More than a dozen staff members at the influential conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation are leaving the organization to join a group founded by former Vice President Mike Pence.

The mass departure follows turmoil within Heritage and the larger conservative movement over the role of right-wing influencers who've promoted antisemitic and other extremist ideas. Those tensions were on display at Heritage after its president, Kevin Roberts, released a video defending Tucker Carlson for a friendly interview in October with Nick Fuentes, an avowed white nationalist who has previously praised Adolf Hitler. — NPR

We talk as if there were an apple. That's just one of the many games we play with words. And that's related to the counts as... stuff from Searle; we just do talk about apples in this way, like we talk about property and credit, none of which are things in the way the apple in the fruit bowl is. — Banno

As was noted in §2.1.2, for the concretist, there is no special property of the actual world — actuality — that distinguishes it, in any absolute sense, from all of the others; it is simply the world that we inhabit. For abstractionists, however, actuality is a special property that distinguishes exactly one possible world from all others — the actual world is the only world that happens to obtain; it is the one and only way things could be that is the way things as a whole, in fact, are. However, for most abstractionists, the distinctiveness of the actual world does not lie simply in its actuality but in its ontological comprehensiveness: the actual world encompasses all that there is. In a word: most abstractionists are actualists. — 2.2.3 Actuality and Actualism

Russell took over from Moore the conception of propositions as mind-independent complexes; a true proposition was then simply identified by Russell with a fact (cf. MTCA, 75-76). — SEP

The only thing that Trump can reach is the destruction of US image and standing in the World — ssu

I can't imagine why you say truthmaker theory of truth is not a theory of truth. It's classified as such in the literature. — Relativist

You're right. I'll stick with the specific theory I embrace: truthmaker theory. Truthmaker theory is a correspondence theory, but it includes some deflationary truths (specifically: truths about mere possibilities). But overall, it's not deflationary. — Relativist

For the read-through, I think we are up to 2.2.3 Actuality and Actualism. — Banno

Me — Ecurb

So full on MAGA, — Punshhh

Yes, one must be selective about the stripe of pseudo-intellectual moralism one chooses to associate with. — Joshs

One last word on intensionality for Abstractionism, concerning that paragraph about methodology.

We saw earlier how speaking roughly, the intension of π is the rule that tells you what π’s truth-value would be in every possible world. At issue now is, which is to be master?

The concretist starts with worlds as given (from AW1) and treats intensions as derivative: once we have worlds, an intension is just a way of tracking truth across them.

The abstractionist reverses the order. Intensionality, understood as truth-at-a-world, is taken as basic, and possible worlds are introduced as whatever is needed to make sense of modal variation.

My own intuition is that the disagreement is not about whether worlds or intensions exist; it’s about which we take as explanatorily primary. Seen this way, the two positions, concrete and abstract, are complementary rather than contradictory: they are different “perspectives” on the same metaphysical landscape. That it's more a difference about how we say it than about what is being said. — Banno

It will be important to rebuild the alliance in the future for the troubling times ahead — Punshhh

Or maybe I did not understand you well and you mean with 'we're going our separate ways now' not you and me in this discussion, but the US and EU. Well, if it is the last part, I think we are in agreement. Not that I like it as an EU citizen, not at all, but it may be where history takes both blocks. — Tobias

Even so, the structural circumstances had changed, surely they were aware of that? — Punshhh

Well I don’t know who thought America was going to be able to pull back and leave Europe to take up here previous role following the war. — Punshhh

You say we’re going our separate ways, I don’t see it, Trump is an anomaly. — Punshhh

My own intuition is that the disagreement is not about whether worlds or intensions exist; it’s about which we take as explanatorily primary. Seen this way, the two positions, concrete and abstract, are complementary rather than contradictory: they are different “perspectives” on the same metaphysical landscape. That it's more a difference about how we say it than about what is being said. — Banno

The Mongols conquered Russia, Poland, and much of Hungary by the 1240s. They were noted for their respect for indigenous religions -- many became Christians, Moslems and Buddhists — Ecurb

These and other heresies were eventually quashed, sometimes violently, but perhaps the fact that Chrisianity was so malleable to suit tastes contributed
to its spread. — Ciceronianus

I think I've been honest in describing what I think contributed to its success. I think there's significant evidence in support of my position. It's clear many found the new religion attractive, but I don't think that in itself accounts for its spread and dominion. — Ciceronianus

I'm not going back for Meta, who will double down and object to whatever is suggested. — Banno

So I think we move on? — Banno

This cannot be correct. If each possible world is separate from every other, in an absolute sense, then there would be no point to considering them, as they'd be completely irrelevant. — Metaphysician Undercover

The era of the the European colonial wars was a different one from the Vietnam er — Tobias

do what to get my head around the section Irreducible Modality and Intensional Entities, and I don't think the material there especially deep. But finding the right words will take time. — Banno

Maybe "number of posts" is indexical. — Banno