@Exian: I think that evolved traits show that those traits had a statistical advantage over other traits, or a lack of the traits, in the past. That's the only truth statement I think it's fair to make.
@Nestor: (I'll skip quoting because of post explosion)
When I say the ball disappears, I mean the ball as we perceive it. That "ball-ness," that collection of essential qualities through which you experience the ball, is only an idea. I like your idea of zoom, though, and it could be applied to a multi-layered speculation. For if you zoomed out, a galaxy would look like a single, indivisible "object," and if you zoomed out more, galaxy clusters would give way to another "cluster" object. And if you zoomed out on the whole universe, you'd presumably end up with a single point. Considering that's what the Big Bang is, it makes me wonder if the universe really Banged, or if everything in it is really just changing perspective on what is actually a static entity, like staring at a picture of a fractal on LSD? /woo
The idea of abstracts as being imperishable truths is pretty close to my view of idealism. I call things like a formula which affects everything but cannot itself be located in form or space an "idea," as I would a "particle" which has no definable volume. Existent things I see as a kind of interaction among, and expression of, those ideas.
@Nestor: (I'll skip quoting because of post explosion)
When I say the ball disappears, I mean the ball as we perceive it. That "ball-ness," that collection of essential qualities through which you experience the ball, is only an idea. I like your idea of zoom, though, and it could be applied to a multi-layered speculation. For if you zoomed out, a galaxy would look like a single, indivisible "object," and if you zoomed out more, galaxy clusters would give way to another "cluster" object. And if you zoomed out on the whole universe, you'd presumably end up with a single point. Considering that's what the Big Bang is, it makes me wonder if the universe really Banged, or if everything in it is really just changing perspective on what is actually a static entity, like staring at a picture of a fractal on LSD? /woo
The idea of abstracts as being imperishable truths is pretty close to my view of idealism. I call things like a formula which affects everything but cannot itself be located in form or space an "idea," as I would a "particle" which has no definable volume. Existent things I see as a kind of interaction among, and expression of, those ideas.
