Comments

  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?


    Thanks for the article. Interesting.

    Yeah, some other non-human species definitely seem to possess some level of linguistic abilities for sure, but their level is rudimentary. It is not really up to the level of the human languages.

    Maybe their linguistic abilities will evolve to our standards after 2-3 million years? Who knows?

    I have seen some intelligent animals such as the black birds such as the Corvus (?) and Magpies demonstrating good reasoning abilities, keep posting pebbles into a water bottle, until the water level reaches to the depth where their beak reaches in order to drink the water etc.

    Again, although not high enough reasoning for making electronic or computing devices, but there is no reason to deny the possibility that their reasoning might evolve to ours or even to par excellence in the future.
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    The contents themselves are not the stuff of logic. but are merely set out in accordance with its strictures.Janus

    So what is the point of the comment? Logic has been used extensively in real life, science and technology and metaphysics. You add the contents to the logic and process, and get the result you want. Logic has no content, because you hadn't added any?


    And again, regarding my saying that all synthetic philosophy is a creative exercise of the speculative imagination, that was not meant to apply exclusively to Kant, so asking for quotes from Kant is not appropriate.Janus

    I am sure your comment was with Kant's metaphysics, and it sounded unfounded, hence I asked for the original quotes supporting your points. It is a norm for asking the original quotes if the points you are making are unclear. Never not appropriate.
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    such as things which only are immediately apprehended in time (as opposed to space).Bob Ross

    Another example of the metaphysical concepts, that you seem to accept as the reality is Time and Space. These are the entities which are shared topics in Science and also Metaphysics. You don't sound as if you are rejecting them as non-sense. You seem keep on using the metaphysical concepts while rejecting them.
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    Hiya Bob Ross

    No I cannot. The model which I have of experience is that I represent the world, and those representations are imperfect.Bob Ross

    In that case, your models are not much different from imaginations either. Because you are rejecting metaphysics under the ground of the imperfect knowledge which is beyond your experiences, which you think as imagination.


    I think all scientific knowledge, absent metaphysical claims, are perfectly compatible with my view. For example, I should expect that my body is made of cells (as this has been empirically verified plenty enough), but takeaway my possible forms of experience, and the possible forms of other people’s experience (which is similar to my own), and it is not clear at all that we have any reason to believe there are cells at all, let alone bodies, let alone space and time, etc.Bob Ross

    Your body is made of cells? I am not sure if it is a scientific knowledge. It is a commonsensical knowledge. Just because you have empirically verified knowledge doesn't mean it is scientific knowledge.

    It is like saying "I know the wall is made of bricks.", "I know bread is made of flour." "I know cheese is made of milk." I bet you know that because you read it somewhere. But it seems clear that your limiting the scope of knowledge to what you can only observe and verify, and it narrows and limits the depth and amount of knowledge you could get. Because you would reject any more complicated and deeper knowledge under the excuse of not observable, non verifiable metaphysical knowledge.


    I don’t think they just use pure imagination to determine stars, they use empirical evidence and hypothesized predictions.Bob Ross

    I never said they are pure imaginations. They are conjectures and imagination in nature.


    Could you please define what you mean by “metaphysics”?Bob Ross

    My definition of Metaphysics is not far from the traditional definition. I would advise you to read the writings ``What is Metaphysics?" by Kit Fine. I will not go into the definition of Metaphysics because you can find them on the internet. But if I point out just one or two points, Metaphysics is about Ontology just like Fine said in his writing. It is conceptualised ontology. For instance, I can ask, discuss or investigate anything about any object as a metaphysical object without having to be concerned with the ins and outs of Biology or Physics or Ethics or a person .... because they are all Beings. In other words, they are Things. (Read Heidegger, What is a Thing?") When an object is viewed as a Being or a Thing, I can ask anything - the meanings, functions, origins, types... and why and how without having to use laboratory instruments. Metaphysics uses mental analytic and reasoning capability of the human mind. I will stop there, because it might get too long.


    I didn’t follow the relevance of this part: could you please elaborate? My point was that logic pertains to the form of an argument (of reasoning): not the content. There is no such thing as a valid theory of logic that provides its own content as well as the form of that content.Bob Ross

    Your comments on Logic seem to be limited to the classic and symbolic logic. The formulas in different types of logic are replaced with the variables and contents for them to be the main operating logic in the microprocessor of devices or political movements. The details of this topic would be out of scope of this thread. You better create a new thread for this topic.


    So metaphysics is the long history of people thinking about such things which go beyond empirical reality; and so I can easily define it that way without knowing anything (in truth) about that which is beyond experience.Bob Ross

    Again, I feel you are limiting and restricting on what metaphysics do in terms of going beyond the reality. The vast area of Philosophy of Mind, Language, Logic, Ethics are metaphysical in nature. It is the nature of questions they ask, and the methods it uses which is different from the other subjects, and it deals with all things existing in the universe.


    I would say ‘experience’ is that first-person immediate knowledge that one has, which includes their mental life, such as things which only are immediately apprehended in time (as opposed to space).Bob Ross

    For you using the term, and accepting the fact that you have your own "mental life" proves you are using a Metaphysical concept. Because your mental life is an entity that is beyond possibility of experience by another person, from the rest of the population in the universe points of view it is a Metaphysical entity.

    Without knowing that you are accepting and using it, while at the same time vehemently denying the legitimacy of metaphysical knowledge, is absurd.
  • Would time exist if there was nothing?
    Lots of research on Time Perception already exists. Even I have written a playful Elementary note on the subject.jgill

    Wow, that is real cool links thanks. I managed to download your paper on the Complex Time Contours. It is way over my mathematics level, but it looks an interesting paper. I will have a read, and if I have any questions in the contents, will get back to you. Thank you. :) :pray:
  • What does it feel like to be energy?
    I don't see how, because energy operates according to physical laws, it has no capacity for self-determination or any innate direction. As soon as living organisms appear, they act intentionally, in that they seek to maintain themselves, maintain homeostasis, grow, heal and reproduce. And they remember. Energy, as such, displays none of these attributes or capacities, and there's no reason to believe that it 'feels like' anything to be it.Wayfarer

    :up: :100:
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    The existence of computers based on logical operations says nothing about content. Various logics are formalizations of the rules that are understood to govern thinking; consistency, non-contradiction and so on, and do not themselves mandate any particular view about anything.Janus

    The various branches of Logic has been used for the real life technology applications by adding the contents into the formulas for a long time. I suppose they are the knowledge for the specialists.

    I haven't claimed Kant said that—I am saying it, so your request for supporting quotes from Kant is not relevant.Janus

    I didn't say you claimed it. I asked you to back up your points with Kant's own writings. If one hasn't read any of the original writings of Kant, it is doubtful that one could make any meaningful comments or points on Kant's philosophy and system.
  • Would time exist if there was nothing?
    Nobody's ever even faked a blurry picture of it. Of :up: it doesn't 'exist', any more than colour, size and speed exist: these are attributes of material entities.Vera Mont


    Yup agree with your points. A brilliant summary.
    :cool::up:
  • Would time exist if there was nothing?
    If he has a body, he experiences time through the changes in his body. Most urgently, increasing thirst, and by the end of five or six days, dying. If he were fed and watered at intervals, he could experience less significant changes: sleep and waking, boredom and terror, beard and fingernails growing, the arrival of food and need to eliminate. That's how you generally mark the passage of time in solitary confinement, hospital or long train rides: mealtimes.

    But then walls and a body are something. Even a disembodied consciousness is something. The problem here is not with time - which you're absolutely right has no autonomous existence - but the concept of "nothing".
    Vera Mont

    Let's imagine someone waking up from a coma or a long deep sleep in the room. They would be confused about why they are in a confined space with walls and silence. In this situation, they wouldn't even be able to guess the time.

    Indeed all they would have is the concept of nothing. They might try to remember what happened before they went into the deep sleep, but what if their mind is blank and they can't recall anything?

    If time existed in the universe, they should still be able to determine what time it is and how much time has passed since they were in the space (because the confined room is part of the universe), which implies non existence of time physically in the world. They would have no clue about the time until someone tells them or they find out by asking around when they were put into the room and how long they have been there. This would be the case even if they are eventually released from the room and return to normality. Time is a mental entity perceived in the mind.
  • Would time exist if there was nothing?
    But wouldn't he still feel as if time passed? He would be able to estimate how much time passed based on his awareness of his own thoughts, creating an internal clock. His sucessive sequence of thoughts also creates the perception of time.finarfin

    Yes, you are correct. The estimation of time passed since being placed in the confined space and the perception of time through observation of changes in external objects would likely be different. It is difficult to determine which time perception would be more accurate as it would depend on various factors and individual experiences.

    This concept of different time perceptions could indeed be an interesting scientific and metaphysical experiment, exploring the subjective nature of time and how it is perceived by individuals. It could provide valuable insights into the human experience and our understanding of time itself.
  • The Mind-Created World
    To me, the world created by the mind, and the world created by sense perception are one and the same world.Metaphysician Undercover

    I think they are different. The world created by your minds is totally different from the perceived one. For example, the world depicted by an artist such as painters, novelists, poets would be the world created by mind.
  • The Mind-Created World
    I was not the one proposing the separation between mind produced world and sense produced world. To me, the world created by the mind, and the world created by sense perception are one and the same world. But we need to be aware of the cases where the senses mislead us. And I think your proposal to separate these two is not warranted. So the problem you present here with your question, is just an indication that your proposal is unacceptable.Metaphysician Undercover

    Aren't the senses part of your mind? Are the senses separate entities from the mind operating themselves disconnected from the mind? You say you were not proposing it, but it sounds like that is the point you are insisting on. I was not proposing anything, but saying what the traditional idealist was saying about the world and perception.
  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?
    I think that there are regularities to the way things occur in the universe, due to the universe having such regularities biological evolution could and did occur.wonderer1

    I think the regularities in the universe is the same nature as the perception of cause and effect (the cement of the universe), time described by Hume. They are just the products of mental operations.
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    None of them provide any content.Janus

    If there was no Logic providing any content, you wouldn't have your computer or smartphone running and connected to the internet, typing up the message posting it. The whole computer architecture, software, apps, network etc are all based on the logical system working with the microprocessors in the servers, hubs and networks as well as all the operating systems in the personal computers and smart phones.


    t is a characterization of Kant's philosophy that applies to synthetic philosophies in general. Wherever there is creativity, it is a product of the imagination.Janus

    I would appreciate the direct quotes from Kant's own books supporting your points. Thanks.
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    Hello Bob Ross.

    I have no problem with the imagination being used to try to sort of something empirical—it is when we going beyond the empirical that gets sketchy to me.Bob Ross

    Can you trust all your empirical perception and observation? Are the data you gathered via your senses 100% error free?


    Every valid aspect of science is a prediction about something which could be possibly experienced. Metaphysics is about that which, in principle, can never be.Bob Ross

    If you are insisting on only accepting possible experienceable phenomena as your valid science, I think you are limiting your knowledge to bare minimum. I doubt so called valid scientific knowledge in that nature would be much use.


    Viewing it from a telescope is a form of experiencing it. How do you ‘view’ whether the world is actually made of a physical or mental substance? Or that there actually are Universals, or just particulars?Bob Ross

    The knowledge derived from the visual experience via telescope from millions of miles away from the astral objects without any kind of direct contact is nothing more than imaginary conjectures and inferences. Metaphysics use reasoning as the main methodology for their knowledge.


    Positing hypotheses to try to predict objects within possible experience is not metaphysics.Bob Ross

    Metaphysics can deal with any objects and methodology if they are related to their topics, and also as part of their investigations.


    All of these (except maybe ‘dialectic logic’, depending on what you mean there) share that pertain to the form of argumentation and not the content.Bob Ross

    The whole Marxist movement and running of the countries has been based on the Dialectic Logic. And All those logic listed above are used in many different sciences and technologies for applications to real life situations and device designs.


    Of course! Metaphysics, in the sense that I defined it in the OP, is about ontological things; that is, about that which is beyond the possibility of experience (e.g., Universals vs. particulars, nature of time, nature of space, substances, etc.). Now, all we can ever know empirically is from our experience, so the best we can ever do in terms of explaining the ‘nature’ of things is what is conditioned, right off the bat, by our possible forms of experience (and, not to mention, our means of cognizing the world) (namely space and time) and thusly are only valid constrained to them. Take away your forms of experience, and everyone else’s, and what is intelligible left (with any metaphysical claim you can think of)? Absolutely nothing.Bob Ross

    Many of the concepts such as Time, Space, Substance are also studied by Physics, Chemistry and QM too. You are not just discarding metaphysics, but totally discarding also the general Science as well.

    How do you know something is beyond possibility of experience, if you had not experienced it at all? If something is truly beyond possibility of experience, then you wouldn't even be able to mention it, because you have never experienced it, and your stance is that whatever beyond possibility of your experience is unknowable? Therefore it couldn't possibly be your criteria for declaring it is metaphysics. Is everything that is beyond your experience, metaphysics? You cannot declare what is unknowable and beyond possibility of experience to you as metaphysics, because it is unknowable. It is just unknowable.

    I just don't think it is the case that all metaphysics topics are something that is beyond possibility of experience, because it also deals with experienceable objects as well.  I am not sure what you mean by experience too.  Does it mean visible and audible and touchable objects only?  Things that we talk about, fantasize, and even imagine, should they not also be mental experience in nature?
  • The Mind-Created World
    So if you propose a separation between the perceived world (world created by sensation), and a mind created world, the perceived world is demonstrably less accurate.Metaphysician Undercover

    So if you block out and disable all your senses, then what knowledge of the world would you get?
  • The Mind-Created World
    Agree, the implications of the term 'create' are especially significant in this context. I could have equally called the essay 'the mind-made world', I guess.Wayfarer

    :100: :up:
  • The Mind-Created World
    Even Berkeley said "esse ist percipi", not "esse ist
    creatus"
  • The Mind-Created World


    There are imagined world, perceived world and the world itself. If you are an idealist, you would be believing the perceived world as the real world? If you say, the world is created by your mind, I feel your world is likely to be very much in illusion. A perceived world sounds more accurate.
  • The Mind-Created World
    Yes, I feel the OP is a large topic, and I must admit I haven't gone into the core yet. I was asking questions from the elementary epistemological point of view. Maybe the topic itself seems Philosophy of Mind problem rather than Epistemology.

    Anyway, this is a very interesting topic, and I would like to investigate deeper for the further discussions.

    My idea about the world is Evolutionary nature rather than either Physicalism or Idealism. I will think, build my points on that idea, and return to compare with your views.
  • The Mind-Created World
    A world. There's a difference.Wayfarer

    The title of the OP says "The Mind-Created World" :chin: :roll:
  • The Mind-Created World
    A world. There's a difference.Wayfarer

    Isn't the created world in your mind more prone to be illusive than the perceived world?
  • The Mind-Created World
    I'm not sure what you mean by 'extreme idealism', but give these modern editions of Berkeley a squiz. He's surprisingly persuasive.Wayfarer

    If you say, Esse est percipi, then it is an idealism. But if you say you create the world in your mind, then I see it as an "extreme idealism". :)
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    Logic supplies no content; it consists in procedural rules.Janus

    Could you please clarify which logic you mean here? There are vast many different types of Logic.

    Deductive Logic
    Inductive Logic
    Predicate Logic
    Philosophical Logic
    Modal Logic
    Non-Classical Logic
    Dialectic Logic


    Kant's philosophy is the product of logically constrained imagination; that is it consists in imagining the entailments of some basic premises in a logically rigorous, i.e. coherent and consistent, way.Janus

    Could you please elaborate your points with the relevant quotes from Kant's CPR or any of his own writings?
  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?
    I say prelinguistic because apparently some animals can do simple counting.Janus

    Wow really? Heard first time. Which animals can count?

    Anyhow simple counting is not mathematics. Mathematics can give (birth to) answers for complex problems. In that way it is not like exactly literal language either.

    Can counting be viewed as mathematics? This could be another topic.
  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?
    Symbolic languageJanus

    Mathematics
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    My definition of metaphysics is that is the study of that which is beyond the possibility of experience, and not that it is a process of using the imagination. For most metaphysicians, they use principles like parsimony, explanatory power, internal/external coherence, (logical) consistency, intuitions, etc. to determine metaphysical theories.Bob Ross

    There are many aspects of science which they cannot observe and verify empirically, but still have to deal with. In those cases, science uses hypotheses which are imagination in nature. When metaphysics works with science, it can use reasoning and inference for the unobservable objects. If you are only relying on the observable and verifiable objects only, you would have very little to work with.

    For instance most of the astronomical objects are unreachable from earth. They are only viewable by telescope from a far distance. You can see them, but you cannot verify them, but they still use inference to come to the theories and answers. In this case, their studies and investigations are metaphysical rather than scientific. Hence there are parts where science and metaphysics cross each other's boundary too.


    Logic devoid of empirically verified content is indistinguishable from the imagination. I can make a logically consistent argument for the world being comprised of one giant cookie monster.Bob Ross

    Where empirically verified content is devoid, Logic uses inference for coming to their conclusions which is one of the main empirical scientific methods.


    Of course, it attempts to answer questions we humans want to answer, but there is a reason we can’t legitimately: there is no way to ground it in reality, since all we have of reality is our experience of it and the questions metaphysics tries to answer (as a matter of ontology) is beyond that experience.Bob Ross

    I don't understand this point here. Could you please elaborate in detail with some examples please? Thanks.
  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?
    But mathematicians are very imaginative people. What they have done goes far beyond what you describe.jgill

    Sure. Last time I did math was in my high school days, a long long time ago :D I was describing it in the simplest manner.

    However, you seem to agree with the idea that math is not embedded in the universe, but it is a human language type tool working from reasoning, if I am reading you correctly.
  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?
    If mathematics is embedded in the universe, then why don't the other animals with high intelligence such as Monkeys, Apes and some dogs make use of mathematics? Surely they exist in the universe just like humans do? Why is it that only humans use mathematics? What have humans got, the other species haven't got?
  • Is maths embedded in the universe ?


    Good point. I believe that humans are alienated from the universe. They live in the world, but they are not part of the world. The world presents itself to humans as an unknown object (M. Heidegger). Humans cannot fathom the world in full, and definitely is not part of the world, i.e. the universe. (Kant, Schopenhauer)

    Even if all humans reside in their own bodies, they don't know what is happening in their own body, or how long the bodies will keep functioning for them. After deaths, bodies disintegrate into the space separating the mind evaporated into the thin air. Where is the connection between the humans and the universe?

    All humans are alienated, and separated not just from the world, but from other human beings too. No one can access another's mind, for example. We only communicate via language use, and of course, with the gift of reason, we can come up with knowledge, logic and mathematical intuitions which are part of the reasoning. Without these tools, we would be just like other wild animals hunting for food for survival.
  • "Why I don't believe in God" —Greta Christina
    In my The World Religion book set there are 6 books and 1 book covering each

    Buddhism
    Catholic
    Hindu
    Islam
    Judaism
    Protestant

    They all seem to have different God for their own religion. So there are too many Gods, and I don't know which God is the real God.

    If you believed in Buddhism, you could become a God yourself, if you get the full nirvana and enlightenment after so many years of studies, meditations and prayers. I am not quite sure if you are upgraded to a Buddhist God, you could expect to get any divine privileges such as immortality, omnipotency , omnipresence, omniscience, or resurrection after death etc. If not, what's the point?

    In the case of Hindu, there are many different Gods for different areas of work they do just like the Greek Gods in the Homeric times.

    The rest has their own God and the holy scriptures, traditions and beliefs. So which God do you have to believe? Or do you have to believe them all, if one is religious?

    Other options are, of course, don't believe them all (atheist), or keep open minded as an agnostic.
  • Would time exist if there was nothing?
    I thought about this topic briefly, and this is what I came up with. It could be wrong. If you see any points that are not right, or don't make sense, please let me know. Thanks.

    I was reading Hume on Time, and his idea of time is that it is the internal perception of mind, just like cause and effect, when objects exist in duration and succession. So without the external objects, and without changes in duration and succession, there would be no time. I agree with this view on time.

    Indeed, time does not exist in the external world. It is in human perception when the mind perceives changes of the external objects, or movement of the objects in succession, the perception of time happens internally.

    The time we are using now on the clocks is the universal cultural agreement by the movement of the Earth around the Sun (365 days per one rotation), and also rotation of the Earth (24 hours per one self rotation), and it is just measurement of the duration for general life conveniences. It has nothing to do with the actual time itself. They could easily declare today is year 0, and 1 day will be 100 hours on some other duration measurements, and the whole time contract will work differently.

    The reason that time travel is not possible in the physical world is that actual time doesn't exist in the physical world.

    Time is just a product of human perception, which is mental in nature. If one is put into a room with no windows, but just 4 walls, floor and ceiling, and he has been kept in the space for few days, he will never have a single clue on the amount of time passed while he was in captivity in the space, because there was no events, changes or movements at all around him for his perception to realise the time durations happened in that space.

    We only feel time because every morning, we see the Sun rise, even if it is raining or cloudy, it still is brighter than the night, and the daylight changes to the evening, and nights again, hence knows a day has passed. Therefore with nothing existing, there is definitely no time. With everything existing, still there is no time, because time is in the human mind inaccessible to the outside world and other humans.
  • The Mind-Created World
    I can't speak for Wayfarer, but as an idealist, my own thoughts on that are idealism inevitably leads to god for just that sort of reason.RogueAI

    Perhaps that is the reason why we don't know anything about God, because he is hiding in the idealist's mind. :D
  • The Mind-Created World
    Is extreme idealism not prone to illusion and misrepresentation of the world? Even with all the justification, your own mind created evidence, logic and justification without the external reference would be still illusive and deceptive. How do you prove it is real, and doubtless knowledge?
  • Currently Reading
    G.W.F Hegel by Stanley Rosen - Yale University Press 1973

    A great book elucidating Hegel's system.
  • Metaphysics as an Illegitimate Source of Knowledge
    I am not sure if the OP's definition on Metaphysics is formally accepted by the public and academics. Metaphysics doesn't use imagination and conjectures all the time as its investigative methods.

    For instance, Kant's Metaphysics arrives at its conclusions via rigorous logical arguments. Aristotle's Metaphysics analyses the abstract concepts and universals again via logic. I don't see any imagination there at all. Plato creates the new world of ideas and forms again with the supporting arguments.

    Modern Metaphysics has evolved into working with Epistemology, Theology, Ethics and Science, and it asks and investigates the topics these subjects cannot deal with or ask, such as the "why" questions.

    The OP's unorthodox definition of Metaphysics seems to lead to the bizarre conclusion with the extreme view discarding the valuable aspects of the studies which are actually essential and important in Philosophy.