45
votes
Accepted
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
You understand what the sentence means; therefore, it is not nonsense. We can perform all sorts of analyses to try to analyse why the sentence is meaningful (e.g. the "nose" refers both to ...
- 2,037
11
votes
Accepted
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
It is the cherry picking fallacy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherry_picking
Edit:
Thanks to gidds for pointing out the number of different names for this fallacy. Here are a few:
Cherry Picking
(...
11
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
"Fake" in "fake nose" typically means the nose is artificial (e.g. man-made and surgically inserted), not that it's not a nose.
One might go one step further and say that it ...
- 5,560
9
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
A possible counterargument is that the analytic-synthetic distinction you are using is inherently inadequate and outmoded language and thinking. For the first part, Quine in his Two Dogmas of ...
- 22.9k
6
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
By your argument a "rubber duck" is nonsense too, as is a "prosthetic leg".
Avoiding this type of pedantry/sophistry just renders human conversation too tiring to bother. Anything ...
- 161
5
votes
Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?
In Fregean terms, a phrase has both a sense and a denotation. For a phrase like "the king of England", the sense is the concept of being king of England, and the denotation is the actual man ...
- 7,580
5
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
"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 ...
- 20.5k
4
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
Wittgenstein spent a lot of time on this sort of thing. Is the word "cat" a cat. No. Is a photograph of a cat a cat? No. Is a fake nose a nose? No. But the statement "That nose is fake&...
- 1,942
4
votes
If Large Language Models can do Maths, is Formalism true?
IMO we may consider the link between math and language (maybe more... maybe math is language).
Consider a ChatGPT answering our questions. What is it doing? Is it speaking? Or it is only simulating a ...
- 36.2k
4
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
The two terms, analytic and synthetic, are two possible, mutual exclusive
properties of statements. SEP introduces the following definition:
“Analytic” sentences, such as “Pediatricians are doctors,” ...
- 24.4k
3
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
There are various ways to define "analytic" and "synthetic". Those word are generally thought to apply to propositions, but there are different ideas of what a proposition is. ...
- 7,580
3
votes
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
As you know, a fake nose is not a nose.
I disagree. You seem to conflate the definitions of "nose" and "genuine nose"; which lies at the basis for your claim, but I'd like to ...
- 1,292
3
votes
If Large Language Models can do Maths, is Formalism true?
As a constructivist brother who places as much credence in Platonic Forms as he does in the Irish tuatha da dannan or the Norwegian troll, let me dispute the premise that LLMs do math or have much in ...
- 22.9k
3
votes
If Large Language Models can do Maths, is Formalism true?
Dougherty[95] is a continuation of an examination of a topic in the theory of large cardinals (those which are critical points of elementary embeddings) that is some many years old, the abstract for ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
Is mathematics analytic or synthetic?
For the sake of the OP, I will assume that some version of the analytic/synthetic distinction is defensible. More specifically, I will assume that we can differentiate between analyzing a question ...
- 12.5k
3
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
This is a really a matter of idiom in language. Saying unround circles don't exist is just another way of saying all circles are round. It is like saying odd even numbers don't exist. The sort of ...
- 13.4k
2
votes
"Unround circles don't exist." Is it nonsense?
Welcome!
Is the sentence you offer:
All circles are not unround.
nonsense? This is a good question.
The first thing you need to understand is that language is conventional. What that means is that ...
- 22.9k
2
votes
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
There is no single strategy for dealing with fallacies. This is because there are both psychological and philosophical aspects to a debate. This online article (https://effectiviology.com/guide-to-...
2
votes
What's the name of a fallacy when a debater selectively picks facts and ignores others?
The selective use of history to explain or justify an argument could fall under multiple fallacies.
Their argument could be based on confirmation bias because they have focused a portion of history ...
- 21
2
votes
Accepted
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
This is definitely a question about existential quantification which very much is a subject of ontology. Is there a difference in these sentences?
First, note that there are two meanings of 'THERE_ARE'...
- 22.9k
2
votes
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
The verbs "to be" and "to do" are semantically overloaded with assumptions about existence.
Verbs turned into adjectives are semantically unclear: does "an X Y" mean &...
- 3,525
2
votes
Question about Differences in Existential Quantification
Inasmuch as (1) can be paraphrased as (2), and if (2) is determinately meaningful enough (the bare nod towards "objects" makes it seem like a pre-interpreted sentence, though see about ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
The relationship between logical systems and natural language semantics
You are asking if there is some sort of methodology applied to natural language that resembles that of the logician, mainly by building an abstract, symbolic system for examining the structure of ...
- 22.9k
1
vote
Why do some philosphers including Russell paraphrase this sentence?
Note that, "There is an x," can be reordered as, "An x is there," where "there" is an indexical for something like the world/reality/existence (as an atmosphere or ...
- 12.5k
1
vote
In what shape do opposites exist?
The opposite of A is necessarily not A, but not A is not necessarily the opposite of A. For example, both big and industrious are not small, but industrious is not the opposite of small.
Opposites are ...
- 13.4k
1
vote
Is "that nose is fake" nonsense?
Would you consider the part of a statue that is in the middle of the face and is meant to look like a nose and contains nostrils to be a 'real' nose, or even a nose at all? What about Frosty's '...
- 131
1
vote
Omniscience leads to necessitarianism
Let's work in a temporal logic with five tenses Pa, Pr, F, N, and Æ: "It was true that," "It is true that," "It will be true that," "It is never true that," and,...
- 12.5k
1
vote
Is there a difference between ambiguity and vagueness?
Vague and ambiguous are overlapping terms and can be used as synonyms. However, the key idea conveyed by vague, which differentiates it from ambiguous, is indistinctness. To take the example cited in ...
- 13.4k
1
vote
Accepted
Is there a difference between ambiguity and vagueness?
I am assuming that your question has a philosophical implication. Ambiguity involves two meanings. Vagueness is broader, involving several possibilities. Philosophically, do you mean deliberate ...
- 1,942
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible