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aletheist

['Member']Joined: December 06, 2016 at 18:16Last active: January 30, 2026 at 18:175 discussions1461 comments
Location: Olathe, Kansas, USA

Bio

Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian

Favourite Philosopher

Charles Sanders Peirce, Aristotle, Solomon

Favourite Quotations

"Mathematics is the study of what is true of hypothetical states of things."
"Phenomenology ascertains and studies the kinds of elements universally present ... at any time to the mind in any way."
"Logic may be defined as the science of the laws of the stable establishment of beliefs."
"Metaphysics consists in the results of the absolute acceptance of logical principles not merely as regulatively valid, but as truths of being."

Discussions (5)

Comments

In: External world: skepticism, non-skeptical realism, or idealism? Poll  — view comment
"Find a scientific man who proposes to get along without any metaphysics ... and you have found one whose doctrines are thoroughly vitiated by the cru...
February 26, 2023 at 01:46
In: External world: skepticism, non-skeptical realism, or idealism? Poll  — view comment
The OP fails to spell out each of the options and the technical terms that they include, and idealism vs. realism is a false dichotomy. For the sake o...
February 24, 2023 at 20:35
In: Peirce's categories: what's the big deal?  — view comment
All thought is in signs, so all mind is semiosis. According to Peirce's own testimony, he is above all else a synechist. That is what leads him to be ...
November 09, 2021 at 20:18
In: Peirce's categories: what's the big deal?  — view comment
No, it would be pure matter lacking all qualities whatsoever. Indeed, 1ns does not exist apart from its concrete instantiations, but it is a real poss...
November 09, 2021 at 14:37
In: Peirce's categories: what's the big deal?  — view comment
Thanks for the shout-out! My take is that of someone who sticks pretty closely to Peirce's own writings and terminology. Strictly speaking, his catego...
November 09, 2021 at 01:46
In: Necessity and god  — view comment
Claiming that God is necessary being is not equating God with being. Classical theism, even in its Abrahamic versions, maintains that God is simple (n...
July 11, 2021 at 22:29
In: Necessity and god  — view comment
No, I said that classical theism maintains that God is necessary being.
July 11, 2021 at 20:08
In: Necessity and god  — view comment
I am late to the party, but have read through the thread and would like to offer a few comments on the OP. As some have already hinted, classical thei...
July 11, 2021 at 19:41
In: Is Dewey's pragmatism misunderstood ?  — view comment
Right, although it can also serve as the very first stage of scientific inquiry, just pondering the phenomena as they present themselves and relying o...
June 29, 2021 at 21:54
In: Is Dewey's pragmatism misunderstood ?  — view comment
Except that for Peirce, reasoning (semiosis) as studied within the normative science of logic (semeiotic) is emphatically not a psychological process....
June 29, 2021 at 21:49
In: Is Dewey's pragmatism misunderstood ?  — view comment
Richard Robin catalogued Peirce's 500-plus handwritten pages of multiple drafts for "Pragmatism" under manuscript numbers 317-322 and 324. The five ma...
June 29, 2021 at 18:54
In: Is Dewey's pragmatism misunderstood ?  — view comment
This is a common misconception, or at best an incomplete definition. For Peirce, pragmatism is a theory of meaning, not a theory of truth. The core id...
June 29, 2021 at 15:32
In: Agrippa's Trilemma  — view comment
In particular, what is the alleged justification for the premiss that there are no justified basic beliefs?
March 30, 2021 at 20:02
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
How do you know this? I am not asking how you justify that belief, but on what basis it is (purportedly) true. I would prefer that you just come out a...
March 29, 2021 at 02:14
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
Whether I know that something is real is irrelevant. Again, the real is that which is such as it is regardless of what anyone (including me) thinks ab...
March 29, 2021 at 01:39
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
On the contrary, it is quite clear to me that a fact is the real state of things that a true proposition signifies.
March 29, 2021 at 01:25
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
You seem to be conflating knowledge with truth. The standard philosophical definition of knowledge is justified true belief. I can believe a propositi...
March 29, 2021 at 01:19
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
Whatever is such as it is regardless of what anyone thinks about it. The earth revolves around the sun--provided that it really does, as I believe to ...
March 29, 2021 at 01:03
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
On the contrary, within semeiotic the definitions of terms including "object" and "subject" are unambiguous and foster greater understanding. As far a...
March 23, 2021 at 12:58
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
Truth or falsity is not a matter of human belief. A proposition that is "not altogether in accord with the facts" is not a true proposition, no matter...
March 22, 2021 at 14:15
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
I know that you disagree, and at this point I find that comforting. There you go again, making stuff up to sound knowledgeable. That is not how "objec...
March 22, 2021 at 13:04
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
It is not "my" definition, it is the well-established definition within the discipline of semeiotic. Then we can stop wasting each other's time. On th...
March 22, 2021 at 13:02
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
No, these words are examples of signs whose objects--that which they denote--are general concepts. No, in each of these propositions there are two or ...
March 22, 2021 at 03:13
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
That is because you evidently have an extremely narrow definition of "object" and refuse to accept how that word is defined as a technical term within...
March 22, 2021 at 03:06
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
Fair enough, but the point is that it does not depend on what anyone else thinks (or says) about it. No proposition about it is true of the real unive...
March 22, 2021 at 02:18
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
I do not understand the question. What is true or false of a fictional universe is only dependent on what its creator thinks about it. It is such as i...
March 22, 2021 at 00:44
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
Full disclosure, I am not a mathematician, so my ability to address the details of SIA is admittedly limited. I believe so, as this seems to be simply...
March 21, 2021 at 22:28
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
It makes perfect sense to me. Again, the basic definition of real is being such as it is regardless of what anyone thinks about it. If we are talking ...
March 21, 2021 at 21:58
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
Good, and they also both denote the same object with "did," which is the relation of doing. However, they presumably denote different objects with "X"...
March 21, 2021 at 21:46
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
This question just confirms an ongoing failure (or refusal) to understand the technical definitions of denotation and signification within semeiotic. ...
March 21, 2021 at 21:35
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
Indeed, but as the Fonda example has brought to light, @"Metaphysician Undercover" apparently confuses denotation and signification. The result is wro...
March 21, 2021 at 02:38
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
I am treating "2+1" and "3" as signs here, and I already acknowledged that their signification is different. At issue is whether their denotation is d...
March 21, 2021 at 02:31
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
Fair enough, thanks. Indeed, an extensional context corresponds to denotation (object), which is the same for "Henry Fonda" and "the father of Peter F...
March 21, 2021 at 02:19
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
It seems clear that you are using a different definition of "object" than the one rigorously employed within the discipline of semeiotic. Again, anyth...
March 21, 2021 at 02:14
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
I have quite deliberately said nothing directly about that issue until now, because I was mainly interested in commenting on the other example that ca...
March 21, 2021 at 01:45
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
Simple--in semeiotic, anything that is denoted by a sign is, by definition, its object. Since all thought is in signs, anything that we can think abou...
March 21, 2021 at 01:25
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
Good grief, I never said that they necessarily denote the same object, I only said that they actually denote the same object. That is why I kept calli...
March 21, 2021 at 01:19
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
You had me a little worried for a while there. :wink: You are welcome, I am glad that it was helpful. :cool:
March 21, 2021 at 01:08
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
Indeed, I believe that his use of "principle" rather than "law" for excluded middle is very deliberate. As he wrote elsewhere, "Logic requires us, wit...
March 21, 2021 at 00:59
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
I appreciate this and would be content to leave it at that. I guess it comes down to the meaning of the concept of continuity. Someone immersed in mod...
March 21, 2021 at 00:47
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
Again, in semeiotic a subject is a term within a proposition that denotes one of its objects. "Hamlet" is a sign, a subject of a proposition such as "...
March 20, 2021 at 15:14
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
Again, what anyone knows or does not know is beside the point. Since it is fact that Henry Fonda is the father of Peter Fonda, by definition (in semei...
March 20, 2021 at 14:43
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
No, that is not what I am saying. I am not really talking about physics at all, just a hypothetical/mathematical conceptualization that might have phe...
March 20, 2021 at 14:23
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
At the risk of belaboring the point, it is an all-too-common nominalist mistake to insist that if abstract objects are real, then they must also exist...
March 20, 2021 at 02:22
In: Have we really proved the existence of irrational numbers?  — view comment
I agree that they signify different interpretants, but this does not preclude them from denoting the same object. It is a fact that Henry Fonda is the...
March 20, 2021 at 02:13
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
No, it does not. Hamlet, the fictional character in Shakespeare's play, is the object of the sign that is the first word of this sentence. No form of ...
March 20, 2021 at 02:01
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
That is not an accurate statement of my position. I hold that space is a true continuum, but not that it is something physical; rather, it is the real...
March 20, 2021 at 01:59
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
This is false, since it is not necessary for something to exist--in the metaphysical sense of reacting with other like things in the environment--in o...
March 19, 2021 at 15:43
In: Platonic Realism & Scientific Method  — view comment
That is a historical question, and my understanding is that mathematicians refer to "real" numbers only to distinguish them from so-called "imaginary"...
March 19, 2021 at 15:38
In: The paradox of Gabriel's horn.  — view comment
I agree, this is a better concise summary of what it means. Heh, we are in the same boat on that, I was just quoting Wikipedia. :cool: Oh, I completel...
March 19, 2021 at 13:39
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