Hehehe, yup, science have made metaphysics kinda irrelevant. — Christoffer
Everything is what it is. — Michael
Everything is what it is. — Michael
What is a "absolute presupposition"?I think Collingwood makes a pretty good case that the only possible science of metaphysics would consist in a history of absolute presuppositions. ...so Wittgenstein was dead wrong in saying (if he did say) that metaphysics is always merely an abuse of language. — Janus
They are understood to be different than propositions in that it is inappropriate to speak about them in terms of truth and falsity. — Janus
As I understand it. according to Collingwood absolute presuppositions are the fundamental principles upon which the fields of human inquiry depend. — Janus
As I understand it. according to Collingwood absolute presuppositions are the fundamental principles upon which the fields of human inquiry depend. They are understood to be different than propositions in that it is inappropriate to speak about them in terms of truth and falsity. — Janus
As someone on the old forum said to me, one very odd thing about Collingwood is that he held these seriously anti-ontological views (I don't think they are anti-epistemological) but he also went to church every Sunday and engaged in acts of worship. — mcdoodle
OK, if we can't speak of them in terms of whether they are true or false, why not identify them for what they are then? They're uncertain thoughts. — Metaphysician Undercover
Collingwood seems to have a negative view of epistemology. He thinks that the fields of human inquiry are based on uncertain thoughts. — Metaphysician Undercover
In any area of endeavor where thinking is involved, you get to ask if your process - whatever it is - is valid (true, provable, whatever qualifying word you want). Pretty quickly you get to, in some areas, axioms. Within the process or activity, the axioms are - well, we all know what axioms are, yes? Outside the process, a person may question axioms, but while the answers may be interesting, they are not relevant to the process itself - unless they destroy the process. — tim wood
It's reasonable to question axioms, because how the results of the questioning break influences, rebounds back to, the endeavor. — tim wood
I know, all sorts of people get immediately exercised at the notion that something can be efficacious independent of its truth, but the idea is that it is an absolute presupposition, and the idea of an absolute presupposition is that you have to start somewhere. This isn't to say that the starting point is weighed and tested and argued on; usually it isn't. Absolute presuppositions evolve. And they change, usually as the result of a significant rupture in understanding and culture, whether large or small. — tim wood
Here's a not very good example of an absolute presupposition. Suppose you need a sterile bandage. You find some at home, and you (relatively) presuppose that they're sterile. But they've been in your cabinet for five years, so it's reasonable to ask if these supposedly sterile bandages are really sterile. You decide you need to be sure, so you go to the pharmacy to buy some new sterile bandages. The presupposition that the pharmacy bandages are sterile is an absolute presupposition in the sense that they're what you're going to use, and the question as to their sterility does not arise (it is absolutely presupposed). — tim wood
An "uncertain thought" is a thought about which we are undecided as to whether it is true or not. Absolute presuppositions are understood to be things we necessarily suppose in order to investigate anything at all, and about which it is inappropriate to think in terms of their being propositions which could be demonstrated to be true or false; so...no. — Janus
If we suppose them, we believe them to be true. — Metaphysician Undercover
An "uncertain thought" is a thought about which we are undecided as to whether it is true or not. — Janus
No, it's not an uncertain thought under that definition, because its truth or falsity is not in question; we are not undecided about its truth or falsity; it is simply irrelevant. — Janus
“the only assumption upon which [we] can act rationally is the hope of success” (W 2: 272; 1869). — Janus
when we discuss a vexed question, we hope that there is some ascertainable truth about it, and that the discussion is not to go on forever and to no purpose. — Janus
It is not an uncertain thought in any other sense, either, because it may be as clearly conceived as you like. — Janus
“the only assumption upon which [we] can act rationally is the hope of success” (W 2: 272; 1869). — Janus
when we discuss a vexed question, we hope that there is some ascertainable truth about it, and that the discussion is not to go on forever and to no purpose. — Janus
The fact that we hope it will some day be resolved as true or false indicates that it is something which we are undecided about. It is an uncertain thought. — Metaphysician Undercover
That a thought is clearly conceived doesn't make it a certainty. — Metaphysician Undercover
If we suppose them, we believe them to be true. — Metaphysician Undercover
It's annoying, MU your deliberate misreading... — tim wood
Absolute presuppositions are understood to be things we necessarily suppose in order to investigate anything at all... — Janus
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