Although a counter-example for the given concrete argument is difficult, one can easily create a counter-example that shows that the general reasoning is invalid. Let's postulate a brand of playing ...

Let N denote "N books are overdue". Then the first statement is N ≥ 2 The negation of “≥” is “<”, hence not( N ≥ 2 ) ≡ (N < 2) ≡ (N ≤ 1) Hence, the negation of ...

Given the text that you refer to, it looks like simple crosstalk where using a phrase ■ one person thinks that “a ■ b” means “the group a is not exactly the same as group b&...

Quoting Wikipedia, ” Carnap envisioned a universal language that could reconstruct mathematics and thereby encode physics.[9] Yet Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem showed this impossible ...

I think the distinction between discovered and invented is mostly about how one chooses to define these words. My personal definition would be that when you can reasonably assume that many other ...

You can find this discussed in introductory texts for digital electronics or low level programming. I remember reading my 3 year older sister's high school textbooks where logic was discussed. Then ...

You can make a good start on proving that reality is simulation, by doing certain physics and possibly astronomy (1)experiments that would force the simulator to expend ridiculously high resources to ...

Joe claims: "There is no proof that unicorn exist, therefore unicorns do not exist". Alice claims: "There is no proof that unicorns do not exist, therefore unicorns exist". Bob claims: "...

There can be a zillion different unknown unknowns. E.g. suddenly a giant TV set might drop from the sky. One prepares by estimating probabilities for various kinds of unknowns, and concentrating the ...

The only problem is in the use of the word “exist”. It has many meanings. Existence of a mathematical constraint on an abstract system, is not the same as physical existence in our ...

You can never be 100% sure that your memory of your thoughts or other happenings 1 second ago are true or completely accurate. For that matter the local part of the Universe might be a statistical ...

I think it's eminently possible to deal with modern mathematics while believing that infinity does not exist. Technically, if the belief had to be applied in one's mathematical considerations, then it ...

"Don't believe" can have at least two meanings other than believing the negation. First you might have no evidence, i.e. don't know: "The color of Napoleon's horse was white. Yes, No, Don't know?" ...

You ask, ” […] could an A.I. system be able to actively 'reprogram' itself and change itself in ways only 'it' could give specific definite 'justifications' for? Disregarding the like-...

Regarding the lecturer's “replacing 'guNs' with 'guMs'”, that's a fallacy. It ignores the connection between guns and outlaws, a connection that's not there for oranges or TV sets. That ...

It depends very much on what you mean by “can be reduced”. In the sense of one level being a theoretical consequence of another level, sure, chemistry is already ~100% reduced to physics: chemical ...

Re ” what kind of pathological condition (or conditions) would be more likely to appear in a population of such beings? Consider that different sub-populations of humans have different ...

Consider that you're not the same person as you were as of 4 years old. But then, you are the same person as you were 2 minutes ago. Clearly there is a gradual change involved, a history. As far as I ...

The question of whether our universe is deterministic can IMHO be rephrased as “how much does the current state of this universe constrain the state in T units of time”? If the constraint ...

Regarding ” Query 1: can it be said that a post-existential state may also exist? Assuming the question is not intended to produce meaningless debate about word definitions or within the ...

Let's consider reality. Conscription is done in many countries, including democratic ones such as Norway. Those who have decided it have all necessarily been convinced that it was morally correct to ...

One possible stance referred to by Drux is that with perfect copying none of the resulting instances are more real than the others (Parfit). This is rational and OK as far as it goes. But it's only an ...