That's true. I usually uncomfortably, awkwardly say that the hypothetical if-then statements or facts "are there" (with the quotes).. So sure, the fac...
...with a little bit of help from something else, such as one of the cycle-elements being inevitable or self-evident. ...or one of the cycle-elements ...
Banno-- No. Circular reasoning can, and often does, lead to false conclusions. Recursion gives valid conclusions. Circularity is different from recurs...
...and that cycle of explanation, when followed far enough, leads back to the conclusion that the first thing explained, which needs everything else t...
Certainly not. Two things can't provide complete explanations for eachother. I gave that example with two things because I thought it was obvious that...
I sounded a bit partisan in that most recent post, because I answered in terms of my proposed metaphysics. So let me say it more non-partisanly: 1. Me...
Yes, scientists often over-apply science. Your statement about physics is reasonable enough. But it doesn't answer the question of whether that author...
Each one is explained...partially. But a complete explanation depends on having an explanation of the facts that are your explanation. Otherwise your ...
I've been saying that no metaphysics can be proved, and so the subject can only be speculative. But metaphysicses can be compared by the standard of p...
You can explain A in terms of B, but that isn't a complete explanation of A unless you can explain B. . Each element of the cycle has the next element...
I'd said: You reply: Anything you say means something only if we both know the definitions of the words and phrases that you're using. And the meaning...
I'd said: You replied: Each item in the cycle has an explanation. So no item in the cycle is brute, by the assumed definition of "brute". Two bank-rob...
It seems to me that metaphysics is unavoidably speculative. It seems to me that no metaphysics can be proved. Couldn't any metaphysics be shored-up wi...
That cycle of explanations would be #4 in my list. It's like #1, except cyclical instead of infinite. But wouldn't it be brute? Such a system cyclical...
What I meant to say, in summary was that: Metaphysics doesn't need a brute-fact. Physics might or might not lead to a brute-fact being found. It seems...
Certainly not. There's no reason to believe in a metaphysical brute-fact. There's a metaphysics that doesn't posit a brute-fact. (I posted a discussio...
Isn't computation a human activity (or an activity of manmade devices)? But of course abstract logical facts, mathematical theorems, hypothetical rela...
Maybe, but I don't try to define existence. Existence is all over the place? By what particular definition? I agree that it's reasonable to speak of o...
I’d said: You wrote: But it isn’t just some violent people here and there, or the occasional isolated Charlie Manson. Without my going into details or...
I believe in answering any objection that is made, to a proposal that I’ve posted, such as the proposal in my initial post to this discussion-thread. ...
Depends on how you mean "eternal". In principle they're "there", timelessly, as are all hypotheticals, but they only apply in a universe, and a univer...
I'd said: — Michael Ossipoff You replied: Yes, when I said that, I didn't really feel right about saying it. It was an exaggeration, and wasn't what I...
That supposition doesn't make sense. Just as there's an "if no one in barbaric worlds reproduced", of course there's also an "if" that they do reprodu...
I hasten to clarify that, though I said that the OP had a point, I was not referring to his wish to forcibly involuntarily sterilize everyone. Forced ...
Or, looking at it evolutionarily, natural-selection makes it so that people who are born have an inclination toward life. Part of what made you was na...
Of course the OP has a point, and that should be admitted even if we don't agree with him completely. For one thing, of course life isn't all sufferin...
In line with something that Lightwave pointed out: This putative world in which there are no hypotheticals is, itself, a hypothetical alleged possibil...
In fact, I further suggest that it's undeniable. What would it mean to say that there "aren't" those statements about hypotheticals? Would such a clai...
It would be good for a brute-fact to be something undeniable, or at least something whose denial has the burden of proof. Maybe it wouldn't be called ...
When I said that Newton's law of gravity could be expressed as a relation between 2 masses' spatial coordinate positions, their mass, and the time rat...
Rich— . I’d said: . . — Michael Ossipoff . You reply: . . I’ll return to the last sentence later in this post, but, for now, regarding the above parag...
Also, wouldn't the burden of proof be on the person who claims that there could have not been self-consistent systems of interrelated hypothetical if-...
Conceivably relatively soon after death. But, of course, before long, there can't any longer be that much detail in the person's perception or experie...
If "natural" means "not man-made", then Naturalism is obviously incorrect, because there are many man-made things. If "natural" doesn't mean "man-made...
The metaphysics that I propose, in the Metaphysics & Epistemology forum, in the "A Uniquely Parsimonious and Skeptical Metaphysics" discussion-thread,...
Wayfarer-- The matter or question of the difference between the kinds of existence of material objects and abstract facts doesn't bother me, because i...
I hope you're referring to the statement "There are no abstract facts other than this one", or "The only fact is the fact that there are no other fact...
Jake-- My 2nd objection doesn't work as well as I'd at first believed it to. The fact could consist of "The only fact is the fact that there are no ot...
Uh-Oh. Seemingly. Maybe the person who originated the argument that I quoted had an answer to that. Maybe someone else has. Maybe someone here does. I...
Sure, I'd agree with that. Because of lack (impossibility?) of a consensus definition, I feel that "exist" or "real" should be accompanied by a qualif...
I’d said: — Michael Ossipoff You reply: There’s a broad if-then fact that if you drop a brick on your foot, then your foot will get hurt. …because the...
P.S.: I should emphasize that I got onto this topic justifiably from my mention of Nothing, and wanting to explain and qualify that mention. People ha...
That sounds right. Sure, an untruth such as that doesn't count among the valid abstract facts. By the way, it has been asked if there could have been ...
Reply to T Clark, continued: . Some if/then conditions and their conclusions involve easy gross ordinary observations or actions on the part of the Pr...
If T Clark already knows that he's sitting at his desk, and that the clock says it's about dinner-time, and that the sun is a bit low in the west, and...
Litewave-- I like to avoid the word "Exist", because there isn't a consensus about a metaphysical definition for it. Someone could say that any propos...
T Clark: I'd said: You reply: Elswhere in that initial post, I clarified that everything that can be said about our physical universe can be said as a...
Jake-- Yes, maybe the if/then facts consisting of the laws of physics (maybe along with some mathematical theorems and some abstract logical facts) im...
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