Fair enough (and I'll check out your link on Christian Platonism). But in the normal sense, a relationship with a person presupposes that the person e...
On a Peircean pragmatism, truth can be explained as an abstraction that represents justified belief in the limit (i.e., when all the evidence is in). ...
Yes the community might be wrong. But consider how that could be possible on the Peircean view. It implies there is further information that the commu...
There's a distinction between a definition of truth and whether some particular statement is true. Apo can say it is true. But (hypothetically) if the...
The point is just that Aquinas (and the traditional Catholic church) claimed that it could be. They rejected fideism. Yes, though the defenders could ...
In the above Aquinas says, "The existence of God ... are not articles of faith". However he also says there is nothing wrong with accepting it on fait...
Yes but nonetheless the Scholastics would have regarded their arguments to be applicable to atheists. Aquinas held that God's existence was demonstrab...
True, but there were theists of different types so articulating and defending the church's traditional position was seen as necessary. The Scholastics...
I think you'll find that the Scholastics intended their proofs of God's existence to be valid for believers and unbelievers alike just as Aristotle di...
There isn't a problem with measurement. Precisely-measured differences in clock tick rates have been observed that are consistent with the predictions...
So note that most people are aware of the individual exceptions yet continue to assert that "ducks lay eggs" is true. That is because they are asserti...
You seem to be confusing a formal analysis of generics with their use. From the SEP article on generics, "By 30 months, children understand that gener...
Actually the puzzle is why you would think he didn't. Generic sentences are a feature of all natural languages, not just modern English. If instead, a...
True, but not relevant here. On an ordinary interpretation, the sentence "humans are bipeds" evaluates as true. The problem is that you're misinterpre...
Precision isn't the issue. The issue is about what interpretive rule to apply to statements like the above which are termed generics (SEP). Some inter...
It's a sufficient criterion if humans are the only rational animals. If it were recognized in other animals (say, as a consequence of future evolution...
The basic point is that the capability came first (i.e., animals evolved with the capability for language/rational thought). At some later point that ...
I think you're misunderstanding what realism about universals entails. Here's a specific example. Aristotle defined humans as the rational animal. For...
There's more than one use of the term, though I'm not sure what 'accepted' adds here. Right. Yes. So would you say that the ordinary use of the word '...
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I regard prime matter and prime mover as Platonist remnants of Aristotle's view that were inconsistent with his own hylomorphis...
I don't think so unless I misunderstand you. Aristotle's point is that what is being talked about when the word 'man' is used is what select individua...
It needn't be. It just characterizes it in hylomorphic terms. The universe is something that can be detected or known by empirical science isn't it? I...
It is both. Aristotle's hylomorphism was, in part, a response to Parmenides. A substance may change while retaining identity (accidental change). Also...
Traditionally the problem of universals is: Are universals real? If so, are they real apart from particulars? Regarding the second question, the trans...
The crucial distinction that Aristotle recognized here was between perception and imagination. Mythological writings and pictures exist (and can be pe...
What information is, is a universal. How information flows is dependent on the nature of the particulars (human being, dog, thermostat, rock, particle...
Yes. And that difference of degree is significant enough to warrant making a distinction between automatic, concrete perceiving (present in humans and...
I think it is. In "On Being and Essence" Aquinas says, "I can understand what a man is or what a phoenix is and nevertheless not know whether either h...
Yes, so the ship arrival details were transmitted via a causal process that resulted in those details being entered into a log book. We agree about th...
Yes, the expression is fine as a metaphor. The key point is that number is a universal and so ultimately derives its meaning from observed particulars...
That's true, but I'm not just referring to seeing the flags and that they're being waved (which, as you say, also involves a flow of information). See...
OK, then I'm not clear on what we would be disagreeing about. Do you agree that information, gravity and mind (as universals) are all physical? Which ...
The mind is not different from this. All that exists are physical particulars and those particulars are identifiable in universal (or abstract) terms....
No, those abstractions are physical whether or not there are explanations in terms of fundamental particles. We are just describing the same world at ...
My view is that only existents have essential natures. Why would that imply an eternal existence? I notice that this specific issue seems to mark a po...
How would you imagine a universal triangle that is not a particular kind of triangle, namely scalene, isosceles or equilateral? I think that fails Che...
"Prove" is not the right term. Instead it is a theory that is consistent with Aristotle's natural philosophy. Not quite. Particulars are individual th...
And Aristotle had the solution! Yes, which was Aristotle's naturalist view as opposed to Plato's dualist view (realm of matter plus realm of forms). B...
Obviously knowledge has progressed immensely since the time of the ancient Greeks. Yet philosophical disputes remain. Those disputes often find their ...
If substantive, yes, if merely about word symbols, no. For an Aristotelian, a definition signifies what it is to be something. For example (per the Ox...
No, see again what I said about real lions and fictional lions. Engineering a horse to become a unicorn would involve natural processes. It doesn't as...
Interesting. I disagree that there is any ontological separation between existence and essence as Feser argues for in his discussion (from p117). Fese...
Creation ex materia is the natural assumption if we observe how things come into existence in ordinary experience. For example, a builder constructs a...
Yes. So the pivotal issue is whether the first actualizer is purely actual. Feser doesn't assume it, he concludes it in statement 14. I argue why I th...
Sure, but what I'm saying is that the proof fails to demonstrate that the first actualizer is a purely actual being. As I argued initially, the proble...
The proof, from premise 9 onwards, is about the nature of the first actualizer and isn't assumed to be immaterial. It could be a hylomorphic substance...
It would, but that doesn't describe the scenario. Causing substance S to exist just is the actualization of a potential. So, for example, suppose Alic...
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