Michael

So by the "real" taste you mean what we would taste were we to eat a lemon without foreign interference? That makes more sense.

Materialism doesn't lead to epiphenomalism. Materialists can be behaviourists or functionists or identity theorists, etc.

What does it mean for the taste to be fabricated by aliens? You're using the words, but they don't mean much to me.

Does knowledge require certainty or just (strong) justification? If the former then you might not be able to know. If the latter then that depends on ...

Black holes and dark matter? They can't be seen, but we know of them because of their gravitational effects on other things. If you want to talk hypot...

If consciousness is causally efficacious then epiphenomenalism isn't correct. Materialism doesn't depend on epiphenomenalism. In fact, materialism pro...

And what evidence do you have that it's official? Do I need reasons to doubt it, or do I need reasons to trust it? I shouldn't just believe it because...

Well, as has been suggested before, it mostly comes down to an attitude. Your attitude is either that of trust or doubt. I might not have any reasons ...

Using the above reasons, what evidence do I have that his score is 2,700? Am I to just assume that the source is accurate? Or am I free to doubt it un...

So how do we determine what is or isn't evidence? How do we determine when it is or isn't reasonable to doubt that something is evidence?

I know that. But him being an expert isn't the same as me having evidence that he's an expert. Any random person who talks to me in the street might b...

So what evidence is this? What reasons do I have to trust this evidence over doubt it? As I said above, you only seem to be saying that if we believe ...

If someone tells me that they're an expert, it can be reasonable to doubt them even if I don't have evidence that they're lying (or otherwise mistaken...

So unless I have good reasons, I shouldn't doubt that you're an expert chess player, or that Banno is an expert tennis player? That doesn't seem right...

So the unreasonableness of doubt depends on there being reasonable evidence in favour (in this case, reasonable evidence that he's an expert)?

Surely it's "real" taste (although what purpose does the term "real" serve here?) just is whatever it tastes like to us? It doesn't make much sense to...

What if he tells me that bishops move horizontally and vertically. Does it make sense to doubt him?

If you repeatedly say that lemons are bitter, does that tell us something about you or about lemons?

That's the median, not the mean. Also, it only counts 32 countries, explicitly excluding the U.S. Notably it doesn't include Western Europe. Not sure ...

Apparently the average person is a 28 year old Han Chinese man, is right-handed, makes less than $12,000 per year, and has a mobile phone but no bank ...

FBI has second dossier on possible Trump-Russia collusion Also, because it's hilarious (although also worrying if true):

It's worth checking the Media Bias/Fact Checker. Fox News has a "Right" bias and "Mixed" accuracy. Also "deemed the least accurate cable news source a...

Depends. Do you actually watch the news, like with Shepard Smith, or do you watch the opinion shows, like Hannity? The latter is a definite no. All yo...

And this is the dichotomy that I'm criticising. When I say that I doubt something, I'm not just saying that I don't have certitude; I'm saying that I ...

Wouldn't an intelligence with the power to create all this be even more complex?

For example, in physics the standard for "proof" is a confidence of 5 sigma. That doesn't mean certainty, but it doesn't mean that it's reasonable to ...

That's not right at all. To put in some semi-arbitrary percentages, it's certain if the probability is 100%, likely if the probability is >=75%, unlik...

That's why there's a distinction between an unadjusted and adjusted pay gap. The adjusted pay gap accounts for such things as which jobs men and women...

That one seems to show an even bigger gap. Page 68 shows that when adjusted to the full spectrum (i.e. taking into account occupation, experience, etc...

If we take my previous example of a man earning £30,000, that means an equivalent woman earns between £27,870 and £28,560. I don't think £2,130 a year...

I believe that's explained in section 6 ("A breakdown of the gender pay gap"). Only 36.1% of the difference can be explained by such things as occupat...

I believe the difference is that people choose to commit crimes; they don't (usually) choose to be paid less than someone with a comparable job.

What percentage of crimes (punishable by jail) are committed by men?

They count to the people who are being paid less than their peers.

What, exactly, does it mean for there to be a "gap", then? You seem to just be defining the term "gender pay gap" in such a way that your claim is a t...

No, there's also a gender pay gap. There are lots of studies.

So now you're accepting that there is a gender pay gap? You just think it justified because men are more valuable to a company than women?

If by doubt you just mean "not certain". But it can also mean "not likely". Will I have a job tomorrow? I'm not certain, but I'm not doubtful either. ...

What? Furthermore, it's a truism that the top 1% wealthiest people have more money than the rest. That's just basic maths. So I don't really understan...

False. There's also a gender pay gap.

If this explains the gender pay gap then why is it that men bring more "value" than women? Regardless, it's a gender pay gap all the same.

According to the study I linked to above, "the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition results show that 36.1% of the difference in men’s and women’s log hourly ...

It could be that each person having a say in who is running the country is itself just, so even if there was a benevolent dictator who could ensure ec...

Then I'm not exactly sure what it is you expect. You can either believe it or you can carry out your own studies. Dismissing it out-of-hand is certain...

It comes from a reputable source? You might as well ask why we should believe anything we read in the news or from the government, so I wonder why you...

No, it isn't a myth. See the Office for National Statistics.

1) this is a hand 2) it is possible that 1) is false Is it possible that 2) is false? If not then we can doubt 1) but not 2) (according to MU). I supp...

It's possible that I will win the lottery tomorrow, but I'm not justified in doubting that I won't. Doubt requires more than just possibility.

Besides, given that we have these terms "sensation" and "private experience" that refer to something other than behaviour and public expression should...

Then let's use a different example. I've never met Trump; only ever seen him on TV and in photos. I've learned to use the term "Donald Trump" by assoc...