--------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00010 Date: 03/23/98 From: NICK DOUGLAS Time: 05:18pm \/To: ANDREW CUMMINS (Read 0 times) Subj: Why we're here, and are we really even h17:18:3003/23/98 ND> Liberalism is pure evil? Well, I believe it to ND> be faulty (just MHO!), ND> but I don't think of it as evil. AC> Try. Try what? ND> Are we lab animals in an expiriment that really lasts ND> for a minute? Are we just *experiencing* ND> decades, but not living them? AC> If I haven't lived even a minute, I'm even more impressed AC> with my lifetime of accomplishments. Good point. So, do you think there's a possibility of this brain-in-vat kind of theory? Can you prove it impossible? ND> I believe that I'm a ND> human put here by the only God, and His Son ND> Jesus. I follow by fath and ND> not by proof, as we Christians are supposed to. Of course, that's ND> accepted in a philosophical echo, right? AC> Only for the naive. I mean, it's accepted that I believe it, right? No lashing out or name-calling, now. Not even subtle forms. Nick Douglas, newbie extraordinaire --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: * After F/X * Rochester N.Y. 716-359-1662 (1:2613/415) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00011 Date: 03/23/98 From: NICK DOUGLAS Time: 05:24pm \/To: RELATIF TUINN (Read 0 times) Subj: Life, the Universe, and 42 The subject, for all of you truly serious people out there, is an inside joke from Douglas Adams books. Don't ask; it's a waste of time. Relatif, I believe that any organism can acheive randomness. There are many theorists (I don't share their views completely) who claim that all people ever do is to think random thoughts and commit random acts. We all just rationalize them later. (This is also from a Douglas Adams book. In fact, the same book which I learned about Schroedinger's cat from.) Computers can produce random numbers even in BASIC language programs. I'm sorry, but I don't know the command off the top of my head. I'm a bit rusty on my programming. As a parting shot, I'd like to ask you if you have any idea what my age is. I'll tell you eventually if you care at all, but I'll bet that I'm younger than you think! Nick Douglas, IQ 135 --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: * After F/X * Rochester N.Y. 716-359-1662 (1:2613/415) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00012 Date: 03/23/98 From: NICK DOUGLAS Time: 05:32pm \/To: RELATIF TUINN (Read 0 times) Subj: Creationism I am *not* a scientist or philosopher; I just come here to relax (Hah! Strenuous life _I_ must have.) I remember several skulls and other various bones found all over the world, many of which were claimed ot belong to early half-men, missing links in evolution. There are two major flaws with these findings: 1) Many bones turned out to be either bones of gorrilas, old men, or rare African tribes. 2) Why are there so few bones, when the evolutionary process took millions of years (supposedly)? 3) I know I said two, but I just thought of another one. Why are there still so many other primates around the world, but no neanderthals or half-man, half-gorrila beings? Why does evolution favor weak humans? Apes are supposedly just as intelligent, but stronger. Nick Douglas, IQ 135 --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: * After F/X * Rochester N.Y. 716-359-1662 (1:2613/415) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00013 Date: 03/23/98 From: NICK DOUGLAS Time: 05:41pm \/To: RELATIF TUINN (Read 0 times) Subj: Infinity Sorry that I didn't reply to your earlier message. I accidently deleted it. You said that there was no evidence to back up brain-in-vats theories. While I don't believe in them, there is no way to *dis*prove them. Anyway, in the latest message, you stated that you had created a "bigger infinity." How can you create more of a number that has no end? And as for the even integers and all integers, how can the latter be a "bigger infinity" than the first? The list of even numbers never ends, just like all-integer lists. Nick Douglas, trying to reply all he can --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: * After F/X * Rochester N.Y. 716-359-1662 (1:2613/415) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00014 Date: 03/23/98 From: NICK DOUGLAS Time: 05:45pm \/To: BOB SEWELL (Read 0 times) Subj: "Existence Exists" BS> The biological definition is an organismic state characterized by BS> capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to BS> stimuli, and reproduction. BS> Which rather seems to disqualify the Judeo-Christian concept of the BS> nature of God, if all four characteristics must be present to qualify BS> something as alive. Assuming spiritual "life" exists, what would be BS> its definition? Spiritual life is the ability to choose and imagine. Simple as that. Trees have no ability to choose what to do; it is pure instinct. Wolves or bears cannot imagine anything. They have no "false memory." You can think of a neon green school bus with Michael Jackson riding in the front seat, can't you? (That's just a random thing that came to my mind.) but a But an animal with no soul cannot think of what it has not experienced. Nick Douglas, IQ 135 --- Maximus 3.01 * Origin: * After F/X * Rochester N.Y. 716-359-1662 (1:2613/415) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00015 Date: 03/23/98 From: OLIVER EMSMANN Time: 12:21am \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: Deontic Logic Hi, I have just read a book about Deontic Logic an I understand it not in all. It is a question of how you can talk about moral judgements in the light of empiric facts. I translate it, most I can, in English: Vp: It ist forbid, that p Ep: It ist allowed, that p Op: It is required, that p Vp imp O (->p), Ep imp.->Vp imp.->O(->p); Op v Oq imp O(pvq) But it's false to say: O(pvq) imp Op v Oq Why is it so ? PS: Sorry because of my really bad English. In the german Philosophy- Echo I get no answers about it Also bis denne, ciao ... --- * Origin: Mir will einfach kein toller Spruch einfallen (2:2468/9934.2) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00016 Date: 03/23/98 From: JEFF MEANEY Time: 07:39pm \/To: ALL (Read 0 times) Subj: PHILOSOPHY If you had no finger nails, could you pick up a dime? -----TiTeN----- TiTeN --- xMail 1.00 * Origin: Paranormal Discussions Oshawa/Ontario (905)721-8960 (1:229/610) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00017 Date: 03/23/98 From: KEITH KNAPP Time: 10:57pm \/To: RELATIF TUINN (Read 0 times) Subj: Time and Again RT> KK> As for me personally, if I'd had to use one of Galileo's extremely RT> KK> primitive telescopes, I wouldn't have discovered _anything_! RT>Maybe, maybe not. Who's to say? What I was getting at was that the telescope has just been invented, and Galileo had to grind the lenses for all the scopes he made, and their quality was awful by modern standards. If I'd been Galileo and that's what I'd had to use, we'd still be living in the Middle Ages. RT> You might have discovered the moons orbiting RT>Jupiter that disproved the belief at that time that everything in the cosmos RT>orbited earth. Mind you there was already rough mathematical evidence that th RT>sun was the centre of the solar system by then anyway if my memory serves me RT>correctly, so you might have had a reason for looking if you were aware of it IIRC, Jupiter's moons were a compelling but not conclusive argument for the heliocentric model. I think what pushed Galileo over the edge into accepting Copernicus were the phases of Venus. The first time you see Venus with good magnification is a real shock, because you're expecting a disk, and what you typically see is a distinct crescent. IOW Venus has phases just like the moon. AFAIK there is no way to explain this except by a model that has Venus orbiting the sun. But even in Galileo's time I think it could still be argued that all the other planets orbited the sun, but the sun orbited the earth. BTW, a propos PHILOSOPHY, in Newton's time the real shocker when his work was published was not really the mathematical neatness of his model, but soemthing that would never occur to us today. It was "well known" in that time that affairs on earth ran according to one set of vulgar earthly rules, but that heavenly affairs operated according to ways and means that had nothing to do with mere earthly ways. This was of course a very old, essentially religious view, but it was as basic to human thought as anything could be. Newton showed that the heavens -- or the planets at least -- obeyed the same "rules" as earthly things. That was as profound a paradigm shift as relativity or QM. * SLMR 2.1a * If evolution is outlawed, only outlaws will evolve. --- PCBoard (R) v15.4/M 5 Beta * Origin: * Binary illusions BBS * Albuquerque, NM * 505.897.8282 * (1:301/45) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00018 Date: 03/23/98 From: KEITH KNAPP Time: 10:57pm \/To: DAVID MARTORANA (Read 0 times) Subj: "Big Bangs & lil' puffs" DM> shoulder. I tend believe the "Day Brown HOLODECK" approach- DM> *good as any* ever heard mentioned, as it LOVES the ALL possible. Yup, and the best thing it has going is that you can't logically disprove it! * SLMR 2.1a * . Photographers do it 36 times without reloading. --- PCBoard (R) v15.4/M 5 Beta * Origin: * Binary illusions BBS * Albuquerque, NM * 505.897.8282 * (1:301/45) --------------- FIDO MESSAGE AREA==> TOPIC: 160 PHILOSOPHY Ref: F3T00019 Date: 03/23/98 From: KEITH KNAPP Time: 10:57pm \/To: DAY BROWN (Read 0 times) Subj: Roman Religion DB>More useful than I would have imagined. The Romans, before going DB>to all the work to beseige a city, would send emissaries to their DB>priesthood, and build them an even grander temple dedicated that DB>god in Rome. The priests would be delighted, leave the city for DB>their new fancy digs in Rome, and the resulting panic would leave DB>the city in their hands. A stoke of pure genius. That's pretty cold-blooded, for sure. And then there's that other incident where they killed a long-haired charismatic rabble-rouser, but swung it so that the blame was put on the Sanhedrin. Sneaky, eh? * SLMR 2.1a * Did that gesture mean your team is number one? --- PCBoard (R) v15.4/M 5 Beta * Origin: * Binary illusions BBS * Albuquerque, NM * 505.897.8282 * (1:301/45)