RE: Devil's advocate for why ontology is meaningless and vacuous.
September 12, 2016 at 2:04 pm
(This post was last modified: September 12, 2016 at 2:05 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
(September 12, 2016 at 11:54 am)robvalue Wrote: I would say no, there is no escape from solipsism. All we can do is make pragmatic assumptions. But we needn't even make all of them, really. For example, I don't have to assume anything is "real". It's real to me, and that's as good as it's ever going to get.
Yes, mathematics is an abstract system which is defined by strict rules. Such systems only need to be internally consistent. They may or may not relate to reality in any useful way. Mathematics is not scientific knowledge, though. It's a tool. It's used to describe scientific knowledge.
Just an observation...it seems to me that in order to maintain your position you feel it necessary to 1) deny that the universe has an intelligible order and 2) that reason cannot revealing facts; but rather, merely provides useful subjective opinions.
