Olivier5

You are probably right that for scientists, it is best to use examples from mathematics.

And other people worry about the sex of angels... I got news for Chalmers. Philosophical zombies cannot possibly exist. The mind is not facultative, i...

Some are more universal than others. Think of numbers for instance.

The content of the set defined by {the concept of the singular letter A} is made of all conceivable glyphs that could qualify as an A.

The same tends to be true of universals: in practice they have hazy boundaries, and those boundaries vary across people, so I don't see much a differe...

Nope. You were talking of ALL the As, which a concept.

A set is a concept, by definition. Losing face on a message board.

"All the other As" means the same thing as "the set of all As" which means the same thing as "the concept of the (singular) letter A". You are just pl...

They say things like: "is this an A or not?"

Because they speak of it, thus they know the concept of the letter A. You are lying to yourself.

Everybody does, in actual fact, even those unaware that they do. The human mind thinks in universals. Concepts that have been invented do exist, if on...

Exactly. The challenge is to explain in a non theist manner the emergence of logical thoughts that actually help describe this universe correctly.

It's about concepts and their usefulness, not about their existence. Once the concepts of letters and numbers have been invented, we'd be fools not to...

It is less elegant, heavier conceptually, and more complex to teach. Qualitatively, it implies that all recognisable As are equivalent, which is not t...

So this discussion now circles around the ontological status of abstract forms, such as the letter N, conceived as an element of a set called alphabet...

This is done all the time. It's called reproduction, and I have no problem with it. Note the importance of EXACT FORM in the sentence. Form is what li...

You can refer to it in many different ways, of course.

You have not said what similitude means. It's a rather vague concept. W is similar to M but they are not the same letter. What is 'N' standing for in ...

Actually we do, if we care to be understood we need to express ourselves clearly, and this means abiding to certain theoretical or practiced rules. Wh...

A more complex and complete theory of typefaces and fonts exist, than the "common sense" one. A little detour via Wikipedia will convince you of that:...

We commonly say so because if we didn't, if we thought that New York has many different names that all share enough similarity, then our life would be...

That is a rather strange definition of "experience", as equal to the difference between a real entity and a fictional one. How does that definition ap...

Thanks for the cheerleading, Proof. Much appreciated.

Alrighty, tell me what you think then. Are you saying that the city of New York has many different names?

You are using confused concepts. "New York" is a place name composed of two words: the word "New" and the word "York". There are 14 words written on t...

It's the same toponym, composed of two words, and written down in a variety of fonts. If I call: "Isaac! Isaac!" I haven't called two persons, or two ...

A toponym.

I agree. Any comparison between two objects involves abstraction, ie thinking of pure forms (seeing the form as independent of its material substrate)...

Well then we agree. I see this distinction as fundamentally dualistic. I note that you have not even tried to express the map-territory relation in mo...

One city, one name: New York. This unique name (aka concept) can be written down in an infinite number of different ways.

How many cities are called New York?

It's a dialogue between mind and matter, a two-way street.

The differences you see are not in the name "New York" itself, which is one name, but in the many different ways to write it down.

Not 'similar enough' but identical.

The same name of the same city.

The same name can be 'materialized' in many different manners, but it's still the same name.

Ideas must be written down on something to exist, and to have any effect on things. An idea written nowhere, not even in some dude's memory, is not pr...

https://miro.medium.com/max/1200/0*gEjZfiggCJ7gg3Z3

Huh? Not at all. It's like a poem. Poems exist. They can be copied on many different support, but they are still the same poem. Two copies of the same...

Not really. It's the same map IFF it represents the same thing the same way, e.g. at the same scale, projection, and was authored by the same person a...

Neutral in English, feminine in French. To me, things that are representations of other things (such as maps) have certain properties that relate to t...

So brains are works in constant progress.

Property "In logic and philosophy (especially metaphysics), a property is a characteristic of an object; a red object is said to have the property of ...

One map can be written down on many sheets of paper though. There can be several printed copies of the same book, or map

Yes, a map is a symbolic and simplified representation of a territory, made for a certain purpose e.g. facilitating the analysis of, or navigation wit...

Mass tourism is the plague of beautiful places. But it tends to be confined to specific highlights of the city, typically representing about 10 % of a...

It is different and thus appears chaotic, but an Italian in London may find it rather weird as well... A matter of perspective. In terms of civilizati...

The motive remains a mystery but the behavior is consistant.

I live in Italy, and can confirm that they are better than the rest of us...

The pattern is willful, petulant misunderstanding.