On Sat, Jun 1, 2019 at 5:30 PM Bruno Marchal <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 31 May 2019, at 20:50, 'Brent Meeker' via Everything List < > [email protected]> wrote: > > On 5/31/2019 1:33 AM, Bruno Marchal wrote: > > No. The early definition of Earth was a flat surface, and people believed > this by ostentation. > > > Now you're just twisting words. Ostensive definition is by pointing. One > can't believe a proposition by ostentation. > > > Semantic play. If you are right, then we cannot believe that ostensive > definition makes sense. > > > > Fundamental, primitive … means “has to be assumed”. > > We believe that he principle X is fundamental or primitive if we believe > that it cannot be recovered from other principle. > > Physicalism assumes that some physical principle have to be assumed to get > a physical reality, like vitalism assumed that some aspect of life cannot > be recovered, even in principle, by another science like chemistry or > physics. > > I guess you agree that vitalism is abandoned, and that most scientist > accept that biology can be reduced to quantum mechanics, even if only in > principle. > > With mechanism, the same occurs for the physical reality. It is explain, > in principle, by very elementary arithmetic. > > When interested in fundamental studies, that is part of the subject: what > are the simple principles that we have to assume to explain the whole > picture. > And accepting some set of fundamental principles is just to adopt a hypothesis -- not necessarily an act of faith. Faith, characteristically, enters when we stake our life on something. So your "mechanism" is very much an act of faith, since it requires staking your life on the knowledge and skill of the Dr. But physicalism is not an act of faith, because our life in no way depends on whether we adopt that hypothesis or not. Bruce Bruno > -- 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 view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAFxXSLRCm4MRxbrhGXw1f%2BdTQWQ%2B%3D-ry8Pbk6%3DG81SNNpBTiyQ%40mail.gmail.com.
