Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> Peter jones writes:
>
> > Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
> >
> > > Peter Jones writes:
> > >
> > > > > > All physical theories are theories of matter (mass/energy).
> > > > >
> > > > > True, but they are not theories of what matter *actually is*.
> > > >
> > > > Hence the need for a metaphysical account of
> > > > matter-as-Bare-Substance to complement the
> > > > physicst's account of matter-as-behaviour.
> >
> > > That would be like theology.
> >
> > Theology uses the vocabulary of traditional metaphysics, but not all
> > traditional
> > metaphysics is theology
>
> Theology is a subset of metaphysics. Metaphysics does not deal with
> purely logical and/or empirical facts. T
Metaphysics can. It depends on who is doing it.
> his means you could come up with
> any metaphysical theory consistent with the logical and empirical facts,
> no matter how silly, and no-one would be able to rebutt it.
Of course not, that is utterly wrong.
Meaphysicians often invoke Occam's razor, for instance.
In cany case, people who seriously think we
are all living in Plato's heaven are already dealing in metaphysics of
the most
baroque kind.
> For example,
> I could say that friction is the result of tiny, undetectable demons who
> try to grab my finger as I slide it against an object. Sure, there's no way
> to prove these demons do or don't exist, but I'm going to believe in them
> anyway as a metaphysical theory.
And there's no way to prove we aren't computer-simulated...
> Stathis Papaioannou
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Received on Fri Aug 25 2006 - 10:58:17 PDT