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Michael

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Sure, but according to the metaphysical realist the truth is independent of any kind of falsification or verification, and so even if something like b...
September 07, 2023 at 23:03
Yeah, we would experience fabricated evidence that either brains in a vat are possible or aren’t. The point is that we can’t know whether or not what ...
September 07, 2023 at 22:51
How does it show that you’re in 2 and not 4?
September 07, 2023 at 21:32
These are the logically possible scenarios: 1. We are not brains in a vat and the evidence suggests that brains in a vat are physically possible 2. We...
September 07, 2023 at 20:13
No, because he’s not addressing the argument that we are brains in a vat.
September 06, 2023 at 21:35
If we are brains in a vat then us being a brain in a vat isn't a physical impossibility, even if our fabricated world suggests otherwise. To use the w...
September 06, 2023 at 13:12
That seems to be what our study of human biology shows. Much like with the case of phantom limb syndrome, the human brain is able to make it seem as i...
September 05, 2023 at 19:29
Exactly. I am a brain in a vat iff “I am a brain in a vat” is true (Tarski’s T-schema). “I am a brain in a vat” is only true if such a sentence refers...
September 05, 2023 at 17:35
I don't see a problem with it. I think experience happens in the brain, albeit usually as a response from stimulation by signals sent from the rest of...
September 05, 2023 at 10:27
Much like with Tarski's theory of truth, to make sense of this we need a meta language and an object language. The meta language is the language of th...
September 05, 2023 at 08:00
I certainly think it’s logically possible, and so if semantic externalism entails that it isn’t logically possible then semantic externalism is false....
September 05, 2023 at 07:52
I was being overly simplistic. It’s not just vision that’s being fabricated but all the senses. You don’t really seem to be addressing the actual hypo...
September 04, 2023 at 21:45
Sure, in that case he can refer to light and shapes and colours just as we can. But he can’t refer to trees and brains or truthfully claim that the th...
September 04, 2023 at 19:25
Not necessarily. You’ve been arguing that we might be brains in a vat despite the fact that we’re not aware that we are. Even awake, the brain and/or ...
September 04, 2023 at 19:13
No need for a headset. Just shoot beams of light into the eyes in various shapes and patterns and colours that generate the image of a tree.
September 04, 2023 at 18:51
Sure. The point is that its experiences are elicited artificially by a computer directly manipulating the sense organs. It never sees a tree or a brai...
September 04, 2023 at 18:33
It entails it. No sentence in the brain’s language can refer to the fact that it is a brain in a vat.
September 04, 2023 at 18:27
It’s a real tree given what “real tree” means in my language. The point still stands that if semantic externalism is true then none of the words in th...
September 04, 2023 at 18:11
If you prefer, consider instead a body in a vat. It’s the same principle. This person never sees trees, only “hallucinations”, but if the causal theor...
September 04, 2023 at 17:59
Given the causal theory of reference, the word “A” can only refer to some object B if that objects stands in a particular causal relationship to the w...
September 04, 2023 at 17:50
He starts by defending semantic externalism, then by trying to show that if semantic externalism is true then we cannot be brains in a vat, and so con...
September 04, 2023 at 17:30
His paper is an attempt to show that if semantic externalism is true then we cannot be brains in a vat, so it doesn’t make sense to claim that it’s qu...
September 04, 2023 at 17:21
What specifically is question-begging? The argument as I understand it is: 1. If metaphysical realism is true then we could be brains in a vat 2. If s...
September 04, 2023 at 17:15
Semantic externalism is a consequence of the causal theory of reference. Words can only refer to things if these things have had some relevant causal ...
September 04, 2023 at 12:29
It's been a bad couple of days for Trump. Prosecutors: Trump Mar-a-Lago security aide flipped after changing lawyers Georgia’s fake electors acted at ...
August 23, 2023 at 07:56
The purpose of the Gettier problem is to show the limitation of the traditional JTB definition of knowledge. If you define knowledge as something like...
August 19, 2023 at 22:42
It's not clear. Ass'n of Am. Physicians Surgeons v. Clinton, 997 F.2d 898 (D.C. Cir. 1993) Although the Court didn't outright say that it is allowed, ...
August 15, 2023 at 16:18
The wording suggests that they can be employed as volunteers just not as paid employees. If section b meant they can't be employed under any circumsta...
August 15, 2023 at 15:27
That statute only says that they can't be paid for the work, and I believe they weren't.
August 15, 2023 at 15:00
Not exactly. This case information file was posted and then removed. It seems to be an error given that the case number on it (23SC188945) is apparent...
August 15, 2023 at 14:13
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/23909543/23sc188947-criminal-indictment.pdf
August 15, 2023 at 10:29
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-lawyers-challenge-limits-evidence-sharing-prosecutors-warn-threats-2023-08-11/ That's a lot of evidence. I don’...
August 11, 2023 at 16:57
Meaning he only broke the law a little? Or that the laws he broke shouldn’t be laws at all? Either way it isn't a fallacy to appeal to the law when di...
August 09, 2023 at 18:03
It's a fallacy to appeal to the law when arguing over whether or not someone broke the law? What are you smoking?
August 09, 2023 at 17:14
I was being sarcastic as a passive-aggressive jab at NOS4A2's defence of Trump.
August 08, 2023 at 19:03
Only a confession by the accused counts as evidence of a crime.
August 08, 2023 at 11:40
That you know of. They know more than you. They believe they have evidence, hence the indictment.
August 04, 2023 at 23:17
That's precisely what the prosecution will try to do in court. They believe they have the evidence to do so, hence the indictment. You seem to be sugg...
August 04, 2023 at 20:06
How is it a simulation of the creator of the universe?
August 04, 2023 at 17:26
Not sure what you mean by "a creator" here. It certainly can't mean "the creator of the universe".
August 04, 2023 at 12:59
I'm not going to quote all 45 pages for you. Read it yourself. The above was simply an example of them having evidence of a criminal conspiracy of whi...
August 03, 2023 at 16:17
They're not criminalising his beliefs and legal counsel. His conspiracy to use fraudulent electors is a crime: Some of the evidence is described in th...
August 03, 2023 at 16:08
Are you saying that he didn't do these things or that these things aren't crimes?
August 03, 2023 at 15:52
These are the actual laws he's alleged to have broken: 18 U.S. Code § 371 - Conspiracy to defraud the United States 18 U.S. Code § 1512(k) - Conspirac...
August 03, 2023 at 12:42
You do not know that Relativist does not know that Trump knowingly made false claims. You know you don't know because you in fact cannot read minds.
August 03, 2023 at 09:19
What does this mean? That he didn’t commit the crimes he’s been indicted for or that the criminal statutes cited in the indictment don’t exist?
August 02, 2023 at 16:48
Indictment Conspiracy to Defraud the United States Conspiracy to Obstruct an Official Proceeding Obstruction of and Attempt to Obstruct an Official Pr...
August 01, 2023 at 21:45
Whereas https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/15/us/politics/trump-indictment-justice-department.html Such a hypocrite.
July 28, 2023 at 17:02
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/special-counsels-target-letter-trump-2020-election-probe-cites-three-f-rcna95096
July 19, 2023 at 17:44