T_Clark

I don't know how old you are, so I don't know what perspective you are judging from. Let me make a list of major events in the course of liberal democ...

Can't tell if you're being facetious. This popped to mind as peripherally related. I recently read "What is Life" written by Edwin Schrodinger in the ...

Massachusetts towns are governed by town meeting/selectmen governments. As time has gone on and government has gotten more complicated, it has often b...

All the time I've been reading the posts in this discussion, especially back at the beginning with the quotes from Cartwright, it struck me that all t...

I came to the forum disagreeing with most of what I had read in Western philosophy. Not just disagreeing with it, but rejecting its value. Since I've ...

I disagree that the existence of objective reality is a matter of fact. To me it's a matter of viewpoint. Sometimes it's useful, sometimes it's mislea...

I like it because it says the world is created not by God only, but also by man, which is the deepest foundation of my understanding of the world.

A painting could be considered an example of skilled, honest labor, although some art doesn't seem to care much about skill - technique. Is that a rel...

There are two issues. The first, which is the primary subject of this thread, is that seeing metaphysical rules as true or false is misleading. Choosi...

I've never thought of it in these terms. I've saved the Nagle essay to my Kindle. If I have any thoughts I'll get back to you.

Well, of course it makes sense - but it's not what I want. I want a cudgel of metaphysics I can take out and beat my opponents with. (stomps feet, pou...

Except most definitions of metaphysics, I found 6 out of 10 once, include epistemology in metaphysics. I'm not arguing with you, I just want more orde...

In line with my metaphysics, rules are not faulty. It's just a matter of preference and usefulness. Also - I like it here. I want to play with the peo...

This is a helpful post, but I think it underlines what I was suggesting - that what we call metaphysics is not what I want it to be. Poor T Clark. Wha...

I very much want there to be a place to go to discuss the underpinnings of reason. Where we can agree on the rules, or at least argue about the rules,...

Not sure, but that sounds like it may be what I'm talking about. I'll take a look.

A guy named Terry Allen. I know nothing about him except this song. Have you considered taking up country music? On that note, I'll put in a plug for ...

Since I wrote that, I've been rethinking it and I may have swung back the other way - maybe I do agree with Pirsig. If I remember correctly, it's been...

Very helpful, interesting post. This whole thread is interesting and makes me ask myself questions I hadn't before. I like and think I understand the ...

All scientific generalization and abstraction, all generalization and abstraction of any kind, is "just a metaphor." Except at the most simplistic lev...

So, in addition to denying the validity of quantum mechanics and relativity, you also deny the validity of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural sel...

How is the something important that the law of universal gravitation describes vague? Two bodies with the property we call "mass" tend to move towards...

Boy, this, along with the rest of the quoted text, is really wrong, or at least trivially correct. A quibble about language. As I implied in the first...

First, of course, there are no "laws of nature." There are only general descriptions of how things behave. Wouldn't a materialist say that everything ...

I like this. Here are some more: "Art is high quality endeavor" - Robert Pirsig. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I've gone back and forth, ...

This is something I've thought about a lot. I think it comes from the fact I'm an engineer. All the posts up to this point dance around what I see as ...

Geez, another post I'll have to reread and re-reread. Re-re-read. You say chaotic systems are deterministic. Does that mean you can use them to make p...

I was thinking the same thing. I guess it could be passive-aggressive and obstructionist, but I had never thought of it that way. Sometimes, for me, t...

Although I have not had the additional education that would be required to practice as one, the branch of civil engineering I enjoy most is geotechnic...

And it definitely gets us in trouble sometimes.

I don't agree. I put this in as one of my pet peeves in the recent discussion, although it is not really a peeve, it's a serious philosophical questio...

You have to understand, Tiff, math requirements for engineers are generally the same for all disciplines for the first couple of years. The most impor...

The butterfly effect is one of those subjects, like quantum mechanics, which people don't understand and misinterpret because the concept seems to hav...

In the United States in 2000, George Bush won Florida by fewer than 600 votes out of 6 million. That lead to him being elected President, which lead t...

I haven't forgotten about your posts and I'm not ignoring them. I'm not sure what I think yet. I'm letting my thoughts think me.

Sometimes while.

I think, although I may be remembering incorrectly, everything other than the quote I included was added after my response. Either way, in my first re...

No, I wasn't complaining about anything you did, I was just referring to a comment I had made in your discussion.

I gave several examples, although I'm not satisfied I was clear enough. One of these days I'll start up a new discussion unless one of you do it first...

I agree it is not useful in all situations. Maybe I like it more than you do.

Ha, ha, ha, ha. I get it. I think what I have always called, and will continue to call, a line by line response can be really clear and effective. I d...

Is Fisking considered a bad thing? I use it sometimes when the post I'm responding to has a lot of moving parts.

Things that would be useful on the forum: How about a homework help request category. It is annoying when people ask for help without being up front a...

March is a good month for birthdays.

This is a philosophical pet peeves discussion. It is generally expected that posts follow the stated theme, although sometimes things drift. One of th...

Can you young whippersnappers please keep the noise down. We really old guys are trying to nap.

Don't see the connection.

I wasn't trying to make a serious point, just teasing a bit.

You're new here. You'll find that a little dickiness is par for the course. For what it's worth, Charleton sometimes has interesting things to say.

There you go, quoting Aristotle again. Or was that Kant?