Re: Bi-and Tri- and Quatr- and Quintifurcation

From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Wed Mar 28 2001 - 05:12:49 BST

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    Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2001 22:12:49 -0600
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    Subject: Re: Bi-and Tri- and Quatr- and Quintifurcation
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    On 27 Mar 2001, at 19:31, Wade T.Smith wrote:

    > Hi Joe E. Dees -
    >
    > >Now we have:
    > >
    > >1) Provisional truths
    > >2) Apodictically certain (self-evident) truths
    > >2) Falsehoods
    > >4) Untestable assertions (beliefs)
    > >5) Meaningless assertions (pseudoassertions)
    > >
    > >Any others?
    >
    > _If_ "Every fact is backed up by the entire universe" is a definition,
    > if you will, of a scientific fact (merely 'fact' in my bifurcation),
    > _then_ all of your list above is fiction, (or 'false' in my
    > bifurcation), with the proviso that, hmmm, it may be not altogether
    > prudent to put your #2 among the fictions, because, nothing can be in
    > the entire universe at once to back them all up- the entire universe,
    > by virtue of space and time, is unknowable at any one moment.
    >
    First, it is difficult to see how a meaningless assertion could even
    qualify as a fiction. Second, provisional truths, following Popperian
    methodology, include all scientific ones; I'm not willing to label
    them fictions, as the available evidence corroborates them. They
    stand on the shoulders of the apodictic truths; if our own
    perceptions of the universe are not to be trusted, then neither are
    generalizations drawn from a multiplicity of related perceptions.
    Untestable assertions MAY be backed up by the entire universe; it
    is just impossible to check the entire universe to see. Falsehoods
    are, of course, fictions.
    >
    > But every act of language produces fiction unless it's analogous to a
    > self-evident truth, such as mathematics possesses.
    >
    What about the spoken statement "I am speaking", which,
    although indubitably true, is nevertheless nonmathematical? Also,
    remember that there are Euclidean, Riemannian and
    Lobatchevskeyan geometry, only one of which (Riemannian, as it
    turns out) can be true (although Euclidean is a simple and
    pragmatically useful approximation in most macro - neither micro
    nor cosmic - instances). For further reference, I recommend
    MATHEMATICS - THE LOSS OF CERTAINTY by Kline. Also,
    mathematics rests upon the structural foundation provided by logic,
    which is itself derived from the rules of perception.
    >
    > And, yes, what about nothing?
    >
    > The entirely unsensible is also backed up by the entire universe.
    >
    Nothing is not. Nothing is also unstable. Plus, the absence of the
    insensible is as difficult to detect as is its presence.
    >
    > - Wade
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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    > see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit
    >
    >

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    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
    Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
    For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing)
    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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