28
votes
How can a fundamentally random process follow a probability distribution?
Nothing "keeps track" of a probability distribution other than us observers. The physical processes are whatever they are, and to us, this may manifest as observable probability ...
- 5,460
16
votes
Can one be immortal then not immortal?
I guess it depends on if we interpret "immortal" as a state or as an intrinsic property of a person.
Take Super Mario Bros. - When you get the star, you are temporarily invincible. During ...
- 4,081
16
votes
How can a fundamentally random process follow a probability distribution?
Good, you think about the difference between objects and attributes, what Hoffstader called figure and ground.
At the world's fair, I watched in amazement as rubber balls fell through a series of pegs ...
- 1,882
15
votes
How do mathematical realists explain the applicability and effectiveness of mathematics in physics?
Physics doesn't follow any rules. Physics just is. If physics stops following our rules, we don't say physics is wrong. We have to adapt our rules.
Many of the rules and patterns we discover in ...
- 2,243
14
votes
How can a fundamentally random process follow a probability distribution?
What "keeps track" of the statistics of the random process and "ensures" that its outcomes align with the probability distribution it is supposed to "obey" over the long ...
- 4,081
12
votes
How can a fundamentally random process follow a probability distribution?
What "keeps track" of the statistics of the random process and "ensures" that its outcomes align with the probability distribution it is supposed to "obey" over the long ...
- 1,292
12
votes
Does postmodern philosophy abandon the pursuit of “ultimate questions"? If so, how do people develop values without it?
I think this question carries a fundamental misunderstanding of modern (post-Hegelian) philosophy in general and (noting that I dislike this term) postmodernist philosophy in particular. So it's worth ...
- 24.1k
12
votes
How do mathematical realists explain the applicability and effectiveness of mathematics in physics?
why does the physical universe adhere to mathematical principles?
It might not. The adherence is generally understood to be the other way around. We have proposed mathematical models that adhere to ...
- 5,460
9
votes
Accepted
When choosing between competing metaphysical theories to determine which best explains the data, how can we first decide what qualifies as "the data"?
None of those make any predictions about the world, so nothing in the world counts as data and nothing ever will.
Note that this means that none of them are theories or hypotheses in the scientific ...
- 8,395
9
votes
Accepted
Is there a metaphysical view that avoids categorizing the fundamental nature of things?
You ask:
Instead of getting bogged down in debates over the categories or labels assigned to aspects of reality, why not focus on simply discovering what is real, irrespective of those labels?
All ...
- 35.5k
8
votes
When choosing between competing metaphysical theories to determine which best explains the data, how can we first decide what qualifies as "the data"?
I mostly come from a scientific rather than a philosophical perspective, but here goes.
Frame challenge: I feel like this question is backwards. One doesn't propose a theory and then ask, "What ...
- 1,092
8
votes
Inquiry Regarding Consciousness and Subjective Experience
There isn't enough description of the state in your OP to fully understand what you are describing. But in general, it sounds like dissociation. Dissociation is a named psychological condition that ...
- 17.4k
7
votes
Can the same arguments used to reject metaphysical solipsism also support accepting the existence of God?
Imagine your mother is in the room. You now leave the room. You come back to the room and see her. Solipsism has no explanation for why your mother is still there. The external world theory does. It ...
- 2,624
7
votes
Is there a metaphysical view that avoids categorizing the fundamental nature of things?
why not focus on simply discovering what is real, irrespective of those labels?
This is generally what people are doing. However, when one group of people tends to accept, for example, that "...
- 5,460
6
votes
Accepted
Is there a theorem in metaphysics that basically says, "Biting the bullet will be inevitable in any metaphysical theory?"
“Biting the bullet” means for metaphysicians to say goodbye to nearly all classical metaphysics.
In the hour of birth the term metaphysics denotes a specific
collection of Aristotle’s lectures. In ...
- 42.3k
6
votes
How can a fundamentally random process follow a probability distribution?
You answered the question yourself. You said:
What could possibly prevent a fundamentally random process from producing outcomes that exhibit no consistent pattern at all—perhaps appearing highly ...
- 2,243
6
votes
Does postmodern philosophy abandon the pursuit of “ultimate questions"? If so, how do people develop values without it?
Does postmodern philosophy abandon the pursuit of “ultimate questions"? If so, how do people develop values without it?
Absolutely. In radical forms, "ultimate questions" make no sense ...
- 35.5k
6
votes
Accepted
The universe has always existed, infinite cycles
This question actually belongs in the astronomy stax, but If you want the science answer, Yes, that model has been proposed by no less than Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner.
In 2011, he wrote a book ...
- 1,882
5
votes
When choosing between competing metaphysical theories to determine which best explains the data, how can we first decide what qualifies as "the data"?
The data are superficially the same phenomena in each of the cases you mention. For example, the observed motion of planets about the Sun. Bertrand Russel has to account for why that should have ...
- 26.3k
5
votes
Is “thing” a good category?
"In this sort of predicament, always ask yourself: How did we learn
the meaning of this word ("good", for instance)? From what sort of
examples? In what language-games? Then it will be ...
- 23.8k
5
votes
Is the principle of physical causal closure falsifiable?
In principle of course it is falsifiable: all you have to do is to identify a physical event that provably has no physical cause. The problem in practice, however, lies in proving whether a cause is ...
- 26.3k
5
votes
How can a fundamentally random process follow a probability distribution?
Random processes don't follow probability distributions; random processes have probability distributions. If we have a truly random process (however that might be defined), what we know is that events ...
- 24.1k
5
votes
Is there a metaphysical view that avoids categorizing the fundamental nature of things?
The idea of not coming up with categories and labels and so on seems extremely bizarre. Why in this analytical discipline would we not do what is done in every other such discipline? Imagine if ...
- 22.4k
5
votes
Is there a metaphysical view that avoids categorizing the fundamental nature of things?
Instead of getting bogged down in debates over the categories or labels assigned to aspects of reality, why not focus on simply discovering what is real, irrespective of those labels?
Why not indeed? ...
- 151
4
votes
When choosing between competing metaphysical theories to determine which best explains the data, how can we first decide what qualifies as "the data"?
'The data' is merely the mass of applicable recorded measurements we have to hand in a given moment. 'The data' is comprised of bare facts: events as they have presented to our perception prior to any ...
- 24.1k
4
votes
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
votes
Inquiry Regarding Consciousness and Subjective Experience
consciousness experiences life while the body is merely a tool subject to this experience?
'Fraid so, yeah.
Existentialism is the smart man's burden.
The secret I discovered all too late though, is, ...
- 1,882
4
votes
Inquiry Regarding Consciousness and Subjective Experience
I experienced something like this in my youth, and it did worry me for a long time. Ultimately, I concluded that it was caused by my observing of myself.
Once you observe yourself, you cannot BE ...
- 3,284
4
votes
When choosing between competing metaphysical theories to determine which best explains the data, how can we first decide what qualifies as "the data"?
By definition, metaphysics is in a territory beyond data. "Physics" (aka science) is the realm of data and their interpretation. Metaphysics is more about whether we ought to gather data at ...
- 3,284
4
votes
Physicalism is incompatible with cognition?
Here is what Vervaecke is saying:
Consciousness exists. It is a real part of our world, and a naturalist perspective needs to account for it, and understand it.
Consciousness is causal. It does ...
- 17.4k
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