• Michael Ossipoff
    1.7k

    "A supposed "state-of-affairs" that doesn't obtain isn't a state of affairs." — Michael Ossipoff

    Nonsense; people often refer to imagined scenarios (states of affairs).
    Janus

    ...if you think that an imagined "state of affairs" is a state of affairs.

    Your fallacy results from your calling it a "state of affairs" when it's only something imagined, and not necessarily a state-of-affairs.

    An "imagined 'state-of-affairs' " is a proposition, but it isn't necessarily a state of affairs.

    Michael Ossipoff
  • Janus
    15.5k


    Whenever anyone predicts anything about what the future is going to be like they are imagining states of affairs which may or may not come to be. When you wonder what really happened in the past and hypothesize that certain events occurred, you are imagining states of affairs which may or may not have happened. If you think you have discovered that an event you thought happened in the past did not in fact happen, then you don't usually conclude that what you thought was an event that you believed had happened now no longer qualifies as an event, but rather that it turned out to be an imagined, as opposed to a real, event.

    That is the common way to think about what states of affairs or events are, and I can't see any good reason to reject that way of thinking. Certainly no one here has come up with a good reason for saying that people cannot actually imagine past or future events unless the events had happened, or will happen, respectively.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k
    There are imagined events and there are actual events; they both involve concatenations of things, people, processes and/ or relations.Janus

    All imagined 'events' are linked together by thought and belief. All imagined events consist entirely of thought and belief. They are no where else to be found. There are three kinds of imagined 'events'. They include 1.thought and belief about what has already happened, 2.thought and belief about what is currently happening, and 3.thought and belief about what has not yet happened.

    Imagined 'events' about what has already happened and/or is happening can be true/false. 'Actual' events cannot. Rather it is precisely the 'actual' events that render imagined 'events' true/false.

    Imagined 'events' about what has not happened include all of the false imagined 'events' about what has happened(they are false because they did not happen), all of the false imagined 'events' about what is happening(they are false because they are not happening), and all thought and belief about what has not yet happened - all imagined future 'events' - regardless of whether or not they become true/false by virtue of happening or not.

    So, here we have arrived at a group of imagined 'events' that have not happened. This group includes all false imagined events and all imagined future events which have yet to have been determined as either.

    If all facts are states of affairs, and all states of affairs are results of actual events, and only the actual is real, then it only follows that there are no such thing as real or actual future states of affairs.

    So, perhaps it is here, in this context, that a proposition about future states of affairs(imagined 'states of affairs' and/or 'events') can obtain the status of actual events/states of affairs(fact)?

    This notion of facts 'obtaining' could be a means of distinguishing between imagined states of affairs that are false as a result of not happening and imagined states of affairs that aren't able to be true or false as a result of not happening.

    Piddling.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k
    So, here we have arrived at a group of imagined 'events' that have not happened. This group includes all false imagined events and all imagined future events which have yet to have been determined as either.creativesoul

    Utterances of hought and belief about what has not happened cannot be true at the time of utterance.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k
    Events that never took place are described by false propositions.

    Events that have yet to have taken place are described by prediction.

    Both consist entirely of thought and belief. Both are about what has not happened. There is no other kind of belief about what has not happened.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k
    Hamlet is an account of events that never took place and of people that never existed. Hamlet exists only in the form of meaningful language. Statements about Hamlet are statements about imaginary events and people. Imaginary events and people are existentially dependent upon the imagination and language use. Statements about Hamlet are true if and only if they correspond to the story of Hamlet(the imaginary account).

    We can say true things about Hamlet, even though Hamlet consists of imaginary events and people. That is solely as a result of the fact that we're offering an account of Hamlet and in doing so the only standard for truth is correspondence with/to the story itself. The story itself is the result of actual events. In saying true things about Hamlet, we're not saying true things about what has not happened. We're saying true things about what has. The writing of Hamlet has happened.
  • Janus
    15.5k


    Again, yes what you have said is piddling (strange your habit of commenting on your own work), and nothing to do with your claim that imagined events that do not obtain do not qualify as events. You even use the term " imagined event" which shows your self-contradiction.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k


    Adopting a framework as a means for contemplating it's utility is not self-contradiction.

    Piddling includes adopting foolish frameworks, and dealing with foolish people.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k
    Talk about fiction is not talk about what has not happened.
  • Janus
    15.5k


    In what way does referring to events that are either fictional and therefore don't happen, or hypothetical and therefore may or may not happen, or have happened, as 'events' lack utility?
    Straight answer for once instead of the endless evasion and irrelevant bullshit assertions.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k


    You're making this all a bit too fun for me. Take as much rope as you need.
  • creativesoul
    11.5k
    n what way does referring to events that are either fictional and therefore don't happen, or hypothetical and therefore may or may not happen, or have happened, as 'events' lack utility?Janus

    Fiction, falsehood, and prediction all consist entirely of thought and belief about what has not happened.

    Events do not.
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