I must apologize to the list.

In being drawn by John into a tension that is not my usual practice, I
spoke without thinking of the wider implications. My intension was
localized and meant only to illustrate the nature of "ad hominem" in the
light of John's continuation, after I had yielded. I am also on medications
that are not well suited to rapid responses. It is no excuse but I hope
offers some mitigation. :-)

In any case, I hope those of you that undertake the very worthy education
of young people will not take my remarks as directed toward you. I do not
advocate "teaching" in general, because of its inclination toward
indoctrinations. But this is a subtly unnecessary for now. However, please
profess away!

Regards,
Steven




On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 2:36 PM, Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]>
wrote:

> As they say, "those that can't do, teach."
>
> Steven
>
> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 2:33 PM, John Collier <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>  I know the definition of fallacy, Steven. I teach fallacy detection.
>> Just as not all appeals to authority are fallacies, not all appeals to a
>> person’s perspective are fallacies. Sometimes they are sound.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On
>> Behalf Of *Steven Ericsson-Zenith
>> *Sent:* April 1, 2015 6:31 PM
>> *To:* John Collier
>> *Cc:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith; [email protected];
>> [email protected]
>> *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] RE: [biosemiotics:8162] Re: Article on origina
>> of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> Do you actually know the definition of "ad hominem"?
>>
>>
>>
>> I rest.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 2:28 PM, John Collier <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Sorry, Steven, I don't see any ad hominem fallacy here, I was stating
>> that it didn't make sense to continue this discussion since your
>> preconceptions blind you to views that don't fit them in this case. The
>> reasons to me are fairly obvious, but if I am correct, you would not be
>> able to see them. So further discussion is pointless. I don't grasp poetry
>> very well, and most others can see that, but it isn't an ad hominem fallacy
>> for someone to say that I won't understand something because I don't
>> understand poetry very well.
>>
>>
>>
>> In any case, I see the problem as working from different paradigms, which
>> are also pragmatically incommensurable. I wrote my PhD topic on the issue,
>> so I am pretty good at detecting incommensurability. As Kuhn, argues, the
>> only way out is to "go native", which is what I advised you to do, but you
>> do not see the point, dismissing the work I suggested, which I am sure
>> makes sense to you from your perspective.
>>
>>
>>
>> Otherwise, maybe, you are just being stubborn, but I don't think so.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>  ------------------------------
>>
>> *From:* [email protected] <[email protected]> on behalf of
>> Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]>
>> *Sent:* 01 April 2015 23:03
>>
>>
>> *To:* John Collier
>> *Cc:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith; [email protected];
>> [email protected]
>> *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] RE: [biosemiotics:8162] Re: Article on origina
>> of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> Perhaps it is not I that will not accept (the ad hominem) of "anything
>> that does not fit my conceptions?"
>>
>>
>>
>> You are making unjustified accusations as far as I can see - and this is
>> not merely because my own opinions differ from the mainstream of physics on
>> information theory. I am certainly able to understand an argument even if I
>> disagree with it. In fact, I see nothing in what you have said to actually
>> disagree with, except in the matter of the ideal.
>>
>>
>>
>> And so we, you and I, are an example here.
>>
>>
>>
>> Information, as you said, is necessary (or base covariant) distinctions,
>> observable/measurable in behavior. Shannon's mathematics is informative, it
>> highlights the nature of distinctions and the quantifiable limits of their
>> apprehension (their transmission).
>>
>>
>>
>> For me, at least, "communication" is an idea and not something that
>> actually happens. It is something that we speak about. In apprehension,
>> Shannon's work is informative in the above way, it tells us more about what
>> is happening. It informs us concerning the nature of information and it is
>> for this reason that it is the corner stone of modern information theory.
>>
>>
>>
>> In information theory it is important to understand the separation of
>> ideas: i.e., the message from the messenger.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 1:35 PM, John Collier <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> I think we will have to agree to disagree, Steven. You are going to
>> object to anything that doesn’t fit your notion of information. The trend
>> is pretty obvious.
>>
>>
>>
>> I said before that I thought your preconceptions do not allow you to see
>> other approaches, and I now take that as confirmed. So further discussion
>> on this is pointless. Fortunately that doesn’t make discussion on other
>> issues a problem.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On
>> Behalf Of *Steven Ericsson-Zenith
>> *Sent:* April 1, 2015 5:29 PM
>> *To:* John Collier
>> *Cc:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith; [email protected];
>> [email protected]
>>
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] RE: [biosemiotics:8162] Re: Article on origina
>> of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> Yes, I understood all this going in. Seth Lloyd, whom I like very much,
>> is more less grounded than I'd like. Muller's thesis, with all respect, did
>> not impress me. Where, exactly, was the error I supposedly made? :-)
>>
>>
>>
>> Characterizing black hole behavior is an evolving dynamic, far from
>> resolved. It is an assumption on the part of theorists that information
>> cannot be lost, but the evidence appears to the contrary. I'm not even sure
>> that the discussion has a consistent reference.
>>
>>
>>
>> What they mean, from my point of view, when they say information cannot
>> be lost is that processes are reversible, but there is, in fact, no
>> evidence at all that processes should be reversible in the way described -
>> Susskind's wishful thinking of "wait forever and it must happen" aside.
>> There is a failure here to understand the nature and scale of
>> combinortorics.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 1:12 PM, John Collier <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>> Steven,
>>
>>
>>
>> I     I suggest the work by the physicists I have mentioned, and also
>> Scott Muller’s book on information. Shannon was brilliant in communication
>> theory, but communication theory is not information theory. You can find
>> the idea of distinctions making a difference in writings of Arabic
>> philosophers like ibn Arabi and later in Leibniz, who Arabi indirectly
>> influenced. The applications of the ideas by more recent physicists are
>> designed to explain and predict things like the activity at the boundaries
>> of black holes (information cannot disappear is a basic tenet of the
>> problem they are investigating – obviously this is not Shannon information,
>> which certainly can disappear). Seth Lloyd goes a step further and
>> hypothesizes the world is a quantum computer. Information, of course, is a
>> distinction that makes a difference. Shannon’s work is an application of
>> the basic idea of information. But it is a relatively restricted
>> (nongeneric) application, though within the restrictions there are a lot of
>> cases.
>>
>>
>>
>>        Mathematically Shannon's formalism has been shown to be
>> equivalent to algorithmic information theory and some other formats that
>> don’t presuppose either probability or combinatorics (Chaitin, Kolmogorov,
>> Ingarden). But of course common mathematical models don’t imply sameness of
>> kind in the real world. So it is possible to use the combinatoric version
>> of Shannon’s approach and apply it (via group theory) to intrinsic
>> information (Muller) and to the information flows at the boundaries of
>> black holes (though “boundary” is a bit misleading). Lloyd discusses this
>> case in his book Programming the Universe - Random House, which is a
>> semi-popular introduction. His PhD thesis was *Black Holes, Demons and
>> the Loss of Coherence: How complex systems get information, and what they
>> do with it.* <http://meche.mit.edu/documents/slloyd_thesis.pdf> (Ph.D.
>> thesis). The Rockefeller University
>> <https://www.wikiwand.com/en/The_Rockefeller_University>.
>>
>>
>>
>> I        In any case, as you say, this has little to do with biological
>> information or biosemiotics, which does involve things like coding
>> (transfer RNA encodes information in DNA, for example, which eventually
>> decoded in ribosomes to make proteins, though the code is certainly not
>> 1-1). I gave an account of biological information flow that does not invoke
>> Shannon, but does deal with semantic aspects (I have previously recommended
>> the work on distributed information flow this is based on to Sung). In fact
>> one of the more slippery problems for the people who work on information
>> flow (mostly at Stanford) is how to incorporate Shannon information.
>> Intuitively it seems obvious, but it is mathematically tricky. Conceptually
>> tricky is how to integrate information flow through a channel with
>> biosemiotics. A group of us have one paper that addresses the issue, with
>> some examples. It can be found on my web page if anyone is interested
>> (published in Biosemiotics). I think a lot more work is required.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On
>> Behalf Of *Steven Ericsson-Zenith
>> *Sent:* April 1, 2015 3:50 PM
>> *To:* John Collier; [email protected]; [email protected]
>>
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] RE: [biosemiotics:8162] Re: Article on origina
>> of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> I remain unclear on what you are referring to with respect to the
>> empirical results. I have long been involved with information theory. Where
>> is my error, exactly? How do physicists, as you appear to claim, speak
>> about information in a way that is not consistent with Shannon?
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 11:43 AM, John Collier <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Steven,
>>
>>
>>
>> I am not just asserting it, I am pointing to research traditions with
>> empirical results. The researchers involved are not idealists in any sense
>> I can see. You are stubbornly holding on to your idea of information and it
>> is blinding you to how the idea has been used by physicists for several
>> decades now.
>>
>>
>>
>> I don’t expect you to follow the work, but I take exception to you
>> dissing it when you clearly do not understand its basis, as evidenced by
>> your attributing incorrect attributes to it.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On
>> Behalf Of *Steven Ericsson-Zenith
>> *Sent:* March 30, 2015 7:55 PM
>> *To:* John Collier
>> *Cc:* [email protected]; [email protected]
>> *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] RE: [biosemiotics:8162] Re: Article on origina
>> of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> If there is anything that I have learned at all, ever and anywhere, it is
>> that because people think for a long time that it is so, it does not make
>> it so.
>>
>>
>>
>> This is why humanity invented the scientific method and it is the entire
>> reason for Epistemology as a discipline ... to keep us honest. You may
>> persuade yourself of anything at all in its absence.
>>
>>
>>
>> The basis of this method is Empiricism, the actual measurement of motion.
>> If this is what the discussion reduces to then I am happy and I do not care
>> what you call it as long as we understand that there is a distinction, a
>> necessary distinction, between the conception of measure, the idea, and the
>> world. Because, for example, measure is discrete, it does not follow that
>> the subject of the measure is, in fact, discrete.
>>
>>
>>
>> The power of assertion must stand aside.
>>
>>
>>
>> I understand the power of "information" as an IDEA, just as I understand
>> the power of the notion of "communication" as an IDEA, but neither can have
>> existential status unless you are a strict idealist and assert that ideas
>> exist.
>>
>>
>>
>> From my point of view, Ideas must become the subject of Empirical measure
>> - we must, as we have done for gravitation and electromagnetism, measure
>> the motions produced by ideas. Given that ideas are necessarily measurable
>> in this way, they cannot be first anywhere - denying strict Idealism as the
>> basis of the world.
>>
>>
>>
>> Asserting it is otherwise makes no sense.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 2:30 PM, John Collier <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> “It from bit.” Information as the ground of “stuff”.
>>
>>
>>
>> Well I guess you have to have a modicum of understanding of the physics
>> (my original field). To understand what is meant by the slogan it helps to
>> study the writings on the topic of Wheeler, Gell-Mann and Seth Lloyd, and
>> the literature on Hawking radiation helps (I’d stay away from Paul Davies’
>> work, which is too idealistic for my taste and probably yours). I have been
>> thinking of information as “stuff” since I was an undergraduate, and I have
>> also talked with a number of these people or their students, and was able
>> to match the idea up with my understanding of physics. I suppose these
>> interactions were important to my understanding in the way that Kuhn argues
>> that membership in a research group is required to fully understand how a
>> research program can be carried forward.
>>
>>
>>
>> I’ve been asked on occasion what entropy is in job interviews and I have
>> to say that you can’t understand it in a few words. You need to work with
>> it, dealing with real problems. Some very smart people I know got it wrong
>> in their undergraduate physics and physical chemistry course. It is not an
>> easy concept. The relationship between entropy and information (as stuff)
>> is at least as difficult, but opens the door to understanding information
>> as stuff. BY the way, one of my students, Scott Muller, took my ideas of
>> intrinsic information and origin of information through symmetry breaking
>> much further than I did in his PhD thesis, published as Asymmetry: The
>> Foundation of Information
>> https://books.google.com.br/books?id=oMFsko4E9FQC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=asymmetry+principle+of+information+muller&source=bl&ots=lO024N84sa&sig=1LDiHZu1Jyet8ABBpTPZ3NJ-UUc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=9LsZVdn8C8P3yQS-4YDQAQ&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=asymmetry%20principle%20of%20information%20muller&f=false
>>
>> Scott uses group theory to show that information content is not a
>> relative quantity, as Jaynes thought, but is specific to the asymmetries in
>> a structure. He gives a number of simple examples, but the argument is
>> fairly abstract. But as I was suggesting above, the meat is really in the
>> applications to real cases and the capacity to extend them to other cases.
>> Scott’s background is in physical chemistry (PhD), philosophy (PhD) and
>> programming (his occupation).
>>
>>
>>
>> That said, so far the article I initiated this discussion with is a step
>> too far for me. But it does illustrate, right or wrong, that time needn’t
>> exist prior to the universe, and that there is another, logical, sense of
>> priority. If we accept Rosen’s idea of logic mirroring causal connection,
>> then this latter is a form of causal priority. The problem I see is not the
>> use of the information concept, but the basis of the distinction space and
>> what determines it. The paper gives nothing but existence and
>> non-existence, which is pretty spare.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] *On
>> Behalf Of *Steven Ericsson-Zenith
>> *Sent:* March 30, 2015 5:50 PM
>> *To:* John Collier
>> *Cc:* [email protected]; [email protected]
>> *Subject:* [biosemiotics:8162] Re: Article on origina of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> Here's my problem with this. Simply stating that information is "stuff"
>> is insufficient. "It from Bit" is a cute slogan but nowhere (and I mean
>> NOWHERE) near good enough.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 1:20 PM, John Collier <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Yeh, the sort of information talked about in the article is “stuff”. It
>> from bit.
>>
>>
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* Edwina Taborsky [mailto:[email protected]]
>> *Sent:* March 30, 2015 5:18 PM
>> *To:* Biosemiotics; [email protected]
>> *Subject:* [biosemiotics:8156] Re: Article on origina of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven - I'd agree that information is, as it exists, an action. In my
>> view, matter only exists as 'organized' and thus is in a differentiated
>> form, which is to say, it is 'in-formation'. BUT this organization operates
>> within networked interactions; in other words - there is no such thing as,
>> for example, an isolate 'bit' of matter unconnected to other matter.
>> Everything is interactive, is networked, is in that sense, 'in action' and
>> in interaction. So, I would say that this is an 'active description of
>> information'. Not a passive definition.
>>
>>
>>
>> i don't think that energy or matter exist per se. They exist only as
>> in-formed, as organized into a particular differentiated unit - i.e, as
>> information. As we know,  energy exists in our universe only as matter
>> (Einstein)...and I'm agreeing that this matter isn't unorganized but is
>> organized into a differentiation from other matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> However, you and I disagree on the meaning of information. You seem to
>> say that it is 'ideas'; while I am defining information as organized
>> matter. The analytic outline of this organized matter, the conscious sign
>> of this organized matter - is an 'idea'. But that is secondary to the basic
>> ontological reality that is information..i.e., that organized unit of
>> matter.
>>
>>
>>
>> I'm not saying that ideas have a physical basis - for they may not. eg, a
>> unicorn has no physical basis. I'm not talking about ideas at all.
>> Information is not the same as an idea, in my view.
>>
>>
>>
>> Edwina
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> *From:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]>
>>
>> *To:* Biosemiotics <[email protected]> ; Peirce Discussion Forum
>> ([email protected]) <[email protected])>
>>
>> *Sent:* Monday, March 30, 2015 4:05 PM
>>
>> *Subject:* [PEIRCE-L] Re: [biosemiotics:8151] Re: Article on origina of
>> the universe
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> I think this brief discussion is most instructive and it may highlight
>> the source of much discontent over the years in the community discussing
>> the Perigean works.
>>
>>
>>
>> Pierce put ideas first. So if we take this position then I begin to
>> understand Edwina's position as Ideal. And in this sense she may be correct
>> - all though I have some dispute with her passive definition of
>> information. In Shannon's terms, information is an act.
>>
>>
>>
>> However, as I pointed out in the recent discussion on Peirce's definition
>> of evolution, no Peirce family member ever dismissed the ontological world,
>> and their long term goal was to build the bridge between pure mathematics,
>> rigorous and impartial ideas, and the physical sciences, the world in which
>> these ideas exist.
>>
>>
>>
>> As Einstein points out, there is no difference between energy and matter
>> - but again, I am puzzled by Edwina's description. However, the hierarchy
>> she describes does make some sense. Energy exists as matter (Einstein) and
>> matter "exists" (and can be spoken of) as information. So energy appears
>> fundamental in her model. I would not disagree with that had it not been
>> for ...
>>
>>
>>
>> ... her confusing assertion that "not energy, nor matter." By asserting
>> that neither matter nor energy exist, the measurable subjects of our
>> experience, and that only ideas (information) exists, the world is vacuous.
>> There is not basis but ideas.
>>
>>
>>
>> Ideas manifestly have a physical basis and to state otherwise, in my
>> mind, is denial. It the inverse argument of those that argue that our
>> feeling of ideas (often called "consciousness") is an illusion. Also,
>> nonsense.
>>
>>
>>
>> Edwina may be happy with such assertions, but it does not satisfy me.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 12:29 PM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Stan- no, matter does not exist before/prior to information.
>> Matter=information. Since, to be existent as matter, it must be organized.
>> This means, that it is information.
>>
>>
>>
>> Information is fundamental. Not matter or energy - for they do not exist
>> 'per se'. Energy exists as matter and matter exists as information.
>>
>>
>>
>> Edwina
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> *From:* Stanley N Salthe <[email protected]>
>>
>> *To:* [email protected]
>>
>> *Sent:* Monday, March 30, 2015 2:59 PM
>>
>> *Subject:* [biosemiotics:8150] Re: Article on origina of the universe
>>
>>
>>
>> Edwina -- Your
>>
>>
>>
>> information is 'matter-that-is-organized'
>>
>>
>>
>> suggests that matter exists before, or is prior to, information.  Is that
>> right?
>>
>>
>>
>> STAN
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 1:40 PM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Ah, so, to you, 'information is a way of speaking about something'.  To
>> me, information is 'matter-that-is-organized' such that it is
>> differentiated from other matter. This matter exists because it is
>> in-form-ed, i.e., organized within a particular form. Therefore, I agree
>> with the outline provided by John Collier.
>>
>>
>>
>> To me, information has nothing to do with the secondary level of speaking
>> about something. And of course, no requirement therefore for 'adding to
>> knowledge' and 'identifying cause'. Those are secondary levels.
>>
>>
>>
>> Edwina
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> *From:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]>
>>
>> *To:* Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]>
>>
>> *Cc:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]> ; Biosemiotics
>> <[email protected]> ; Peirce Discussion Forum
>> ([email protected]) <[email protected])>
>>
>> *Sent:* Monday, March 30, 2015 1:35 PM
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] Re: [biosemiotics:8138] Article on origina of
>> the universe relevant to some recent discussions on these lists
>>
>>
>>
>> Information is a way of speaking about that which adds to knowledge and
>> identifies cause.
>>
>>
>>
>> Where I use the term "knowledge" in the general Liberal Physicalist sense
>> to refer to that which determines subsequent action.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 10:28 AM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Steven - are you saying that information 'is nothing'?
>>
>>
>>
>> Edwina
>>
>>   ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> *From:* Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]>
>>
>> *To:* Biosemiotics <[email protected]>
>>
>> *Cc:* Peirce Discussion Forum ([email protected])
>> <[email protected])>
>>
>> *Sent:* Monday, March 30, 2015 1:22 PM
>>
>> *Subject:* [PEIRCE-L] Re: [biosemiotics:8138] Article on origina of the
>> universe relevant to some recent discussions on these lists
>>
>>
>>
>> Stunningly comical. Energy from information ... an unplausible
>> mathematical description of something from nothing. It goes to show what
>> you get from an ungrounded purely mathematical education.
>>
>>
>>
>> Steven
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 9:47 AM, John Collier <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>> Dear lists,
>>
>>
>>
>> The following article is relevant to issues of “What came before the Big
>> Bang?”, the evolution of laws in the universe and some others. It cites,
>> among others, David Layzer and myself, and generally follows the approaches
>> that we have argued for. It also brings together other related material
>> from other sources related to symmetry breaking (information formation,
>> and, if on a cosmic scale, law formation). In particular it invokes the “no
>> boundary conditions” requirement for a satisfactory cosmological theory
>> (favoured by Hawking, Smolin, Layzer and many other cosmologists). The
>> authors give this condition as that the universe originated in a
>> singularity that is not knowable, since it contains no information.
>> Information, here, is of course the physicists’ notion of “it from bit”,
>> used in cosmology, the study of black holes and in some branches of Quantum
>> Theory (quantum computation and quantum field theory in particular),
>> according to which energy and matter are incidental, and information
>> (distinctness) is fundamental.
>>
>>
>>
>> The paper is Spontaneous Creation of the Universe Ex Nihilo
>>
>> Maya Lincoln
>>
>> Electronic Address: [email protected]
>>
>> Affiliation: University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel
>>
>> Avi Wasser
>>
>> Electronic Address: [email protected]
>>
>> Affiliation: University of Haifa, Haifa 31905, Israel
>>
>>
>>
>> It can be found online with a good search engine.
>>
>>
>>
>> The paper is a sketch of the theory rather than a theory (as they say “a
>> first step”). I don’t think it differs all that much from David Layzer’s
>> views, judging by my discussions with him about twenty years ago. But
>> perhaps it is more boldly stated. I am not satisfied that it really
>> resolves the issue of why there is something rather than nothing, but if it
>> does, it makes the existence of the Universe necessary rather than
>> contingent.
>>
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> John Collier, Philosophy, UKZN, Durban 4041
>>
>> http://web.ncf.ca/collier
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   ------------------------------
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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