Holy crap! -- and discussion question

Jan 03, 2005 20:46

I'm going to break the tone here ( Read more... )

whitney wood, truth, metaphysics, collaboration

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anonymous January 4 2005, 05:57:23 UTC
"Define truth."

Meow.

"Now consider other possible definitions of the truth."

Coco-ri-co, co co ri co, cocorico!

"What are your objections to these, if any?"

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..................!

"I'm asking because I'm interested in solidifying my metaphysics so I can move on to solving other things."

Like... crawling? Maybe sucking in your drool? (But drool, at least, is clear and warm, and very rarely lies!)

"My intention was to solve all metaphysical problems"

And become the acknowledged emperor of Antarctica while you're at it?

Read the Philosophical Investigations.

"at least with something good enough as a temporary solution, quickly, so that I could get on to moral and political problems."

Religion tends to work. It also makes it very easy to justify your beliefs, and (if you're like Dubya) offers endless confidence and righteousness no matter how you're fucking up.

Why do you need a metaphysics before an ethics? To justify your ethics?

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Ego explosion paulhope January 4 2005, 06:47:27 UTC
"And become the acknowledged emperor of Antarctica while you're at it?"

Ahhh...too bad I have only one life to give for my megalomania. But I'll add it to the list.

"Read the Philosophical Investigations."

Check, mostly. I don't think big Witty really pulled it off though. I've got to bounce some ideas of Whitney and some others, but I'm pretty sure that you can't just claim that all metaphysical problems are actually just linguistic screw-ups, since (a) languages are flexible, (b) There's enough evidence against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis to suggest that it's possible to have concepts that are not strictly tied to language, which allows for the possibility of an ineffable skepticism that's just as unsatisfying as a louder one. Do you disagree with my interpretation or reasoning?

"Religion tends to work. It also makes it very easy to justify your beliefs, and (if you're like Dubya) offers endless confidence and righteousness no matter how you're fucking up."Yeah, I was hoping to do a little better than religion. Religion ( ... )

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