What are your thoughts? — elucid
Touching is by many considered an object coming into contact with another, which perhaps requires the objects occupying the same space. — elucid
Quite. There is a misguided tendency to take physics way outside of its purview.
Actually, if there is strong emergence, it's counterproductive to try to define touch in terms of EM fields, but the question of emergence is an open one. — Count Timothy von Icarus
This is an example where the understanding wrought by the linguistic turn seems to backfire. "Take language the way it is commonly used," is all well and good advice in some cases, but it missteps when it assumes that people don't ever think about metaphysics in their day to day lives. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Pragmatics has to do with how the question is being asked. But sometimes we ask things from a purely speculative place — Count Timothy von Icarus
Oh for sure. But when someone say's "does touch really exist," I assume they mean: "from the standpoint of fundemental physics or metaphysics," simply because the question is silly in any other context.
This is an example where the understanding wrought by the linguistic turn seems to backfire. "Take language the way it is commonly used," is all well and good advice in some cases, but it missteps when it assumes that people don't ever think about metaphysics in their day to day lives. This just doesn't seem to be the case. Books on this sort of thing wouldn't sell millions of copies and churches wouldn't be packed each weekend if these sorts of questions only interested a few egg heads. In our ordinary, everyday lives we still sometimes ask deep metaphysical questions of this sort. — Count Timothy von Icarus
As opposed to how well philosophy doing right now at being relevant? Every time I go into a book store I check out the philosophy section and it invariably is tiny and has just a few copies of books by the same 4-6 authors. Philosophy has become so scared of error that it's afraid to be relevant. Sometimes I even think the arcane vocabulary becomes a hiding mechanism. — Count Timothy von Icarus
Why would touching be considered impossible? Touching is by many considered an object coming into contact with another, which perhaps requires the objects occupying the same space. And occupying the same space is considered impossible by nearly everyone. — elucid
Why would touching be considered impossible? — elucid
sounds illogical.which perhaps requires the objects occupying the same space. And occupying the same space is considered impossible by nearly everyone. — elucid
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