Philosophy Now Forum

An object only exists as an ontological object or a thing because we gave a name to its particular properties. That's an odd way of looking at it, you may be right, but personally, I think objects don't give a monkeys whether we name their properties and are content to exist entirely independently ...

surreptitious57 wrote:
http://www.rationalskepticism.org/post2 ... l#p2375363

You should get a job running about linking all of the forums together.

Our culture or society is not a static house with foundations, but an ever changing and evolving thing. Pretending the a word means the same thing today as it did in the past, or the same as it ought to in the future is a complete misunderstanding of both words and culture. Continue to worship anni...

Obvious Leo wrote:So Dubious thinks logic is irrelevant to science and mick thinks that making a distinction between what's real and what isn't real is irrelevant to science.

That does seem to kind of sum it up, doesn't it.

The social promotion of scientists keeps the religiousity and dogmatic propaganda going. I haven't noticed any of this propagandizing of scientists going on. I hear much more of the media in their constant advertising of sports, politicians, pop and film stars, etc. Science is occasionally mentione...

Well constructed definitions are a crucial part of language, yet such construction is stationed quite low on the totem pole of educational priorities. When one loses the language, one loses the society. You are speaking as a mathematician. Natural language, English for instance, is much more contex...

I disagree with that. I grant you that as a scientist, one can only say what appears to happen, having no certainty of what is. But logic and laguage come to the rescue when something like a field is defined as a region wherein a specific thing happens. The field becomes the ontological element. Fo...

The affectance field is an ontological element (a "stuff"), in the same way you think of an electromagnetic field (which happens to be made of the affectance field). Then you don't understand the point I am making, it is precisely that, for the purposes of physics, an electromagnetic fiel...

Oh, and I can guarantee you consciousness has not always existed, as it requires a semblance of a brain, and that did not exist in the earliest times of this universe, as the elements hadn't been formed past the first 25, and required much more time to form. Unless you're going to tell me I'm wrong...

Are you saying that consciousness has nothing to do with existence, even though existence is the prerequisite for it? If not, what was the purpose of you posting that one definition? Which "one definition"? The one of "Consciousness"? Consciousness is one of the many by products...

The powerful define, and it is our duty to ensure the definition is reviewed. I'm well aware of newspeak, and call them on it. But we can't allow fear of possible language abuse from keeping us moving in a positive, constructive direction. One does that by remembering, documenting, where you were s...

They have and should change with updates in knowledge. Hellaciously unethical and nihilistic, destroying knowledge. Did you just yell blasphemy at me!? Really!? Lol! Okay, your holiness. :roll: Reviewing definition is not skewing or destructive. Rather, it is instructive for the reviewer, and const...

Dalek Prime wrote: They have and should change with updates in knowledge.

Hellaciously unethical and nihilistic, destroying knowledge.

Aside from that, a dictionary definition can and should change as views change, and should not be used to corral thinking, and limit it. NO!! Dictionaries should NEVER change the meaning of already defined words (although perhaps greately improve how they describe that meaning), but rather come up ...

Harbal wrote:

JSS wrote:Throughout all of your posts, you give the very serious impression that you actually know nothing at all

That's because I do know almost nothing but that doesn't mean I can't tell when someone else is talking nonesense.

Yes it does. And that is one of those things you don't know.