To dissolve such a profound question, “how do we know what is real?” with such banality….but as Sraffa demonstrated, a common gesture can make one rec...
The word “real” serves us with a great function, it sets us up for a contrast that may help us navigate the world. For example, “That egg is real and ...
Since you are asking "how we can know about the world even though "we don't see the world as it is", I will assume you could not keep yourself from sl...
Metaphysical theories like this are hopeless, no evidence can be presented to cure this mental disease, and only demands some sort of persuasion to cu...
The Cartesian theater and Plato's cave are very dark places, but if the occupants still have their sanity and astuteness, they may notice light emanat...
Private world, an interesting idea, a devise to have a conversation about something that is imagine but like a work of fiction, neither true or false....
Well, I know you taste food if you put it in your month and you say “that was good not too spicy” or I know when you don’t taste your food if you say ...
On "The Concept of the Ruliad", Stephen Wolfram's idea of the "entangled limit of everything that is computationally possible: the result of the follo...
[reply="tim wood;985774" Yep, it is a great discussion. But confusion begets confusion. Notice how Wolfram says to Hoffman you are an N of 1, as if th...
Wittgenstein’s beetle in the box rears its ugly head again. Not sure if Wolfram knows it but he presents this argument from a philosophy of science me...
I don't think earlier Wittgenstein would exactly go along with this line of thought. Consider these sections from Tractatus, “3.02. The thought contai...
Wow, that sounds pretty serious, if 2+2=4 is not a necessary truth a whole lot if stuff falls apart. What exactly do you have it mind? Maybe, for exam...
Just exploring this idea of “tense” and “affecting” logical form. I will stop my inquiry into this since this may take the conversation in a direction...
So, there are things that exist and things that do not exist. If those things do not exist, it might subsists. If it subsists, it is real. If it does ...
Indeed, and one should take seriously the point of the whole book. That is to distinguish between what has sense and what is nonsense, what can be sai...
I think these sections are serving the purpose of putting the implications of Wittgenstein view of language and how we make sense of the world, decidi...
To add a quote of a much forgotten book, Mill’s On Liberty, he analyzes in Chapter II Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion, “We can never be sure ...
I think the beauty of a society that has this freedom is the transparency it can offer. You know where your fellow citizen stands and they know where ...
I know for a non-believer, yep. But for a believer, there is a rule given by the creator, and the creator decrees there is one eternal sin that cannot...
Well according to the Bible : Mark 3:28: "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter". Mark 3...
I think Wittgenstein’s Tractatus may offer a solution here. That is in order for us to make sense of the world, that is to avoid speaking non sense, o...
God should have hired David as his publicist, since he did such a better job of articulating the process of eternal damnation than the Bible, maybe th...
Quite a claim, that there is an illusion of transmission when we substantivizing information. If a l wrote a letter to my friend providing information...
Interesting criteria for choice, “it’s all just chemicals”. Well putting aside what goes on in your brain for a moment, are those “real objects” in fr...
Yep, this seems to be making a come back. When we all thought Hume buried the design argument, philosophers are starting to defend it again, see Chalm...
Yep, especially if notions of time and space come into existence and have sense emerging from the big bang. Thus, asking questions of “cause” may have...
I think even Einstein would say quantum mechanics is not fundamental given his famous quote, “God does not play dice.” Heisenberg may have even questi...
Lets explore this idea: You express the following thought to me, “A circle has four sides.” I may reply, “Not sure what you are thinking here, but a s...
Quine, in Word and Object, addresses how folk who are color blind use the word correctly. “Uniformity comes where it matters socially; hence rather in...
“But we do know who the question refers to…God. Yes, there more that one can learn about God, but that is still about God. Kripke’s point, that we do ...
Nice passage. Stuck this in Chat Smith to see if it confirms the veracity. And, there was no disagreement. But I guess this is expected based on what ...
Reaction to this post: Sometimes in philosophy we show by arranging our concepts into a persuasive paradigms. This is very different than presenting l...
If I said “It is the case that it is raining outside”, I do not mention anything about “truth” Would we need to say “what is the case” is a property o...
“As against solipsism it is to be said, in the first place, that it is psychologically impossible to believe, and is rejected in fact even by those wh...
Moore's paper, "Proof of an External World”, is an appeal to common sense. His intuition tells him that a philosophical analysis arriving at a radical...
I like to provide a brief defense of Moore's Proof of an External World. I don't claim Moore would agree of my defense, but let's just say I use Moore...
I would say something else as well. A human community who has a general consensus in color judgment. Without this general consensus, there is no langu...
I find Gellner is more complaining than arguing in this book. Ordinary language philosophers are like the parent telling the child you can’t just do a...
Yep, is “color in a perceiver”? Well, sure if you open the skull to see the brain, it may appear grayish. But I suspect they are saying something rath...
Science studies stuff like brains, nerves, cells, molecules, etc… Not sensations and mental percepts. But scientists certainly are free to talk about ...
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