All very well, but consciousness is the thing that screws everyone up - it's one thing to have a universe ticking over with events throughout matter, then it gets to the biological point of matter, and then we as 'beings' perceive things, ticking over.Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 7:02 pmI'm not saying anything like "time and space aren't real," or "time and space aren't objective" etc.Sculptor wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 6:10 pmI think you are going to have to.Terrapin Station wrote: ↑Mon Feb 01, 2021 3:52 pm
I'm not saying anything technical about the word "thing."eh?Think of "thing" as functioning like a variable or just being a "whatever."So you are a closet Kantian.Time and space aren't things in themselves.So what is a thing?Time is motion or change of matter. Space is the extension of and the extensional relations of matter.
Re politics, or any sort of abstract like that, it's a set of mental content (of course about particular behavior)--that is, a (sub)set of brain states. In this regard, I'm a nominalist. There are no objective abstracts. Abstraction refers to a manner of thinking about things (thinking being a subset of brain states).
I'm saying that time is the motion/change of matter--or more broadly, it's processes or dynamicism in general, which is very real and objective. And space is the extension of and extensional relations of matter, which is also very real and objective.
Re "thing," I have no interest in building a technical definition of that term. We can just use "existent" or "that which obtains" or whatever, so that there are no restrictions on the sort of existent that we're referring to. Time and space exist as above--as motion/change and as extension/extensional relations.
Of course, it's no problem to an atheist such as Sculptor. Perhaps it's no big deal to an average theist.
It gets interesting when one thinks in terms of rearranging atoms and whatever is required to sub-atomically replicate YOU.
Strange that 'matter' when arranged a certain way...can then PERCEIVE a sensation. Scratch the back of your hand - how UNIQUE in the ENTIRE universe is that?
What do we then have if we replicate all the matter that makes U? U in two places in spacetime? Nah.
This matter arranged in a certain way that then perceives a sensation - indeed has UNIQUE consciousness (to it) is rather amazing.
To me, it's akin to a pointer in a computer program - sort of - recursing a pointer (your soul) through matter (your body) - reincarnating YOU through time.