• Logical Nihilism
    @BannoQuick question:

    It looks like logical nihilism is going to hinge on the Liar. It's supposed to be violating the LONC? I haven't seen other examples.

    Am I understanding that correctly?
  • Climate change denial
    It is not necessarily caused directly by global warming.Agree-to-Disagree

    That's true. This is why they use computer models to discover anthropogenic climate change. Pointing to today's weather is not the way to convince non-believers because we're always just one volcano away from cool weather than can last a decade.

    Focus on the computer models. Not this year's weather.
  • Climate change denial
    Maybe time will tell..AmadeusD

    yep
  • A challenge to Frege on assertion
    I suspect that the difference of opinion between Leontiskos and I is that he thinks of logic as an account of how we either do, or perhaps how we ought, to think.Banno

    With that guy, I'll note that

    at time 1, he's opposed to x, while being as insulting as possible
    at time 2, he's in favor of x, while being as insulting as possible.

    There's no explanation for why he changed his mind. Something's up with dude.
  • A challenge to Frege on assertion
    So far as my previous posts on this page, I was making the point that we can talk about our utterances with greater lucidity that about our thoughts, simply because our utterances are public.Banno

    That may be true, but Frege was interested in thoughts. I think comparing and contrasting him to Wittgenstein would be a cool way to examine that.

    One of the problems here is that focusing on Frege may give the false impression that his account remains paradigmatic for modern logic. It isn't.Banno

    That's fine. Frege remains fascinating. If I found a good article comparing and contrasting Frege and Witt on the issue of the world (...the world is all that is the case) would you be interested?
  • Climate change denial
    Again I ask what motivates a person to go on like this?John McMannis

    Why not focus on the topic rather than on psychoanalysis?
  • Climate change denial
    Kuwait has been in the news recently because of the record temperature recorded from Kuwait's Mitribah weather station. A "staggering" 54°C.Agree-to-Disagree

    The last time I was in Las Vegas it was 52 C. So what?

    Global-warming/climate change (GW/CC) fanatics have gone wild claiming that Kuwait has become "almost unlivable". In truth it has nearly always been "almost unlivable".Agree-to-Disagree

    I haven't heard anyone to talking about Kuwait. :razz:
  • Climate change denial

    Why did you bring up Kuwait?
  • Climate change denial
    Both aspects of this reply are awesome.AmadeusD

    :cool:
  • A challenge to Frege on assertion

    Leontiskos is the guy who was just a few days ago forcefully insisting that Frege did not philosophize in terms of thoughts. Then he said maybe Frege did in his early years, but transitioned to something else later own. :lol:
  • AI and pictures

    The coolest results I get from using AI (I use Wonder) come from giving it an image to start with. If I wanted a three story building, I'd give it an image of a three story building and then see what it does with it. I go through lot of iterations and sometimes feed its own images back into it.
  • Climate change denial
    HIlarious he's a mod.AmadeusD

    She's not a mod anymore.
  • A challenge to Frege on assertion

    See the SEP article on states of affairs.

    "Thoughts can be the contents of propositional attitudes. When one says “There are three things that everyone who works on elementary physics believes”, one quantifies over things that everyone working in elementary physics believes: thoughts (see Chisholm 1970: 19). Thoughts are also truth-value bearers (“There are three truths that everyone who works in elementary physics believes”). How are thoughts related to states of affairs? For instance, how is the thought that Socrates is wise related to the state of affairs Socrates’ being wise?

    "Prima facie,thoughts are one thing, states of affairs another. Thoughts and states of affairs differ in their individuation and existence conditions.

    "Individuation-conditions: Thoughts are supposed to be the contents of propositional attitudes like belief and desire. Let “j” be shorthand for a propositional attitude verb (“desire”, “believe” etc). If one can j that p without eo ipso j-ing that q (and vice versa), the contents that p and that q are different. Now I can believe, for instance, that Hesperus shines without believing that Phosphorus shines. Hence, if thoughts are the contents of propositional attitudes, the thought that Hesperus shines is different from the thought that Phosphorus shines. If the thought that Hesperus shines is different from the thought that Phosphorus shines,thoughts cannot be logical complexes whose constituents are particulars and properties. Following Frege, many philosophers therefore take thoughts to be complexes that are built up out of modes of presentation. Here “thoughts” only refers to such complexes. Since there are different modes of presentation of the same particular (property), there can be different thoughts that concern or are about the same particulars and properties. In contrast, Hesperus’s shining and Phosphorus’s shining are the same state of affairs, namely the complex that contains only the planet Venus and the property of shining. We will see in section 2.4 that not all philosophers follow Frege’s lead. If one has arguments for a coarse-grained individuation of the objects of belief, states of affairs may serve as contents of propositional attitudes."

    I think that rather than worry over this issue, this thread might benefit from comparing Frege's view of the world to Wittgenstein's. Or maybe that would be a different thread. But it would more interesting to me. It's a pretty fascinating topic.
  • When can something legitimately be blamed on culture?
    In a multicultural society how much is it incumbent to teach the subgroup the dominant customs?schopenhauer1

    I live in a capitalist society, so that's something that money settles. Some rappers are billionaires, right?
  • When can something legitimately be blamed on culture?
    Can that contribute to self-fulfilling prophecy? Is that itself treating others as having less agency?schopenhauer1

    It's possible. One source of counter message is in forms of Christianity that teach having faith in yourself. They focus on how to avoid the pitfall of pity. Someone may think they're helping you with their pity when it's actually destructive.
  • When can something legitimately be blamed on culture?
    It seems to be the case this is what happens in multicultural societies or when dealing cross-culturally. If let's say a subgroup individual does X "bad" action, we say, "Oh he is a product of that culture". If the dominant culture individual does X "bad" action, we say "He made a bad decision" or at the least make it much more atomized (it's his family at the most, or his own personal background or life story, not necessarily cultural).schopenhauer1

    It would be cool if everyone could be looked at as individuals. But it's also true that some people have challenges where others have privilege, you know?
  • When can something legitimately be blamed on culture?
    For the dominant group, it is more seemingly free willedschopenhauer1

    Is it? Are they better at taking responsibility for their actions?
  • When can something legitimately be blamed on culture?

    I think you can take any behavior and analyze it out for influences from the most poignantly personal all the way out to the nature of life.

    One thing I remember from time to time is the comment from a friend who was listening to me explaining race relations. He said "You know you're just trying to understand yourself.". I was stunned, but I knew it was true.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Quite overwhelmingly, professional philosophers are in favour of abortion on demand in the first trimester.Banno

    Intellectuals advise, but they rarely govern.
  • A challenge to Frege on assertion
    The assignment of the truth-value is done by judgment,Srap Tasmaner

    If you're a realist, you wouldn't say truth is "assigned.". You would just say some propositions are true and some are false. Some have never been expressed and some probably never will be.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    But saying it has a right to live because it has human DNA isn't really any less arbirtray than saying a child has a right to live after birth, but not before.Echarmion

    So you're admitting that the dividing line is arbitrary?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?


    Alisha was slightly pregnant, slightly wrong to abort it, slightly grieved, and overjoyed to get in with her life.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Abortion is nothing like infanticide or child sacrifice.Michael

    But one of the challenges the pro-choice advocate faces is explaining the dividing line between killable and not-killable. When and how does that transition take place?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Excuses. The failure of the USA to correct the decline of its democratic institutions is a global tragedy.Banno

    But we never had a nuclear war. That's a win!
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Given that this is around sixty percent of your population, why is it that they do not have "the power"?

    Or is yours a failed democracy.
    Banno

    It takes a lot of energy to amend the Constitution. That's as it should be.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Have a look down the page from Pew Research linked above. Opposition to abortion is overwhelmingly from white evangelical protestant republican conservatives.Banno

    They gang together, yes. That's how democracy works. An issue is powerful to the extent it gets people to put aside their differences and join forces. Republicans have been pretty good at that for several decades. These days, not so much.

    The issue is now decided at the state level. After years of supporting Roe V Wade, I finally came around to realizing that was the wrong way to do it. When pro-choice people have enough power to create an amendment, then it will be a federal issue. Maybe in a couple of generations.


    There are plenty of cysts in the female reproductive system. A fetus is just another one of those. And if a cyst doesn’t resolve on its own, we remove them. That’s just rationality at work.NOS4A2

    I think there might be a cyst in your skull. :razz:
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Seriously? So you have given up on rationality.Banno

    Rationality is a matter of fashion.

    See you on the ramparts.Banno

    Do you even own a weapon of any kind?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    They think it is immoral, but their justification for that is shite.Banno

    You can't even justify believing 2+2=4. That doesn't diminish your civil rights.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    What they think their invisible friend says is no justification for forcing their view on others.Banno

    They think it's immoral. The reason that matters is a little thing called democracy.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Tough. What folk think their invisible friend says is no basis for moral choice.Banno

    The honorable response to a person who claims crimes are happening is to listen to them, understand what they're saying, and respond with your own viewpoint. It's dishonorable and morally repugnant to suggest that they don't have a right to their feelings. Treat them the way you'd like to be treated if you had a grievance and you wanted to be heard.

    You seem to be having trouble with the fact that the foetus develops over time.Banno

    I've studied fetal development to moderate depth. I'll never forget the mind-bender of realizing how closely the early development of an animal resembles plant reproduction. The womb is a seed pod.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Go over it again, if you will. "Murder" is a legal term. Folk who think abortion is murder, despite it not being so on the state legal code, perhaps might defend their view by appeal to the supposed laws of their invisible friends. They call it murder because their invisible friend says so.Banno

    This argument is actually offensive, and you're usually a fair-minded person, so I'll chalk it up to lost in translation.

    And by the time a heart develops, we are no longer looking at a cyst. Yet we are still not looking at a person.Banno

    Ok, so stop calling it a cyst, because the fetuses that are aborted look like little humans.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    Your terminology is muddled here, but it seems you are intent only on being a bit of a dick, so I'll leave you to it.Banno

    Not at all. I was just explaining what my fellow citizens see as a moral fault.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    I don't. You raised "heart", not me.Banno

    Point was it's a cyst with a beating heart.

    They" think it against god's law, perhaps.Banno

    They think it's murder.
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?
    It is safe, simple and low-risk when done under 12 weeks of pregnancy.

    I guess things have changed, but the heart starts beating at 5 weeks, around the time a woman would notice she's pregnant, so most fetuses that are aborted have a beating heart.

    Why do you care about the heart, though? Does that give you pause?

    Abortion is not murder if it is legal.Banno

    That's a sketchy way to look at it. They think it's a wrongful killing. Does that help you understand?
  • Site Rules Amendment Regarding ChatGPT and Sourcing
    To be fair, the thread didn't fully shift to the criterion of quality until frank posted.)Leontiskos

    Excuse me?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?

    It has a beating heart when they do the abortion. They don't like to do them before 12 weeks.

    Murder is unlawful killing. It's not murder if abortion is legal.Banno

    Slavery is ok if it's legal?
  • Abortion - Why are people pro life?

    It's a cyst with a beating heart. They just think it's murder. It's no more complex than that.
  • Climate change denial
    Then why would he so triumphantly post about air conditioning sales going down?unenlightened

    I don't know. I think he was saying that increased air conditioning doesn't account for their population increase.

    This is true of temperate zones, but near the equator heat itself is a big problemunenlightened

    Yes. It's hot at the equator.
  • Israel killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank
    You're my favorite troll.BitconnectCarlos

    That's what I was going for, thanks!