Terrapin Station

There's no one to think for prior to that person existing. You can't think for someone who doesn't exist yet.

I just explained this to you. Imagine that there are no people. There would still be metaphysical possibilities. There would be no logical possibiliti...

It doesn't. It shows why your explanation doesn't work in my view. Logical possibilites have nothing to do with "laws of logic" because there are no s...

A freedom of suffering for what? People do that, obviously, but I find it ridiculous if it's not about the person in question's tastes, not the person...

I'm not going to keep doing a series of posts of ever-increasing length, on an ever-increasing number of topics, where you state some status quo view,...

Ontologically it's rather just a category error. Folks make the mistake of thinking that there's a person prior to conception. There isn't. So it's a ...

I explained this at least a couple times above. The differences are whether we're actually talking about a person who has thoughts and opinions on wha...

Right, which is why the idea where you make some choices have some "free" control over the maze isn't actually determinism. What you described at the ...

In my view that explanation is just compounding problems (note that my comments below are in the context of what's functionally going on, with respect...

You keep talking about it as if the person exists prior to conception. You can't impose anything on anyone who doesn't exist.

I have no problem saying that the person was planning to hurt someone. I have a problem with making planning illegal. I don't feel that it's categoric...

Again, it's not at all plausible to me that beliefs about possibility are beliefs about something other than whether an event can metaphysically obtai...

Oh, well there I'm detailing my feelings about it. Anything like that was just reporting my feelings a la yaying/booing in more or less detail. Well "...

What happened to this part? What would be the grounds for a claim that a proposition like "There is a possibility that x" has a structure like "(NP(A)...

Yes, but I don't agree with it. Some beliefs are definitely propositions, but in my view belief is a lot broader and fuzzier than that. But what would...

What in the world does that have to do with what I asked? I didn't say anything about the only sorts of propositions that might be true. In fact, I di...

What? I'm not really following you. What argument (or comment) specifically are you referring to? I didn't actually say anything about "mattering," so...

I changed my post to this: Actually this is a better question: why wouldn't epistemic possibility be beliefs about nomological possibility? I'm not at...

Actually this is a better question: why wouldn't epistemic possibility be beliefs about nomological possibility? I'm not at all convinced that it's co...

Sorry, you did. So you're saying that epistemic possibility in that scenario has nothing to do with what the individual in question believes about pos...

We were? That's not what I was discussing. I had said simply said this, which you never addressed: "So if I believe that it's not in fact possible for...

It's not illegal to have a cage and chains, etc. (or at least it shoudln't be) No one can demonstrate that it causes violence, and I'd only accept a c...

In my view you can't say that someone didn't consent to be born, etc. either. Not consenting to something is an action in my view. It's not the defaul...

Yes. I'd have a problem with that. Again, I'd have a problem with that. Also, associating suffering with economic level and the lack of physical disab...

It's being argued if epistemic possibility is supposed to amount to both A and B being epistemically possible at some point in time. A determinist wou...

So when you don't want to deal with some particular individual's beliefs, you just claim that that is not a rational person. Who gets to decide who is...

In other words, it's either not possible for A or it's not possible for B to have obtained.

Right--for one I misread the "and" as an "or"

But epistemic possibility necessarily has to do with the individual's beliefs re possibility, no?

The comments about epistemic possibility being illusory were in a different context--supposing that determinism were true, etc. That's why I qualified...

How about getting back to the more substantive comment? I need to leave in less than half an hour, and I'll be in and out prior to that.

That looks okay to me, but I can't guarantee I'm not missing something.

Getting to the won't answer a simple question point. Nice.

Don't you ever have time available where one wouldn't have to wait ten minutes for a response in a conversation?

Well, the epistemic sense is about what I believe. So if I believe that it's not in fact possible for A or B to have obtained--I believe that it's onl...

If I believe that I don't know if A or B is the case, does it follow that I believe that it's possible that either A or B are the case?

Maybe post when you're not so busy, so that it doesn't take so long to get a simple yes or no answer?

An epistemic sense has to do with individuals' beliefs, right?

Are you simply asking my personal view, outside of the context of what I was talking about? If so, then yes, certainly. Keep in mind that I'm not a de...

Which is not what I said, and that should have been clear from what I typed as well. Hence, you either didn't read or understand what I typed very wel...

If I'm only saying I don't know, it doesn't follow that I believe it's possible. (I can explain why, but I shouldn't have to.)

What??? You didn't seem to understand if we're only. If we're only saying that "I don't know," then we're not saying "that's possible," right? Because...

If we're ONLY saying "I don't know if she's home or not" how are we talking about possibility?

This comment suggests that you didn't really read or understand the comment you're responding to.

If you believe that I'm saying that the definition has it as an illusion you're misunderstanding my comment. I'm saying that what the definition is de...

Sure. In my view the real possibilities there including choosing door 1, door 2, not making a choice and looking for another way out (I wouldn't say t...

Yes it is on my view. The definition of epistemic possibility that you give describes an illusion--something that one is mistaken about re how the wor...

I don't know how to answer "what would this look like," because I'm not sure what you're asking. What the options would be are real possibilities, whe...

Choice doesn't obtain when we're only talking about an illusion. There has to really be more than one option. On my view, mind is identical to particu...

If you read the article, he's actually been charged with possession and distribution of child pornography and soliciting the kidnapping of a child. He...