Hey Dan, Dan said: The idea that the city of New York exists is a high quality idea. I have no reason to suspect that New York City doesn't exist even though I've never personally been there to experience it directly. But I do have reason to suspect Don's dog dish doesn't exist, just as I suspect the tree falling in the forest doesn't exist. They're imaginary. Now, I might imagine what New York City is like, but until I visit I'll never know. But imagining something that I know exists and imagining that which doesn't exist are on different ends of the spectrum of intellectual quality patterns. Is that really so weird?
Matt: Oh my god: I think I just figured out what's been blocking the conversation. You've been taking "Don's dog dish" as an made-up, fictional account--is that right? And _that's_ why "what dish" makes sense? What if I told you that was an actual conversation that happened once to my friends Don and Chris? Would that make it more like New York? You wouldn't believe me, and on good grounds, but the purpose of thought-experiments isn't to call their bluff immediately by going "imaginary fiction! you're making that up!" It's supposed to be to assume for the sake of argument that this is a real situation that can happen to generate real-world responses to then discuss the conceptual viability of. If this hasn't been the block, then I have no idea why you have more reason to think that New York is a higher quality idea than Don's dog dish. Matt 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/md/archives.html
