Terrapin Station

It seems to me that everything turns out to be a combination of a priori and a posteriori, really, with nothing purely one or the other. Your brain do...

In my view it's ridiculous to say that decisions involve options that you didn't have in mind. Possibilities can involve options that you didn't have ...

But that a is a "serious and important matter" and b isn't is entirely subjective. Your opinion could just as well be seen as taking the serious and i...

It's difficult for me to comment on "I don't see how that's possible" in the context of my comment, because I'm not sure just what you don't see as be...

I wouldn't completely dismiss the distinction--there's a difference between experience gained via interacting with the world and the way that your bra...

I don't agree that it's degrading, though. And yeah, I'm obviously not going to agree that consensus has anything at all to do with it. I'm also rathe...

There's no time aside from the succession of numbers described. You're thinking of time so that in your view, it's something other than particular cha...

You'd have to translate mathematics just as much as any natural language. You need to figure out their words and symbols and syntax etc. just the same...

Your argument was that mathematics can't just be a language because it (non-arbitrarily) describes the world. Well, so does natural language, so does ...

I'd agree that tautological aboutness is correct--if one is thinking of an other, then one is thinking of an other, but otherwise you simply seem to b...

Aside from 9:31, which disappears,then 9:32 instantaneously appears in its place instead. "Where it comes from" is irrelevant in this thought experime...

Wait, "the cat is on the mat" doesn't describe any objective fact in your view?

In my view nominalism and conceptualism aren't distinct. Nominalism isn't arbitrary. Under nominalism, universals are non-arbitrary abstractions that ...

I've read that sentence at least six or seven times now, but I can't any sort of grasp on what the heck it might be saying, exactly. What is a "pre-ra...

The universe in the thought experiment doesn't exist aside from the number.

I'm reluctant to address more than one thing, because I don't want responses to keep expanding, but I also don't like when points are just ignored, bu...

I don't agree that there's anything wrong with that--anymore than there would be to only focus on "what they stand for" and not focus on their legs. I...

There are no true statements of the form "M is always about x," at least not when we're talking about at least a handful of people doing and thinking ...

How is that relevant in your view?

Sure it is. Say you have a universe with just one item, a number of the form x:yz (Say that it just appears in the manner of a digital display floatin...

If the numbers on the clock face are part of the clock face, and the numbers change, then the clock face changes. It doesn't completely change in the ...

I see conflict as useful to an extent, as it can help me figure out how to better express my views, but only as long as I'm not basically talking to a...

I'd rather not argue with anyone. It's just that some people have the nerve to not agree with everything I say. If they'd just fall in line and treat ...

Obviously the ways we talk about the world are going to have some relation to the world. The error is in assuming that they're identical to the world....

I have no idea what this is saying, really. Trick us into assessing the morality of the options rather than distinguishing moral from immoral? No idea...

We're getting off track here for a minute, but maybe it's worth pursuing. Wouldn't you say that the numbers displayed on the clock face are part of th...

Your argument was that if the world itself is not x, then x could not describe the world. Natural languages and paints on a canvas are two other thing...

First, I wouldn't say that anyone is choosing to do something rather than nothing unless they're specifically have that idea in mind.

I don't disagree with any of that. I'm not saying that they're not choices. It's just that they're not choices for reasons or biases, etc.

Do you believe that the world is comprised of natural language, too? What about paints?

Part of the theoretical knowledge is the skill how to use, which is different than the skill how to perform. The skill how to perform, with respect to...

Seems like a bunch of different topics, really. Anyway, re the quote, I think that's easily possible. It's basically the idea of all of those "rock an...

I believe that mathematics is an invented language we employ to talk about the world. I don't believe that the world itself is mathematical per se.

Here's what I asked you again: The clock face, which is what reads 9:31 and then 9:32, is it the same when it reads 9:32 rather than 9:31? Is your ans...

I don't think there's anything crazy about that. When you learn a word and particularly when you learn how to use a word you learn a skill. That seems...

So the clock reading 9:31 is the same as the clock reading 9:32?

Possibly that he did nothing and he found it offensive that he was being investigated.

When the clock face reads 9:31 then 9:32, is it the same? (We're not getting anywhere, so baby step time)

Sure it is. When the clock face reads 9:31 and then 9:32 we don't say it stayed the same. It changed. Logically, changes can obtain if there are only ...

But then they wouldn't be whim choices. I'm talking about whim choices. The mental equivalent of rolling dice.

Whim decision examples: what exact route to take while bike-riding or hiking. What album to listen to.

Often when people act on impulse they're not really making a decision. Sometimes acting in rage, say, feels like not only not making a decision but li...

Yeah, I'd agree with that. It's important to remember that it's not the same in all situations As long as you don't mean that it influences all of eve...

No. You're still assuming that people always think about consequences before acting. You're just thinking that sometimes the consequences aren't sever...

This sentence makes no sense to me as a response to my comment. That's not a view I share, and I have no reason why anyone should believe it. That the...

Well, I'd definitely say that no one is "just good" or "just evil." (I wouldn't actually say that anyone is "evil," except for rhetorical effect on ra...

No--I'm rather against that view, which I see as the source of conformism, "purism" etc.

But thats not the change of 9:31 to 9:32. It's a different change.

You can't temporally divide 9:31 to 9:32 where you're talking about the same change. So 9:31 to 9:32, relative to itself, is not temporally divisible....

Time without Change The section I'm talking about starts on the page marked 369. The paragraph begins with the word "Consider"