David (Marsha mentioned) --
Your efforts to disprove my premises show me that I have at least intrigued you. (This is the third message you've posted to me, the other two being repeats.) > 1) Nothing can come from nothingness. > 2) Everything that exists is differentiated (by nothingness). > 3) Essence is the absolute integration of all difference. > > I'd prefer: > > everything comes from nothing > both the undifferentiated and differentiated exist > therefore the dualism of number 3 is unnecessary This is a prime example of what I described to Marsha as "compulsive rejection of a metaphysical concept." Your "preferred" syllogism refutes common logic. Consider what you've stated: 1) "Everything comes from nothing." There is no magic in the world by which nothing produces something -- not in natural science, physics, or mathematics. About this Wikipedia says: "Nothing comes from nothing is a philosophical expression of a thesis first argued by Parmenides, often stated in its Latin form: ex nihilo nihil fit. Today, the idea is loosely associated with the laws of conservation of mass and energy. In logic, nothing is represented by the empty set, and it is trivially true that no thing (any defined concept or element) can be extracted from such a set. 2) "Both the undifferentiated and differentiated exist." Can you provide an example of an existent that is not differentiated? The statement is simply not true. 3) "Therefore the dualism of number 3 is unnecessary." This contradicts your #2 which says that "both the undifferentiated and the differentiated exist." I stated that Essence is the integration of difference because it is the only instance of non-differentiation. You can argue that Essence is hypothetical, but your assertions do not prove that my conclusion is untrue. You may "prefer" to believe there is no metaphysical reality, as many nihilists do, but you cannot logically account for existence by saying that it is derived from nothing. Without a primary source, either there is no existence or there has always been existence. (If it is any comfort, some cosmologists subscribe to the latter notion.) Nice try, David, but I expect the logicians in this forum to support me in this instance. Enjoy your weekend, Ham Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
