Janus

Very odd indeed!

Spinoza made a similar point somewhere in reference to the Pyrrhonian Skeptics' problem of the "criterion", I seem to remember. When asked "how do you...

One thing that I think is lacking in Kripke's account is acknowledgement of the dependence of reference on description. It is a long time since I read...

I totally agree with your sentiments here. The only good way forward would be a radical general shift in consciousness away from the deluded fantasy o...

Energy is the ability to do work. If at maximum entropy there is no energy available to do work, then effectively there is no energy on that definitio...

Quantum physics is just counterintuitive; which shouldn't be such a surprise. General relativity is also counterintuitive, as is the fact (if it is a ...

If only it were just a matter of calling names!

Nah, they're good for a laugh or two, and that's about it. It seems strange to talk about a "healthy balance" when on one side you have unhealthy fool...

What's laughable is that you think I ever claimed that morality equates to "herd-morality". You should go back and read carefully what I wrote. You re...

Wriggle away, man; you're dead wrong about my following 'mob-thinking" in ethics. You simply don't have a clue what I was getting at. In fact I don't ...

That's hilarious coming from someone who declares that they eschew the thinking of the mob; which ordinary language so obviously reflects.

Of course I am referring to current scientific understanding of energy. Before the idea of entropy obviously energy was understood "separately form th...

The argument was over the scientific definition of energy, which cannot be understood separately from the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but if now you...

I'm done trying, educate yourself: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_death_of_the_universe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermodynamic_free_energy

You're paranoid as well as defensive and abusive; nice combination!

I keep getting sucked into posting on here even though I should be focusing on the practical matters involved in the massive task of selling my house ...

I nowhere qualified capacity to do work (that was your definition of potential energy that you claimed defined energy per se) with the adjective 'usef...

Way to cop out!

All examples of tautological, logical or empirical judgements. They are not really judgements at all but facts. So you haven't answered the question; ...

it may seem obvious to you that there are unconfirmed hypothetical facts, and there indeed may be, but as I said earlier they will only become actual ...

Give me an example.

So what was the point? I'm not going to do your work for you.

A hypothetical fact is not a fact any more than a hypothetical thing is a thing. Try again.

You are a moral relativist because you believe there is no empirical evidence that could confirm whether a moral judgement is right or wrong. How is t...

Fine then give me an example of an unconfirmed fact and I will believe that you are not speaking through your arse.

So, now you contradict yourself. The claim that you are the best philosopher is not an empirical claim that can be confirmed, but either an ethical, a...

What would be the subjective truth expressed in the above example "anchovies are disgusting"? Something like 'I find anchovies disgusting'? If so, I w...

How could it be true according to your relativism, if others disagree? What you mean is that you believe it is true, it is true for you; but that mean...

I think a better way of framing this is in terms of subjective and inter-subjective. "That this text is written in English" is an inter-subjective fac...

So, are you saying that in the heat death scenario, when thermal equilibrium or the state of maximum entropy is reached, there is still potential ener...

The answer is fairly simple: the "money" that is circulating in the economy is, increasingly, credit, and thus the increased "productivity" is merely ...

As usual you are distorting what I said. I don't expect you to take enough interest in anything to want to understand it, what I do expect is that if ...

As I've said before, I don't believe the relativist position, at least the one that claims that moral justification is all and only about the individu...

I was just saying that if my memory serves, Peirce, like Kant held that absolute truth is unknowable. I could be mistaken about that, though.

Thanks for your thoughts Mww. I won't be posting here for a while. I am moving soon, and have much to do to the house before selling it, and my mind i...

But if it is based on valid reasoned arguments and is not inconsistent then it's only nonsense and garbage according to someone's judgement, according...

I am tired of being combative, S; I want to adopt a different approach, give everyone the benefit of the doubt, and if I find valid well-reasoned argu...

No worries, whenever you're ready. :smile:

I'd like to see the reasoning to support that. I'd say there is pure reason, but it consists only in tautologies and 'contentless' formal logic. Some ...

I've no idea how or why you think what you respond with here has any relevance to what you were responding to. Can you explain your thought process?

Obviously you are assuming a definition of ideas such that they have no existence other than their occurring to us and then going on to tautologously ...

So, in the purportedly inevitable heat death of the universe there will still be energy with the potential to do work? Can you explain how that will w...

So, in assuming your conclusion, you assert.

No, I was disagreeing with you. You said "if something is just an idea"; I corrected it to read "if something is just our idea".

No, that does not logically follow. If something IS just our idea, then it can by definition not be more than our thinking. Or alternatively if you de...

Your conclusion is not logically entailed, but we would need good reason to think that something which is just an idea could be more than our thinking...

What's the question? I agree. Yes, all of that would seem to be self-evident; these are logical findings, but I still can't see what point you seem to...

That seems to be the main problem for you (and a couple of prominent others). You just don't seem to get it that it is tedious to try to explain one's...

I'd agree that numbers don't exist except as symbols. But are different symbols, for example '7', '1111111', or 'VII', or different instantiations of ...

OK, that's interesting. I knew that Peirce accepted the constraints on knowing; the 'counsels of prudence' that evolve out of the understanding of our...