RE: A question regarding proof
September 9, 2011 at 2:41 am
(This post was last modified: September 9, 2011 at 2:44 am by Ryft.)
Fred, you are missing two rather important issues. First, whether or not Rhythm has objective evidence of your dream pony is entirely irrelevant to the existence of your dream pony. One is an epistemological issue regarding Rhythm, the other is a metaphysical issue regarding your dream pony—and throughout this thread (and consistently everywhere in these forums) these two issues are being conflated. For whatever it is worth, that is one of the most ironic things about metaphysical naturalists: they never hesitate to abandon the metaphysical question as quickly as possible. Whether or not your dream pony exists (metaphysics) is distinct from whether or not there is evidence for the existence of your dream pony (epistemology). Even if we were to suppose that there is zero evidence for it (as we seem to have done), what has that to do with the existence of it?
"Without that evidence, I have no reason to believe him," says John Q Materialist. Not to put too fine a point on it, but so what?
Second, while people have been making noise about the causal relationship between the neurological activity of your brain and the dream pony of your mind, have you noticed there has been zero evidence provided to substantiate that causal relationship? There is evidence of your neurological activity on the one hand, and your testimony about dreaming of a pony on the other, and a causal relationship between the former and the latter is concluded based on... err, wait, how do we know there is a causal relationship? Perhaps you might pursue that issue.
(P.S. It also seemed a little ironic that you were asking whether objective evidence could exist for a subjective object.)
"Without that evidence, I have no reason to believe him," says John Q Materialist. Not to put too fine a point on it, but so what?
Second, while people have been making noise about the causal relationship between the neurological activity of your brain and the dream pony of your mind, have you noticed there has been zero evidence provided to substantiate that causal relationship? There is evidence of your neurological activity on the one hand, and your testimony about dreaming of a pony on the other, and a causal relationship between the former and the latter is concluded based on... err, wait, how do we know there is a causal relationship? Perhaps you might pursue that issue.
(P.S. It also seemed a little ironic that you were asking whether objective evidence could exist for a subjective object.)
Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.
(Oscar Wilde)
