And if it is applied, it will necessarily cancel out the teleological "supposition" and replace it with an explanation based wholly on efficient cause...
Oh yes, I agree, but the question is whether they can actually do that - whether a) they have good reason to doubt the usual backstory for objects, an...
Thanks for the heads-up. Yeah, I used to be a strong Atheist in my youth, and I disliked all religions; but now at 58, I've become more of a Spenceria...
So do you or do you not understand what I mean by "compressed explanation?" If you do, then it's not so "idiosyncratic" after all, is it? ;) Yes, so t...
I take my departure from the simple fact that, apart from the usual carping and sniping and legal shenanigans that rich guys in the limelight get, the...
Again, I'd go back to the deeper sorts of arguments I put forth in our previous discussions. If you're accepting that what you're doing when you've go...
No, my position is that Trump is our God Emperor and the saviour of the human race. The Papadopolous thing is just another red herring (and anyway, an...
Well yeah, in general, over the past few decades liberalism has gradually mutated into a cross between an infantile zombie cult and the Stasi with a s...
But you pouted, for example, that science does too show that things have natures, etc., etc., so why was I making a fuss? I know it was a few posts ba...
The Clinton campaign was embarrassed by Wikileaks, they (or rather the company they hired to investigate their servers, Crowdstrike) made up the Russi...
Ah, I remember now, haven't we been through all this before? :D In that case, IIRC my counter-argument was that while you can't perceive things that a...
Yeah, but only if you're following the rule that in any given conversation, the symbol (or rather, identity, essence) "A" shall always be proposed for...
Well Idealism obviously ad hoc because it's inventing a whole different understanding of reality from the ordinary one. That's the less parsimonious b...
Not for science it isn't, there is no real or valid teleology for science at all. I've just explained to you, teleological talk in science as it stand...
Then what's been your problem all through our conversation? You've professed to be baffled by the difference between the two positions, you've furrowe...
No, the idea that the existence of some unperceived object is a reasonable explanation for present experience's being the way it is depends on a prior...
Deary me, no. Or at least not officially - increasingly there are some noises from philosophy of science (e.g. Nancy Cartwright) that a strictly mater...
Well, mostly we take it on trust, on the word of others - friends, family, journalists - or of experts. That's a loose, everyday sense of knowing. Mos...
No, no, it's not got anything to do with the traditional Abrahamic conception of God specifically, or even with what might be derived "emotively"; God...
It's not that, it's that the DNA "purpose" isn't actually a purpose. What work is "proximate" doing in your sentence there? How can there be "proximat...
That sentence doesn't make sense as it stands. I'll presume you're asking me to explain why I think Aristotelian teleology (if true) would be a form o...
And yet as we see, people are less interested in having families in the "advanced" countries. And this is because DNA has no sense of time-binding, it...
Then why talk of "axioms" and "truth?" Purely formally/syntactically you can make up any old rules for moving symbols around in patterned ways, neithe...
Yes, as contrasted with the "as if" teleology I was talking about several posts back when we were talking about teleology. No it's not, and I just exp...
Are people made happy by modern life? Reports and statistics seem to give a mixed impression. It's often remarked that poor people seem happier than p...
Purpose, teleology, intelligibility (in the classical sense): something that doesn't ultimately terminate at "shit happens." After all, "shit happens"...
Yeah I think that's the idea - philosophical truths "limn grammar", it's like we're reminding ourselves of the rules of the game, the criteria for lan...
No it's not, that's the thing. An axiom would be something presupposed as true, or assumed as true, or necessarily implied as true. But the LNC is not...
That the Universe is intrinsically meaningless is a logically necessary implication of the materialist/mechanistic worldview, i.e. the view that the U...
Yeah, I think with most religions there are core tenets and peripheral tenets, so you can still be "of that religion" while disagreeing on peripherals...
Just a suggestive addendum to our conversation. From https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-screwed-millennial-generation-gets-smart?ref=home?ref=home "Des...
You can refute an example of inconsistency, but how do you "refute" the very commitment to remain consistent that defines reason? (Not trying to be fl...
No, I just said no in the very passage you quote. But perhaps the "phrasing" was too "unique" for you ;) (I'm beginning to wonder if you think I'm a r...
Surely that would be just as miraculous? The queer thing about the Universe is that anything exists at all, the question of whether it always existed ...
The meanings of words are what the dictionary gives us - and that's based on how words are in fact generally used by people in the culture. Those usag...
I don't think you can refute the LNC, because it's not a "law," it's not a thing for refuting; it's a reflection of our commitment to speak consistent...
Perhaps you're just deliberately being a dick? The possibilities are endless. That's why civilized discourse normally proceeds under the assumption of...
It would depend on what is meant by "contradiction." You can make up any number of systems of rule-governed symbol-shuffling in which something called...
Good info there, thanks. A possibility I see coming is a population spread away from cities, even away from suburbs, to a more country/villagey lifest...
Yeah, I thought Cathy Newman's question points to the terrible state of modern academia and our education systems, of which she is a product. To take ...
I think there's a bit of that, yes, and it's a huge cost. Another major factor is the ideological factor - welfare systems are sometimes the result of...
I defer to your greater knowledge of the matter. If things are actually consistent at the micro level as well as at our familiar, evolved level, that'...
It's true that people are born into cultures and sets of ideas, etc,. but that doesn't mean they don't think rationally about the beliefs they've been...
No, the first step is to posit a consistent nature or essence for a thing, then you deduce necessary conclusions for experience (or likely conclusions...
As I see it, the "law" isn't a law, but rather an earnest (in the sense of "a token of something to come; a promise or assurance."). IOW, like the apr...
I think the great advantage of UBI (from my own pro-capitalist point of view) is that entrepreneurial adventure is more likely to spontaneously develo...
Not sure why you think those quotes are particularly relevant to what we're talking about. My contention is simply that people aren't stupid and have ...
As I said, science doesn't care about beliefs related to final causes, the kinds of causes with which religion deals, and that's why scientists can ke...
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