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Pierre-Normand

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@"fdrake" Let me try to put my main point as simply as possible. You might then tell me whether or not I myself missed your main point. Suppose you ch...
December 13, 2018 at 06:37
In that case, for the sake of clarity, you might need to specify whether you intend "Bob" as shorthand for a definite description or rather as a genui...
December 13, 2018 at 06:18
Well, I tend to agree with that. And Kripke would agree too, assuming only that we are correct that proper names function as rigid designators. But in...
December 13, 2018 at 05:52
Of course, because otherwise (that is, if one isn't referring to Gödel with "Gödel"), saying that Gödel proved the incompleteness of arithmetic isn't ...
December 13, 2018 at 05:22
Of course. And Kripke isn't denying that. What Kripke is discussing here is what it is that one professes to be believing when one sincerely utters th...
December 13, 2018 at 04:58
In Frege's philosophy of language, predicates are unsaturated expressions since they have empty slots that require filling with singular terms in orde...
December 13, 2018 at 02:15
What issue? You may be thinking that definite descriptions of particular material substances at least implicitly assign times (or time periods) to the...
December 13, 2018 at 02:04
It seems to me that the issue concerning the reidentification of a material particular (or substance) as being numerically the same at two moments in ...
December 13, 2018 at 01:56
But I thought you were objecting to the possibility of there being nondeterministic phenomena at (2) (i.e. at the level of life, physiology and intent...
December 11, 2018 at 02:41
What is it, exactly, that you are claiming not to be in need of an argument? Is it the inference that if something is made up of material parts (and/o...
December 10, 2018 at 21:40
To clarify a bit, I think 'deterministic' is a predicate that is most suitably applied to systems rather than sets of events. That's because material ...
December 10, 2018 at 05:54
Just to be clear, I never intended to suggest that your taking your medications constitutes a habit that you ought to kick. The opposite may very well...
December 10, 2018 at 05:27
So, we can agree that someone may be smoking because (in a causal sense of 'because') of some feature of her character (viz. her smoking habit) and, n...
December 10, 2018 at 05:20
It's good that people don't all agree on what's best (or ideal). But there is some truth to the aphorism that the best is the enemy of the good. If so...
December 10, 2018 at 05:08
I think Aristotle's recommendation would be to try an emulate who appear to you to be wise people and take up good habits, which may be harder at firs...
December 10, 2018 at 04:58
I am using the term in a sense that's intended to closely match the ordinary use, but I can make it a bit more explicit, or philosophical, thus: The (...
December 10, 2018 at 04:50
For sure, there are many cases in which an agent acts badly and in which, because of the specificity of the circumstances, we hold her responsibility ...
December 10, 2018 at 03:57
This is a very nice account of practical reason, and a nice explanation of the sense in which past circumstances can't be held, even in conjunction wi...
December 10, 2018 at 03:33
It's true that the agent couldn't, counterfactually, have made a different choice if the antecedent material conditions had been the same. But that do...
December 07, 2018 at 06:52
Yes, this edit is an important addendum. Compatibilist philosophers who are impressed by so called Frankfurt cases hold that compatibilist freedom and...
December 06, 2018 at 23:21
It is the attempt to insert (b) in between (a) and (c) in a linear chain of nomological event-causation that I am objecting to. It rests on a category...
December 04, 2018 at 22:27
Yes. Hence, maybe, a hard determinist might argue that Pam and Sue are compelled to believe in the truth of the proposition owing to contingent cultur...
December 04, 2018 at 21:52
Why it is a problem? Is there no possible explanation, on your view, why Sue and Pam are agreeing (non-accidentally) on the truth of the proposition? ...
December 04, 2018 at 21:34
Why would that be a problem? What is it a problem for? It is a problem for the ascription of free will to rational agents? How?
December 04, 2018 at 21:25
Suppose I show the written statement of a mathematical theorem to two different mathematicians, Sue and Pam. Both of them convince themselves that the...
December 04, 2018 at 21:21
It may be inconsistent with some strong doctrine of nominalism (of spatiotemporal particulars), but is it incoherent? Where is the number five located...
December 04, 2018 at 20:43
You need not entirely divorce rational considerations (or numbers, say) qua abstract objects from space and time in order to place them in a different...
December 03, 2018 at 23:54
Let me respond to this first, for the sake of clarity. When I'm speaking of "antecedent circumstances" I only mean to signify a temporal relationship ...
December 03, 2018 at 23:10
You may construe it as a recasting of the philosophical concept of freedom. It is indeed the very same intuitive concept of freedom of agency that gro...
December 03, 2018 at 22:08
The common intuitive conception of free action, which seems to me to be broadly correct, rests on a form of agent causation rather than event causatio...
December 03, 2018 at 21:47
I think it is obviously coherent. For instance, both the radioactive decay or the absence of radioactive decay of an atom are consistent with the same...
December 03, 2018 at 21:35
Fair enough. But then, it would appear to be part of the conventional conversation about the will (conceived as the faculty that issues in intentional...
December 03, 2018 at 21:27
"Ontological freedom" is your term. @"Relativist" and I had issued a challenge for your own conception of what it might be, since it appears to us to ...
December 03, 2018 at 21:20
Very well. But then very many philosophers might inquire whether such a very weak concept of 'ontological freedom' (which seemingly amounts to nothing...
December 03, 2018 at 21:14
I wonder who you take to be the proper authority for the definition of the concept of freedom. Most people who are party to the conversation (which I ...
December 03, 2018 at 21:10
I was just about to post a similar response/challenge to @"Terrapin Station". On the one hand, I am myself a libertarian incompatibilist, just like TS...
December 03, 2018 at 20:49
Yes, I quite concur with your mild objection ;-) But if it is right, it also threatens the cogency of the doctrine of determinism, on my view. On your...
December 03, 2018 at 07:32
You dont seem to be disagreeing with the thesis Relativist presents in the original post, then. S/he is arguing that personal and moral responsibility...
December 03, 2018 at 04:07
The thesis here being defended by @"Relativist" is purportedly compatibilist while resting on the rejection of the principle of alternative possibilit...
December 03, 2018 at 02:11
@"Bitter Crank", @"jamalrob", Thanks, thanks!
November 24, 2018 at 16:11
Is there a simple way to know what category a discussion has been posted in? I normally display "All Discussions" and then click on the discussions th...
November 24, 2018 at 04:23
I was replying to your claim that reversing climate change is a waste of precious resources. You are claiming this because you also seemingly believe ...
November 24, 2018 at 03:58
For sure. I may not be able to participate assiduously, but, if this gets going, I'll likely comment occasionally.
November 23, 2018 at 22:39
'Kripkenstein' is a reference to Kripke's particular take on Wittgenstein on interpreting a rule, which he (Kripke) expounded in his book Wittgenstein...
November 23, 2018 at 22:27
Mankind currently is actively reversing the natural trend in climate change (from slow cooling to fast greenhouse warming) through wasting non-renewab...
November 23, 2018 at 15:35
Or maybe a very small rise over the next few centuries. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Ghgs-epcia-holocene-CO2-en.svg The atmosph...
November 23, 2018 at 12:43
We don't now exactly, which is why the IPCC, for instance, provides a probability density function for climate sensitivity to greenhouse gas forcing. ...
November 23, 2018 at 12:24
What would be normal, I think, is a very slow drop in atmospheric CO2 concentration. What primarily drove the alternation between the glacial and inte...
November 23, 2018 at 12:14
If you assign "F" to all three propositional variables, then, in that case, the second premise, (¬V?H), evaluates as false.
November 13, 2018 at 13:00
Why does it strike you as odd? The first premise asserts that virtue is a sufficient condition for Tim's achieving heaven while the other two premises...
November 13, 2018 at 04:46