litewave

Still, contemporary theories are much more parsimonious than Ptolemy's and they can predict much more than Ptolemy could even imagine. They correctly ...

The correctness of the predictions of the Ptolemaic geocentric theory followed from the correspondence between the mathematical properties of the theo...

Actually, it was a simple equivalence. "Thing does not contradict itself or any other thing" = "thing is non-contradictory".

Correspondence means that if we agree to call some kind of object a square then we will call it a square and not a circle. It is also known as correct...

I think non-contradiction applies to reality very well because only non-contradictory statements can correspond to reality. In this sense, reality is ...

And why do some stories give more correct predictions than others? Well, it better be there. Not sure how they could get closer and closer to somethin...

If you think there may be balls that are not balls, fine. I will stick with thinking that there are only balls that are balls; for some reason it seem...

But why do some of these stories give correct predictions and others don't?

Identity of a thing is determined by its properties. If you say that something has and simultaneously does not have the same property you deny the ide...

Well, if a ball that is not a ball makes sense to you, I have nothing else to say.

An inconsistent aspect of the universe is nonsense. We can only speak rationally if we don't insist that such an aspect of the universe exists and we ...

I still don't see the inconsistency. If the combination of relativity and quantum theory says something like the electron is here and simultaneously t...

Because we observe it. And the physical laws that enable us to make successful predictions and technology also say that the moon moved around the eart...

That it moves around the Earth?

But even if no one sees the moon or talks about it, the moon is still there and so it has its identity.

Can you formulate the inconsistency between relativity and quantum physics? I just heard that they give infinite results in some situations, which doe...

Do you think there was no moon before any mind observed it?

Well, you can say that reality is true. After all, we also say that facts (the ways reality is) are truths, although truth is also often meant specifi...

But if such a state of affairs obtained in reality then reality would be absurd too. But I can't imagine that reality would be absurd in this way. Rea...

If you say that nature is, rather than saying that nature is and simultaneously isn't, or if you say that nature has such and such properties, rather ...

If it is nonsensical to apply the law of noncontradiction to nature then what is nature? And is there any nature at all? Because if there is, then the...

Yes, because their truth or contradiction is only apparent.

As I said, if reality contained a contradiction it would mean that something is not identical to itself - and that would be nonsense. Moreover, if you...

I claim that reality can contain no contradiction in the classical logic sense, so I don't accept a logic that allows reality to contain a classical c...

I thought you disagreed with my statement that there can be no contradiction in reality. Violation of the law of identity would be a contradiction.

Well, non-locality means there are some instantaneous correlations across space. On the surface this may seem inconsistent with the speed limit accord...

But do you mean to say that in reality there can be a thing that is not identical to itself?

What is inconsistent about non-locality?

There can be no contradiction in reality, that is, in propositions that correctly characterize reality. A genuine contradiction would amount to saying...

Time may be one of the components of the sense of a statement/proposition. But what is time? According to theory of relativity time is relative, at le...

I would say that the part "at the same time" in Wikipedia's definition of the law of non-contradiction is superfluous. "In the same sense" is enough, ...

The time slices are parts of the spacetime block. When there is an order somewhere it doesn't have to mean that the order is created by some external ...

The second law is just the way the time slices are ordered. Why would it be something outside the universe?

The second law of thermodynamics is just a rule for ordering the time slices of the block. It doesn't make time pass any more than any other rule for ...

Yes, time is a special kind of order and increase of the world's entropy is one of the characteristics of this order. Why do you think so? As far as I...

No, presentations of block universe typically assume a single direction of time, which is usually identified with the direction of increasing entropy ...

Causal relations are part of the structure of block spacetime. I think causal relations are a special kind of mathematical/logical relations in the co...

Because of causal relations between one thing and another. There is a causal imprint of the earlier thing in the later thing, so the experience of the...

I would reconcile an objective passage of time with the eternalist block time in the following way. While the subjective passage of time is a qualitat...

This idea just occurred to me a while ago but it seems that the second timeline, which would be a series of my passing "now" experiences of the eterna...

But there must also be a kind of connectedness between these mini 4D entities that enables accumulation and integration of memories that enable our ex...

Right. It appears that one's identity is a series of experiences along the time dimension that are connected in an intimate way by laws of nature but ...

Hermit-ascetic life seems to require a lot of will power.

Laws of nature are simply certain regularities in nature. Nature contains various stuff, and just as there are differences in nature, there are also r...

I actually have a general metaphysical theory in which consciousness has a natural place: https://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/1455/an-outline-of...

I don't think this is a contradiction. It's more like circular reasoning - we assume that reality is rational, in the sense that it is built on the pr...

My view is that all our actions, including our cognition and planning, are indeed ultimately completely determined by factors over which we have no co...

There is an interesting similarity between the concept of the soul that can be found in mystical/esoteric literature and quantum field theory. In myst...

We experience the world through our conscious mental representations of it and these representations reflect the world in some way, which means there ...

How so? The experience causes moral knowledge and the moral knowledge causes moral behavior. Assuming that human minds or brains are similar in a sign...