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Terrapin Station

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I'm not sure that makes sense to me. Remember that I actually am a nominalist (about everything), and I'm the conceptualist brand of nominalist. On my...
September 07, 2019 at 21:26
So we can't do possible worlds unless we buy platonism or god?
September 07, 2019 at 21:04
So then, for one, in this context you'd be saying that possible worlds are objective thoughts or ideas? What would that amount to?
September 07, 2019 at 20:54
Could you repost the definition of abstract you're using?
September 07, 2019 at 20:48
Re abstracts/abstraction, at least the beginning of the Wikipedia article on it is decent. I don't know if I agree with everything in the article, but...
September 07, 2019 at 20:22
There are a bunch of different metaphysical interpretations of what possible worlds are. You'd have to explain how "discrete abstract" makes sense to ...
September 07, 2019 at 20:17
This is why we say, by the way, that nominalists about abstracts/abstractions reject that there are any real abstracts. ("Real" there amounts to "obje...
September 07, 2019 at 19:46
Which isn't correct, because you can have physical/concrete abstractions. For example, if you believe that abstracts are concepts, you believe that co...
September 07, 2019 at 19:45
Particulars are discrete existents, singular instantiations, with properties that uniquely obtain in that discrete instance. Abstracts range over mult...
September 07, 2019 at 19:43
No. This is wrong. I already explained the alternative. One can simply posit nonmaterial particulars. "Not abstract" doesn't imply "material." (And li...
September 07, 2019 at 19:15
What part of "nominalists DO NOT say that possibility must be grounded in the material world" don't you understand? That has nothing to do with nomina...
September 07, 2019 at 19:08
"Nominalism says abstract objects such as possible worlds aren’t real. Possibility must instead be grounded in the material world." It says no such th...
September 07, 2019 at 19:03
The definitions, for example, say that nominalists are necessarily materialists. This is wrong. So why are you saying it's correct?
September 07, 2019 at 18:58
Have a look at the SEP entry for nominalism: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nominalism-metaphysics/ "Nominalism comes in at least two varieties. I...
September 07, 2019 at 18:44
This isn't correct, really. First of all, conceptualism is a species of nominalism. But more importantly, one need not be a materialist to be a nomina...
September 07, 2019 at 16:50
Heraclitus - :up: Parmenides - :down:
September 07, 2019 at 16:38
Okay, but I'm simply pointing out that you can't nonconsensually conceive a child, either. Consent is a category error here.
September 07, 2019 at 14:35
Way to not stereotype.
September 07, 2019 at 14:33
I was kind of following you but then your post became increasingly murky to me. There are no objective goals/purposes, only subjective ones. We agree ...
September 07, 2019 at 14:12
It's a nice change of pace when we solve something here. ;-)
September 07, 2019 at 13:58
He wasn't right. He was wrong.
September 07, 2019 at 13:57
Then not all politics is identity politics.
September 07, 2019 at 13:55
A local political concern that happened in my burg recently: "Should we continue to allow right turns on red traffic lights at major intersections?" P...
September 07, 2019 at 13:55
And that wasn't the idea (I wasn't saying you had suggested that as a definition of identity politics) If our answer to "who" etc. is "everyone ," the...
September 07, 2019 at 13:51
If the answer to that is "everyone," I don't get how it would be identity politics. For example, say that we're trying to figure out how to provide fr...
September 07, 2019 at 13:46
A big problem with this is deferring too much to what other people think/say--and it doesn't help that there are many advocates of that around, includ...
September 07, 2019 at 12:29
Never had an IQ test, but I don't put much stock in them at any rate. I used to run into a lot of people online who claimed to have taken IQ tests, bu...
September 07, 2019 at 11:28
How about "You make a better door than window"? I use that one a lot still.
September 07, 2019 at 11:24
Hmmm, I only now realized how that not every thread shows up when you click on "Forum"
September 07, 2019 at 11:23
In: Really  — view comment
In contexts such as you're quoting, it alludes to the appearance/reality, phenomena/noumena distinction. For example, "Eureka! There's an oasis at the...
September 07, 2019 at 11:14
Correct. If we're going to claim that children are not normally capable of granting or withholding consent to x, then we can't claim that x was done t...
September 07, 2019 at 11:11
If it's question-begging in your view we have much bigger problems. So you're thinking that we might exist somehow prior to conception? Or are you thi...
September 07, 2019 at 11:07
So first, let's clarify that "Are the boundaries (borders) of objects real" and "What is it about the boundaries of objects that is real" are ontologi...
September 07, 2019 at 11:03
No, because consent isn't an issue with procreation. Consent is only an issue when we're talking about things that are normally capable of granting or...
September 06, 2019 at 22:12
So for example, material particles have spatial extension, but the spatial extension isn't infinite. The limits of that spatial extension is a boundar...
September 06, 2019 at 22:09
It has to be force in the sense of physical causality. Nothing less. It's simply an intuitive stipulation based on my dispositions. With anything less...
September 06, 2019 at 19:39
I use "force" in the sense of physical causality. "Force" in your example is not actual force. Re your example, I'd have a category of criminal threat...
September 06, 2019 at 19:38
You certainly base decisions to do things on speech, sure. What matters to me when we're talking about ethics, proposing legislation, etc., is the fac...
September 06, 2019 at 19:02
Even philosophers that I'm a fan of are folks with whom I disagree at least 50% of the time. Whatever the term is that's the starkest contrast to "fan...
September 06, 2019 at 18:24
It's not easy to find a picture of what I'm looking for (though it's easy to find in person), so for the pic below, you have to imagine the sign isn't...
September 06, 2019 at 13:53
https://www.sciencealert.com/darwin-s-finches-evolve-into-new-species-in-real-time-two-generations-galapagos If you rather mean in the sense of abioge...
September 06, 2019 at 13:43
Right. But the point is actually that it cannot be wrong because it can't even be done. You can't impose life on someone without their consent. The ve...
September 06, 2019 at 13:34
Are you using "objective" to denote agreement basically?
September 06, 2019 at 13:30
We should also clarify that you weren't saying that politicians can't invent laws period, but that there are particular laws they'd have a problem eit...
September 06, 2019 at 12:13
Even if that were the case, it wouldn't be a matter of not being allowed to make a law. You could argue that it's not being allowed to enforce a law t...
September 06, 2019 at 12:01
That's not very specific, unfortunately, and it looks like it's saying that politicians are creating laws that politicians aren't caring about, which ...
September 06, 2019 at 11:47
So I take it there are no examples of this?
September 06, 2019 at 11:25
It's impossible to conceive a child without their consent, because there's nothing that's (normally) able to grant or withhold consent prior to concep...
September 06, 2019 at 11:24
So you're basically talking about practical nullification? What would be an example of this--a law is put on the books, but not only the citizenry, bu...
September 06, 2019 at 11:13
?? So what does "allowing" amount to here? Politicians are obviously physically able to create new laws. They do this all the time. Nothing happens to...
September 06, 2019 at 11:02