New answers tagged definitions
3
votes
The coherence of physicalism: are there any solutions to Hempel's dilemma?
The rejoinder, "But other notions are difficult to analyze, yet we 'know them when we see them' regardless," doesn't seem entirely appropriate to this case. The analysis of the concept of ...
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5
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The coherence of physicalism: are there any solutions to Hempel's dilemma?
For people who reject the non-physical (i.e. physicalists), Hempel’s dilemma might not be a dilemma at all, and it's arguably shifting the burden of proof onto physicalists to define something they ...
- 13.6k
3
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The coherence of physicalism: are there any solutions to Hempel's dilemma?
With the same reasoning we can say that the idea of fish is false.
Our current understanding of fish is incomplete. There are many species still unknown to science. So until we have a full catalogue ...
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4
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The coherence of physicalism: are there any solutions to Hempel's dilemma?
You present the following as a creating a dilemma:
in that case we have no way to know in advance what such an idealized notion of physics will actually look like
One way out of the issue is to deny ...
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1
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
Short Answer
There basically is a consensus among philosophers of science and epistemology that physicalism cannot be defined in a way that satisfies your four criteria. This consensus has a name, ...
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3
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What was Cantor's philosophical reason for accepting the infinite but rejecting the infinitesimal?
The answer is laid out clearly in Cantor's 1890 letter to Veronese. In an earlier letter, Veronese had quoted Otto Stolz to the effect
that Cantor's results have no bearing on Stolz's infinitesimals, ...
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-1
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
Since quantum mechanics is arguably the most successful theory in physics, I think it should be central in an attempt to define the physical.
The wavefunction of a particle represents all possible ...
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2
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
The problem is that there are several working definitions of what physics is.
Like "Physics", the word, is apparently Greek for "Nature", so everything that is in the realm of ...
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1
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
What is the definition of physical?
Aristotle took the natural world to be what constitutes physical phenomena. To that we can also throw in the ontologies described by theories that take that as ...
- 48.8k
2
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
According to Merriam-Webster's dictionary the word physical means
of or relating to natural science
having material existence:
perceptible especially through the senses and subject to the laws of
...
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0
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
I think this is more cultural (political) than objectively scientific. This narrow-mindedness, disinterest in big literature, big poetry, big music, big questions - is a hallmark of our time. 99% of ...
2
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
As a partial list, here are a few different things, which may or may not exist, and which may or may not consist of the same fundamental things:
The place where all the things are that we can ...
- 13.6k
4
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What is the definition of physical? Is that definition clear enough to make a distinction between physical and non-physical?
The best definition is that which Kant applies in his works: physical (empirical) knowledge corresponds to that which originate from the senses, and metaphysical (rational) is what does not originate ...
- 8,100
4
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Is attempting to define positive properties a self-defeating exercise?
The fact that positive and negative properties are dual to each other does appear to imply that it fundamentally relies on negation (if only implicitly).
Take a triangle as an example:
Positive ...
- 4,081
3
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Is attempting to define positive properties a self-defeating exercise?
It is difficult to imagine something more fundamental that negation, something that we can use to define negation in a non-circular way.
Since Aristotle: "Falsehood consists of saying that what ...
- 41.1k
5
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How strong is this logical argument (de-extinction)?
By an astonishing coincidence your perplexing question was posted just as I was participating in a seance conducted by an exceptionally gifted and sensitive medium who had engaged in conversation the ...
- 26.3k
3
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Accepted
How strong is this logical argument (de-extinction)?
The logic of the argument is strong:
Extinction means "cannot be brought back".
De-extinction means "brought back from extinction".
Which means "brought back from where it ...
- 13.1k
5
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How strong is this logical argument (de-extinction)?
Your premise is simply wrong. The definition of extinct is "no longer in existence".
In the case your premise were correct, which it isn't, one could also appeal to a status quo fallacy, ...
- 2,323
3
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How strong is this logical argument (de-extinction)?
The argument is unsound.
The conclusion does not follow from the stated premise.
Even assuming the premise were true ("Extinction, by definition, means "cannot be brought back"), that ...
- 5,588
0
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Is philosophy more than just weird/esoteric "word games"?
When we get to the final answer to the composition of fundamental reality...
... our methods of determining it is the final answer, are going to be philosophical.
Not confirmation by experimentation, ...
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3
votes
Accepted
Is philosophy more than just weird/esoteric "word games"?
I think what you're talking about is a pluralism of normativity evaluations of philosophical methods - the question of "What makes good philosophy?"
Before I do anything else, it's important ...
- 5,990
2
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Is philosophy more than just weird/esoteric "word games"?
What is a Game?
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory/
Game theory is the study of the ways in which interacting choices of economic agents produce outcomes with respect to the preferences (...
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2
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Is philosophy more than just weird/esoteric "word games"?
I'm going to avoid philosophical language and just throw this out, ordinary-language style…
First, everyone has a philosophy. This is non-controversial in the same sense we can say that everyone has ...
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2
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Is philosophy more than just weird/esoteric "word games"?
OP: "is methodological pluralism, in metaphilosophy, self-defeating in that it would mean interpreting philosophy as mostly "just word games"?"
Some games are better than others. ...
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-1
votes
Connections between Stokes' Theorem, information theory, and the definition of life/Intelligence
HOW IN GOD'S NAME DID YOU DERIVE THE EQUATION ACTION - PERCEPTION = REASONING?!
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2
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What is political bias?
Media bias is a tendency to present one set of viewpoints more often and/or more strongly than other viewpoints.
For media outlets, I see at least three types of bias:
Coverage bias: The choice of ...
- 4,081
0
votes
Loops in logic and reasoning of TIME
how do you measure time - by measuring something which is changing
Correct.
time is a measure of rate of change
Incorrect. This implies that time doesn't pass unless you can measure it.
It's like ...
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