On Monday, October 29, 2018 at 3:17:58 AM UTC+1, Brent wrote: > > > > On 10/28/2018 5:18 PM, Tomas Pales wrote: > > > > On Monday, October 29, 2018 at 12:33:23 AM UTC+1, Brent wrote: >> >> >> There is no logical inconsistency in a flying pink elephant existing >> right now in my den beside me. But don't see one. >> > > First, it is not clear whether the existence of a flying pink elephant in > your den is consistent with the rest of this universe. Many things may seem > consistent while they are actually inconsistent. Before the 20th century it > seemed consistent with the laws of our universe that there was no speed > limit or that the energy of a particle could vary continuously. Now we know > that these phenomena are inconsistent in our universe and that's why they > don't exist here. > > > You don't seem to know the difference between *logically consistent*="not > entailing a contradiction by the rules of inference" and *nomologically > consistent* = "not contrary to the laws of nature". It is still > *logically* consistent for a particle to be faster than light. >
Not in a universe where faster than light speed is prohibited. > The problem with trying to use nomological consistency to imply existence > is that we don't know the possible laws of nature and that observation > trumps theory as to what is nomologically possible. So no matter what you > think are the laws of nature, if you see something contrary to them it just > means they are wrong. > It doesn't matter whether we know what the laws of the universe are. Whatever the laws are, if they prohibit something then it cannot happen, otherwise there would be a logical inconsistency. Imagine a universe that is the set of all triangles. That means that a law of this universe determines that only triangles can be members of this universe. Surely it would be a logical inconsistency if a circle was a member of this universe. A non-triangle cannot be a member of the set of all triangles. > > Brent > > > Second, it might be that both the existence and the non-existence of a > flying pink elephant in your den are consistent with the rest of this > universe. In that case the elephant both exists and doesn't exist but in > different universes, because it would be inconsistent for it to both exist > and not exist in the same universe. And you happen to live in the universe > where the elephant doesn't exist. > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] <javascript:>. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > <javascript:>. > Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
