There is no such thing as a private reality. By private reality I mean any portion of reality that you alone can experience, that no one else could possibly understand. There is, however, reality that is yet unexperienced and unknown to you. Others may have experienced it before you, like explorers who have been to a far away place. If a philosopher is clever, it is possible that she found a way to imbue her […]
Category: language
Do We Understand the Principle of Charity?
When trying to understand an unknown philosophy (or philosopher) we are taught that we should give that philosophy every possible opportunity to say something relevant. This practice is called using the Principle of Charity and there are various ways philosophers go about implementing it (via Wikipedia): By believing The other uses words in the ordinary way; The other makes true statements; The other makes valid arguments; The other says something interesting. I do not believe […]
Equinumerosity
Why should anyone believe that the concept of equinumerosity is any more fundamental than any other concept? . . This has bugged me for years….
Truth is… and other short thoughts
Truth is whatever you are willing to wager your sanity on. This works because sanity is relative to people, so if you are willing to wager your sanity on something, so should other people. Deontology has a problem because no one can definitively tell you what it is to follow a rule. So deontologists can’t fault others for appealing to unexplained concepts without undermining their own argument. Whereas the meanings of particular words may be […]