Janus

Yes, that's what it comes down to. So do you believe people when they tell you they can visualize contradictories obtaining? Would you believe me if i...

I wasn't asking for the standard dictionary definition of contradiction, but asking you to consider why you believe that contradictions cannot obtain....

No, the ability to memorize a formula may have been acquired in the past, but it does not follow from that that the memory of the formula is about the...

But you haven't said why it is "a contradiction and incoherent". Also, what does it mean to say that something is a contradiction and/or incoherent be...

So, what's wrong with "the (same) cat is both on the mat and not on the mat (at the very same instant)" according to you?

Nonsense; you can for example memorize formulae.

Do you acknowledge that 'contradictory' means 'doesn't make sense'? If they are using that definition then they are saying that something that doesn't...

It seems contradictory to say that "obtaining contradictories" make sense; the very idea of 'contradictory' seems to mean something like 'doesn't make...

I'm not saying we have any good intersubjectively shareable reason to believe otherwise, but that we should recognize the belief for what it is; somet...

Yeah, except I am not a dualist. I don't have a settled metaphysical position at all. I get that you do and that's fine...for you; so I can also agree...

No matter how attenuated the fictional characters connection (in terms of description) to the real Nixon is? Are you thinking it is so simply on the b...

By "name as identity" do you mean "name as identifier". The problem I see is that many people can have the same name, and when we use a name to refer ...

One person's regulation is another person's freedom, and so it is with bullshit. Where this kind of subjectivity doesn't apply is within activities su...

"Must be regulated" for what or whose purpose?

Well, I should have said I wouldn't expect to find it anywhere but in the imagination. Sure, but the thing is we don't know for sure that being able t...

I have no difficulty imagining it, and since it, as imagined, does not interact with physical matter (or at least its interaction is unimaginable) I w...

Reference and identity seem to be inseparably related, though. You can write about (in the sense of stipulate that you are writing about) an alternati...

It's a long while since I read (and studied) Naming and Necessity, but as far as I understand Kripke wants to separate the idea of reference from any ...

I think mind or spirit is usually imagined (to reverse Peirce's metaphor) as a kind of effete matter, an attenuated ineffectual matter that, because i...

So how do we separate the name 'Nixon' and its referent from the associated definite descriptions of the referent; 'the man who had these biological p...

Perhaps we don't need to go as far as the golf ball to lose Nixon. Could Nixon still be Nixon if he had had different parents and also looked complete...

For me the question would be as to how alternative the story could be without Nixon ceasing to be Nixon.

Yes that's right and you only know that by ostention and/ or description which has been my point.

Of course it is the baptism thing, but to say that a name refers to an entity that has been baptized with that name is itself a definite description o...

I haven't said that any set of descriptions would or could " set out...without fail that exact person" being talked about. Descriptions give us ideas ...

More descriptions! All this tells me is that you don't seem to be able to answer the question, even though you've read the work (as I have also, but m...

You have given me a description; that he is your friend; you just haven't specified whether he is imaginary or not.

Come one; it's obvious the two "over theres" are different. 'Over there' is itself meaningless without description or ostention. You're contradicting ...

That's easy to say...can you explain why you would think that? Again, talk is cheap; can you explain where I am going wrong according to you? How do w...

Ah, but in that case we are relying on ostention, not on whether the man is drinking champagne. You thought the man is drinking champagne, but it turn...

So it would seem. If Kripke wants to say that names are not definite descriptions, well I think that much is trivially obvious; my name clearly says n...

Since studying Naming and Necessity as part of an undergraduate course (so, obviously not an in-depth study) the problem I have always thought to be i...

Is that you slumming it and playing littler games down here, Slavoj? :joke:

Sounds about right! :grin:

Yes, there is 'knowing that' (not all of which is scientific knowledge in the narrow sense). Then there is 'knowing how', the skills involved in using...

:cool: I think it's great to be sensitive! Welcome!

That's surprising; I don't recall experiencing any dysfunction; except maybe with MDMA (and then only for one or two days). Immediately after Psilocyb...

I wouldn't say I am "attached to" (read 'addicted to') drugs. I would probably take psychedelics about once or twice a year. It's about creative explo...

Not so interested in the "lowest of lows" but then sometimes highs and lows are a package deal.

Not entirely for me, and even then only the memory of them I think.

Yeah, well when it comes to dreaming that requires no decision on your part; in fact you have little choice in the matter. Your only option would be t...

I don't think any rigorous distinction between what is natural and what is not is justifiable. Some researchers believe that DMT (which is produced en...

Whatever insights caffeine may yield are not "far from natural and normal" since its use is so widespread. However it might be induced, an altered sta...

Thanks, Posty. I'm a bit time poor at the moment to start a thread. Of course you could start one on the topic if you like, and I would try to contrib...

The question is really whether so-called higher states of consciousness can yield genuine metaphysical knowledge; objective truths (as opposed to subj...

Obviously, though some thoughts are more joyous than others. If you are thinking 'I am no good', 'I am unworthy' 'I am useless' and so on then attachm...

I agree that 'not accepting' is driven by thoughts, but it consists in a feeling; which can be shown by the fact that the same thoughts about the self...

Well, what do you expect me to think if, as is apparently the case, no coherent account of higher esoteric objective knowledge can be found? I have se...

Thanks Posty! :smile:

I have long been drawn to Stoicism after reading Meditations. I haven't read much else though, so I'll investigate.