" of interacting with someone who would be traumatized by being ar...

Here's the question you asked: The answer is yes, I disagree that it's impossible to learn language solely through ostension. That the student knows o...

Sure, but in this case, it's not clear to me what difference that would make in either my argument or Metaphysician Undercover's argument. I don't agr...

That question doesn't have anything to do with what you're quoting from me, by the way. I'm talking about phenomenal experience and what sorts of deci...

Is it not possible for someone to have a reaction where you think they need to get help? Let's say you're living with someone--a parent, a spouse, a c...

Yes it is. The way that you tell that there's no elephant in the room you're in at the moment, for example, is by looking for an elephant. If you don'...

So if you make some choices that seem random, this shouldn't be the case: "The choices we make are the product of our beliefs, dispositions, and impul...

I'm referring to phenomenally or epistemically random, not a commitment to whether it's ontologically random, which is what's at issue. You're complet...

Because treating it as if it's a moral issue that indicates the necessity of a moral commandment is an insane overreaction to something that's not tha...

I didn't agree that they have to know anything about any language. Teaching/learning refers to the activities of both the teacher and the student. To ...

I've encountered views similar to yours often, but it always strikes me as odd, because I make plenty of choices that seem akin to using a random numb...

What would hardness refer to on the level of a single molecule?

I disagree with that claim. They have to be able to observe and they have to be able to make a mental association between things like the sound the de...

What would you say are the criteria for perfection?