Michael

I don't think so. @"unenlightened", care to weigh in on this?

I would refer you back to unenlightened's response from earlier, but that would be childish of me.

You can just use 1) "if something is a raven then it is black" and the logically equivalent 2) "if something is not black then it is not a raven". The...

Look, the term "logical equivalence" has a very clear meaning in logic, and its meaning is such that if A is logically equivalent to B then A and B me...

My argument is premised on the claim that evidence is whatever makes the hypothesis more likely (than it was before), not as whatever makes the hypoth...

Two statements have the same truth value in every model iff they mean the same thing.

The maths shows that the probability of our hypothesis being true increases with each successful observation. Therefore if evidence is whatever increa...

So you say. But I showed, with maths, that it does. What you say here is only true if "evidence" means "proof", but it doesn't.

Logical equivalence is a clearly defined term in logic. Two statements that are logically equivalent mean the same thing, and so have the same truth v...

Two statements being logically equivalent is not the same as a table and a chair being equivalent (whatever "equivalent" means in this context). Logic...

We do know that they say the same thing. That's what it means for them to be logically equivalent, and their logical equivalence is entailed by the la...

I don't think so. Again, there's a difference between a mystery and a contradiction. Not being able to explain something is not the same as entailing ...

We don't need to come up with a number. It just needs to not be zero (which we know it isn't if we find one example of a Y that is a Z). The math then...

I don't think so. As I said, the interaction problem is not the only problem. Dualists are dualists because they believe that there are problems that ...

Of course the math makes sense. We don't need actual examples to work with probabilities. The numbers suffice. There is a xn chance of the hypothesis ...

Because it's just an example to make sense of the maths. The fundamental point is that each successful observation makes the hypothesis more likely, a...

But we don't know that some are white and some are brown. If we knew that some were brown then we wouldn't claim that they were all white.

We're not talking about proof. We're talking about evidence. Not all evidence is proof.

That depends on whether by "really controlling a power station" you mean it in an abstract sense like "playing chess" or if you mean it in a more conc...

Yes. But the "computer playing chess" is our abstraction of the mechanical events occurring inside the computer. So are you asking how the mechanical ...

I'm going to try some maths (dangerous!). Let's assume that we have 12 eggs and that they can be either white or brown. All other things being equal t...

The "chess program" is our abstraction of the mechanical events occurring inside the computer.

And your assumption is one that Descartes denied, being that he claimed that the mind doesn't "occur in space" but is nonetheless a cause.

What do you mean by asking why it should? Because unless the physical is defined as being whatever has causal influence on the physical (a circular an...

How is that the problem for dualism?

That's the first I've heard of this. As far as I'm aware, the term "physicalism" was adopted over "materialism" because modern physics includes things...

We all are, and we all have dinner with the Queen, say "pip pip", and never brush our teeth.

I'm the kettle. British cup 'o tea and all that. Although saying that, I'm a black coffee drinker...

Pot, kettle.

So in the trustee sense, where they "have sufficient autonomy to deliberate and act in favor of the greater common good and national interest, even if...

In the delegate or the trustee sense? And is this "should" a moral claim or are you claiming that they have a democratic duty to be this type of repre...

We're discussing Ken Clarke's claim that because he doesn't have a "democratic duty to support Labour policies" even when the majority vote for Labour...

That depends on whether we're using the trustee model of representation, where representatives "have sufficient autonomy to deliberate and act in favo...

And "being representative" in a representative democracy like ours amounts to being freely elected to a seat in Parliament. That's done-and-dusted. An...

By "doesn't even address the point" I mean that your reasons are non sequiturs – they don't address the issue that Ken Clarke raised.

See my addition. Also, it doesn't even address the point you quoted. Even in a democracy, even if all parties are democratic, and even if it's a gener...

The point is that it is strange to suggest that MPs have a democratic responsibility to support the popular opinion. A labour MP doesn't have a democr...

The interaction problem is not the only problem. There are reasons why some people reject the claim that the mind is a physical thing, with dualism so...

Interesting point raised by Ken Clarke:

Ah, my mistake.

Is "coherent" really the right word here? I don't think it's incoherent to argue that abortion is always permissible. False, perhaps, but not incohere...

He doesn't. But @"quine" explicitly said in the opening post "I am going to offer an argument against Cartesian dualism".

Then it was wrong to claim that "dualism defines mind and body not to interact one another".

Is that true by definition or is it just an empirical fact?

According to Cartesian dualism, the mind is a non-spatial thing, so we can grant quine the first premise. The problem is that Descartes claimed that t...

Only if you define spatial and non-spatial things as being unable to causally influence one another, but the dualist doesn't define them this way.

No, it defines them to be different with the mind not being a spatial thing. Your second premise isn't part of the dualist's definition(s).

Arthur Balfour

I don't think it fair to say that dualism fails because it hasn't explained how the mind and the body interact. There are a lot of things that physics...

So, my hypothesis is that all ravens are black. I predict that if I find a raven then it will be black. I look and find a black raven. Therefore, I ha...