You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Janus

Comments

"Writing a rule" would be to formulate a rule; so any written rule is a formulation. Moral intuitions or moral behaviors could be codified as rules; s...
February 13, 2020 at 05:37
Of course not all formulations are codes of conduct, but all codes of conduct are formulations, at least insofar as they are made explicit. I count so...
February 13, 2020 at 01:49
In: Truth  — view comment
I'm not quite sure what you're saying, but it sounds poetic!
February 13, 2020 at 01:18
In: Truth  — view comment
:cool:
February 13, 2020 at 01:16
But what if space were "layered" such that two or more things could be superimposed over one another at the same place and time. That would not seem t...
February 12, 2020 at 22:01
In: Truth  — view comment
The idea, though, is that there is an actuality which we could, in principle, experience and know more comprehensively, that what we now experience an...
February 12, 2020 at 21:55
In: Truth  — view comment
I haven't said anything about "showing how any statement can have a dierct correspondence to the world of actuality"; whatever "showing" in such a con...
February 12, 2020 at 07:18
Easier if you just answer the question: for you do any things other than formulations count as morality? It depends on how you define "moral" and "goo...
February 12, 2020 at 04:57
The question is whether only formulations (which are obviously dependent upon language, since nothing can be formulated without language) count as "mo...
February 12, 2020 at 04:43
We know from experience that two things cannot be in the same place at the same time. Although even that fact is conceptually and/or linguistically me...
February 12, 2020 at 03:29
Things that are certain are so only by definition, as I see it, which is obviously a matter of language.
February 12, 2020 at 01:30
In: Truth  — view comment
Why do you say that?
February 12, 2020 at 01:04
In: Truth  — view comment
No, when we say a proposition is true we are saying that it accords with reality, not merely that we believe it accords with reality. If I say that it...
February 11, 2020 at 22:03
In: Truth  — view comment
Not clear what you are trying to say here.
February 10, 2020 at 23:17
In: Truth  — view comment
I think it's not a matter of knowing which things can be put in the category "true", but of defining what criteria justify anything being in that cate...
February 10, 2020 at 22:44
I think "physical" is a clear concept, though. It is "what can be sensed, detected by instruments, and measured". I think science is much more than th...
February 10, 2020 at 22:10
In: Truth  — view comment
People may justifiably think they know the way things really are. This is not problematic when it comes to everyday observable matters; whether it is ...
February 10, 2020 at 00:12
In: Truth  — view comment
If it could be tested in principle then it could be true or false. Those who say string theory is not even wrong are claiming, whether rightly or not,...
February 09, 2020 at 20:50
In: Truth  — view comment
The way 'truth' is most commonly used is simply that it consists in what says how things really are. In other words its logic is one of correspondence...
February 09, 2020 at 20:40
In: Truth  — view comment
If truth is a property of statements, and there were no statements prior to the advent of humanity, how could there have been truths prior to the adve...
February 09, 2020 at 04:20
The nature of the game is that there are no fixed rules, just as in the natural environment with the interactions between predator and prey. The idea ...
February 09, 2020 at 03:14
Nothing you said there contradicts anything I have said. Are you claiming that indigenous cultures were not constrained by natural processes, or that ...
February 08, 2020 at 23:22
The problem is that science does not have any viable solutions to the replacement of fossil fuels, other than nuclear, which would be hugely risky, an...
February 08, 2020 at 22:55
Do you have any examples of cultures where this has not been the case? Of course those who are smarter will gain power. The only hope for humanity wou...
February 08, 2020 at 22:36
Yes, I wasn't implying that humanity ought to overuse resources, but just that that is precisely what will happen absent any coordinated intelligent r...
February 08, 2020 at 22:27
No, it's in the nature of all species to overuse whatever resources they can. It's only on account of fossil fuels that humans have been able to "chea...
February 08, 2020 at 22:16
Rapid technological progress MAY occur if a species has mastered symbolic language use AND finds an available cheap (in terms of energy invested to ac...
February 08, 2020 at 22:08
Now you're being silly; cowardice is not discretion, just as courage is not foolhardiness, and everyone who is capable of thinking about it even super...
February 07, 2020 at 23:49
I don't agree. If the vast majority of people, cross-culturally, think that a quality is virtuous, then it is virtuous. Likewise if such a majority th...
February 07, 2020 at 23:43
Courage is a virtue because it is universally admired, just as cowardice is universally deprecated, and hence is a vice.
February 07, 2020 at 02:22
The addendum to that is that something would be unjust in a cross-cultural sense if all (or the vast majority) of people intuitively felt it was unjus...
February 07, 2020 at 02:19
In: Truth  — view comment
Touché (inadéquat ou inepte?).
February 07, 2020 at 01:10
How about "Against Unfounded Certitude"?
February 06, 2020 at 22:39
In: Truth  — view comment
Hanover cracked an apophat! (But Banno's probably too tight and dry to receive it!)
February 05, 2020 at 22:35
In: Truth  — view comment
I think you misundertsood @"A Seagull". ( It's easy to do: I've misunderstood many seagulls!). A Seagull did not say that for some proposition to be t...
February 05, 2020 at 22:33
I don't think Hegel and Frege qualify as, or are generally considered to be, contemporary philosophers today. "Modern" perhaps....
February 05, 2020 at 22:24
But we do know what it means, just as much as we know what any category means. The usual objection is that we don't know what it "really" means, whate...
February 05, 2020 at 21:53
Yes, ethics and morals are entirely matters of tradition/ consensus, and it is not possible to examine those from some "higher" perspective in order t...
February 05, 2020 at 21:27
In: Truth  — view comment
Knowing what something is, and being able to say what it is, do not necessarily go "hand in hand".
February 05, 2020 at 01:09
All I'm saying is that there is, for all intents and purposes, determinate physical stuff, it's an epistemological claim, and I'm not trying to suppor...
February 01, 2020 at 00:09
I think that's right, at least regarding the Wittgenstein of the Tractatus. Later Wittgenstein would say that, for example, overarching ethical, aesth...
January 31, 2020 at 00:34
That sounds right. There may be many answers to a question, as the question might be considered in various contexts, but in any given context it would...
January 30, 2020 at 23:49
I did say re Derrida's rejection of metaphysics "unless I am mistaken", so I haven't made any blanket claim such as Wayfer has re Dennett.. As to ther...
January 30, 2020 at 23:44
Wittgenstein here says nothing about how many ways in which askable questions can be answered, though; that is whether there is "one true answer" to a...
January 30, 2020 at 22:15
I'm not treating any distinction as absolute. What we have been discussing is the question as to what can plausibly, coherently and consistently be sa...
January 30, 2020 at 21:56
Surely science deals with the material or physical world, though; the world as revealed to us by the senses (or augmented senses)? What else could it ...
January 30, 2020 at 03:18
There is no point quoting Searle's opinion of Dennett's views on consciousness; you should quote Dennett himself. Have you actually read Dennett or ev...
January 30, 2020 at 01:16
OK, but if you are not going to support any claim that there are two radically different substances or realms or dimensions, or whatever term you want...
January 30, 2020 at 01:05
Dennett is constantly mischaracterized by @"Wayfarer"; he doesn't deny the reality of consciousness, he just says that it is not what we think it is. ...
January 29, 2020 at 23:49
Ok, so if I pronounce it with similar emphases to 'hypodermic', that is "hypo-thesis", then I should use 'a' instead of 'an'? I guess it makes sense t...
January 26, 2020 at 00:28