is/ought, final answer

Should you think about your duty, or about the consequences of your actions? Or should you concentrate on becoming a good person?

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Veritas Aequitas
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

Terrapin Station wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:06 pm
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:18 am It is true people have different approaches, but their core and fundamental philosophy would be reducible to PR or PaR
Let me just clarify first whether you're saying here that you could interpret anything so that it's reducible to either realism or anti-realism?
I believe and is confident of doing that [with the caveat no human is Perfect].
Why not you put it to the test and give me examples where they cannot be?
Veritas Aequitas
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Veritas Aequitas »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 9:49 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:53 am
FlashDangerpants wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 12:15 am
That invalidates your argument. You are using as a premise that reality includes such contentious things as "oughtness" without establishing any empirical reason for that to be so. The premise only stands if non empirical objects such as the imaginary contents of the human mind are included, in which case unicrorns are included too with the full force of the argument for whatever that is worth and unicorns can therefore be 'derivable from is'.

And so of course can much more troubling things, such as fashion. All of the arguments you have presented to try and make something objective and factual out of morality could, be used to prove that your trousers are the wrong colour.
I believe I have posted the following example before, here again,

Here is an analogy:
  • 1. Take a river system in the high mountains for example. - empirical fact.
    2. Gravity imposes strong forces of kinetic energy in those rivers - empirical fact.
    3. A dam as a fixed structure is built across a river inhibiting and regulating the flow of water. - empirical fact.
    4. The dam generates resistance against the flow of water which is represented by great tension and forces - empirical fact.
    5. In a way this resistance force is an 'ought-not_ness' to prevent water from flowing as before - which is a fact within the scientific-physics FSK.
The term 'ought-not_ness' in the above example is valid but inappropriate for physical things.

Analogously the above is applicable to the moral system work within the human brain.
  • 1. Take the evolution of humans. -empirical fact
    2. ALL humans are programmed with the potential to kill. -empirical fact
    3. All humans are also programmed with inhibitors of 'not to kill' to regulate 2 - empirical fact
    4. This not-to-kill inhibitors generate resistance to 2 which are represented by tensions and forces. - this is an empirical biological fact.
    5. Within the moral FSK, this resistance is the 'ougth-not-ness' of 'ought-not-to-kill is a moral fact.
The moral framework and system is constituted by the definition of what is morality-proper.
Morality-proper generally is to promote good [ought-to] and avoid evil [ought-not-to] for the well being of the individual and humanity.

The above 1 to 4 are all verifiable and justifiable empirically and philosophical within the scientific FSK and when 1-4 are input into the moral FSK, it is a moral fact that is independent of individuals opinions and beliefs.

Therefore I have demonstrated 'oughtness' that are verified and justified empirically and philosophically within the respective FSK, in this case the moral FSK.
That analogy about dams is poor, but beside the point. You are sidestepping into a completely different argument with different weaknesses to the one I was attacking.

Either your argument I was referencing is deductive - in which case all-that-there-is can be said to contain 'oughtness' to the exact extent that it contains 'unicornness' and 'tastelesstrouserness'. Or the world-contains-oughntess thing was supposed to be empirical, in which case you can show what an actual unit of oughtness is by pointing to some ought that is there be weighed and tagged.
The 'ougthness' that I intended to justify is not by deduction but rather induction.

As I had stated, whatever is a moral fact must be verified and justified empirically and philosophically within a credible framework and system [FSK], like the scientific FSK which is the most credible at present.

You can infer it yourself,
there is an ought-not_ness of not-to-kill humans within your brain as an inherent feature of human nature via the DNA/RNA. That is why you do not go about willy nilly killing humans.
It is also very possible to weaken and loosen your inherent "ought-not_ness of not-to-kill humans" via the most effective brainwashing techniques to drive you to kill humans or even currently as permitted in wars and other situations.

There are many cases of soldiers who had the sanction to kill as a soldier but could not put themselves in a position to kill humans. e.g. a quickie search,
Henry Tandey became the most decorated private soldier in World War One. His bravery though, would be eclipsed in the run up to World War Two by allegations he had spared Adolf Hitler's life, in 1918.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-28593256
There are many reported cases of soldiers deliberately shooting off target.

I am confident with the current trend of advances in the neurosciences, e.g. the Human Connectome Project, scientific will be able to track the exact neurons and test this 'ought-not-to_ness' more precisely.
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FlashDangerpants
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by FlashDangerpants »

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 5:43 am
FlashDangerpants wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 9:49 am
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:53 am
I believe I have posted the following example before, here again,

Here is an analogy:
  • 1. Take a river system in the high mountains for example. - empirical fact.
    2. Gravity imposes strong forces of kinetic energy in those rivers - empirical fact.
    3. A dam as a fixed structure is built across a river inhibiting and regulating the flow of water. - empirical fact.
    4. The dam generates resistance against the flow of water which is represented by great tension and forces - empirical fact.
    5. In a way this resistance force is an 'ought-not_ness' to prevent water from flowing as before - which is a fact within the scientific-physics FSK.
The term 'ought-not_ness' in the above example is valid but inappropriate for physical things.

Analogously the above is applicable to the moral system work within the human brain.
  • 1. Take the evolution of humans. -empirical fact
    2. ALL humans are programmed with the potential to kill. -empirical fact
    3. All humans are also programmed with inhibitors of 'not to kill' to regulate 2 - empirical fact
    4. This not-to-kill inhibitors generate resistance to 2 which are represented by tensions and forces. - this is an empirical biological fact.
    5. Within the moral FSK, this resistance is the 'ougth-not-ness' of 'ought-not-to-kill is a moral fact.
The moral framework and system is constituted by the definition of what is morality-proper.
Morality-proper generally is to promote good [ought-to] and avoid evil [ought-not-to] for the well being of the individual and humanity.

The above 1 to 4 are all verifiable and justifiable empirically and philosophical within the scientific FSK and when 1-4 are input into the moral FSK, it is a moral fact that is independent of individuals opinions and beliefs.

Therefore I have demonstrated 'oughtness' that are verified and justified empirically and philosophically within the respective FSK, in this case the moral FSK.
That analogy about dams is poor, but beside the point. You are sidestepping into a completely different argument with different weaknesses to the one I was attacking.

Either your argument I was referencing is deductive - in which case all-that-there-is can be said to contain 'oughtness' to the exact extent that it contains 'unicornness' and 'tastelesstrouserness'. Or the world-contains-oughntess thing was supposed to be empirical, in which case you can show what an actual unit of oughtness is by pointing to some ought that is there be weighed and tagged.
The 'ougthness' that I intended to justify is not by deduction but rather induction.

As I had stated, whatever is a moral fact must be verified and justified empirically and philosophically within a credible framework and system [FSK], like the scientific FSK which is the most credible at present.

You can infer it yourself,
So, to be entirely clear about this, you are absolutely not claiming that "P2 All-there-is comprises and includes 'ought_ness'" is true by definition in any sense at all. You are trying to have that purely as an inference from experience?

Oughtness is imaginary though. Just as weirdness is, and sexiness. You can point at a thing and say it is weird or wrong, but weirdness and wrongness are not empirical properties of the objects you point at. So the dubious claim to observe the existence of some quantitiy of weird by looking at a frog and thinking "weird" is not a claim about reality in the same sense that the pointing indicates the presence of an actual frog.

So, no. As things stand, the premise "P2 All-there-is comprises and includes 'ought_ness'" is simply false and your "'Ought' is 'Is' within Reality" argument doesn't work.

Attempting to use that FSK thing to justify the premise would as I already tolsd you, be circular because using the premise to prop up the conclusion and the conclusion to prop up the premise is always so. But it can dismissed without that anyeay simply because the whole point of your moral FSK has always been just an effort to formalise a fiction. So if you really need to try and keep this thing alive as an inferential truth, you can't use the contentious FSK thing to justifyit, you have to somehow observe oughtness as a property that inheres to something in the world, even though if that were possible even in principle, this sort of tortured argument would be unnecessary, which gives me confidence you cannot do that.

You would have to try and convert it from an inductive claim that can be dismissed as unreasonable or incoherent, into some form of deductive truth by definition to try and save the argument. But it would be kinder to put it out of its misery to be honest.
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Skepdick »

FlashDangerpants wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:25 am So, to be entirely clear about this, you are absolutely not claiming that "P2 All-there-is comprises and includes 'ought_ness'" is true by definition in any sense at all. You are trying to have that purely as an inference from experience?

Oughtness is imaginary though. Just as weirdness is, and sexiness. You can point at a thing and say it is weird or wrong, but weirdness and wrongness are not empirical properties of the objects you point at.
Dumb, uncharitable dualist. You still keep imposing your own reference/interpretative/semantic frame on the argument.

In any given scene where "pointing" happens there is no "subject" and "object", unless you prescribe those designations. To insist on this taxonomy is to misinterpret your interlocutor. And since you are doing it knowingly and deliberately you are being an uncharitable troll.

There's an interaction between two objects. One object is observing/experiencing/describing another object.

"Weirdness" is a relational property of the system. Object A causes weirdness/sexiness/oughtness when Object B observes Object A.

It's not a property of A or B. It's an emergent property of the interaction between the two because both A and B are necessary for weirdness/sexiness/oughtness to happen in the given context.
FlashDangerpants wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 10:25 am So, no. As things stand, the premise "P2 All-there-is comprises and includes 'ought_ness'" is simply false and your "'Ought' is 'Is' within Reality" argument doesn't work.
It's not false. This premise is absolutely and necessarily true.

EVERYTHING is part of reality. Your feelings/imagination/weirdness/sexiness/oughtness included. There is nothing that isn't real. This is a descriptive and a prescriptive statement.

It's descriptive because the category of non-real things contains nothing: it is an empty set.
It's prescriptive because the category of non-real things OUGHT to remain empty. Populating an empty category makes it non-empty thus absurdity ensues.

It's only when you draw the real/not-real distinction and you place real things in the EMPTY category of non-real things (thereby erroneously populating the empty set) do you end up with the conclusions that you do, which is tantamount to begging the question! It's a category error.
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Re: is/ought, final answer

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[quote=Skepdick post_id=496918 time=1613556435 user_id=17350]
<says things>
[/quote]

It sounds like you're defending my basic metaphysics, and yet you've disagree with almost literally everything i've ever said, despite that it rests on the same foundation. lol, not lol
Skepdick
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Skepdick »

Advocate wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 2:35 pm It sounds like you're defending my basic metaphysics, and yet you've disagree with almost literally everything i've ever said, despite that it rests on the same foundation. lol, not lol
Perhaps you erroneously perceive my comments as disagreement?

On the other hand you continue to speak of "foundations" when I've stated numerous times that I am a militant anti-foundationalist.

Metaphysics is not a foundation of any sort, it's just an instrument.
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Advocate »

[quote=Skepdick post_id=496977 time=1613573153 user_id=17350]
[quote=Advocate post_id=496946 time=1613568951 user_id=15238]
It sounds like you're defending my basic metaphysics, and yet you've disagree with almost literally everything i've ever said, despite that it rests on the same foundation. lol, not lol
[/quote]
Perhaps you erroneously perceive my comments as disagreement?

On the other hand you continue to speak of "foundations" when I've [url=search.php?keywords=%22Anti-foundationa ... mit=Search]stated numerous times[/url] that I am a militant anti-foundationalist.

Metaphysics is not a foundation of any sort, it's just an instrument.
[/quote]

It's a foundational instrument at minimum.
Skepdick
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Skepdick »

Advocate wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 4:34 pm It's a foundational instrument at minimum.
There are no foundations - it's turtles all the way down.

Recursion is the "foundation".
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Peter Holmes »

Metaphors have their uses, but they can lead us astray.

For example, the denial that there's a foundation for what we call truth and knowledge, like the denial that there are things-in-themselves, comes from anxiety over the loss of something we never had. It's entertaining a fantasy of a description that is the described - if only to dismiss it.

And denials of truth, foundations and facts detonate themselves at the moment they're expressed.
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Advocate »

[quote=Skepdick post_id=497031 time=1613581730 user_id=17350]
[quote=Advocate post_id=497004 time=1613576081 user_id=15238]
It's a foundational instrument at minimum.
[/quote]
There are no foundations - it's turtles all the way down.

Recursion is the "foundation".
[/quote]

So you can explain everything in the universe in terms of recursion? I think not.
Skepdick
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Skepdick »

Advocate wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 6:58 pm So you can explain everything in the universe in terms of recursion? I think not.
So... a part of the universe (humans) are trying to explain the universe.

The universe is trying to explain itself... to itself.

Recursion ;)

Methinks the notion of "explanation" is rather poorly conceived... What happens when you "explain" the universe?
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Terrapin Station
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Terrapin Station »

Veritas Aequitas wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 5:27 am
Terrapin Station wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 3:06 pm
Veritas Aequitas wrote: Tue Feb 16, 2021 6:18 am It is true people have different approaches, but their core and fundamental philosophy would be reducible to PR or PaR
Let me just clarify first whether you're saying here that you could interpret anything so that it's reducible to either realism or anti-realism?
I believe and is confident of doing that [with the caveat no human is Perfect].
Why not you put it to the test and give me examples where they cannot be?
The reason I'm clarifying whether you're talking about your own interpretation rather than their reports about what they're doing is that anyone can insist on any arbitrary interpretation of anything, where if they're committed enough about that, they can make whatever gerrymandered moves they need to make to keep themselves convinced that everything fits their interpretation. I don't think that's any significant feat, and it doesn't convince anyone else. Meanwhile, the person with the interpretation in question can't be swayed from their interpretation no matter what--it's always unfalsifiable to them. This only tells us about the interpreter's myopic commitment to an agenda.
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Advocate »

[quote=Skepdick post_id=497040 time=1613585784 user_id=17350]
[quote=Advocate post_id=497039 time=1613584724 user_id=15238]
So you can explain everything in the universe in terms of recursion? I think not.
[/quote]
So... a part of the universe (humans) are trying to explain the universe.

The universe is trying to explain itself... to itself.

Recursion ;)

Methinks the notion of "explanation" is rather poorly conceived... What happens when you "explain" the universe?
[/quote]

Answers are a framework for understanding. That's the first step. Then, after you account for all of those relevant variables, you get solutions.
Skepdick
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Skepdick »

Advocate wrote: Wed Feb 17, 2021 8:29 pm Answers are a framework for understanding. That's the first step. Then, after you account for all of those relevant variables, you get solutions.
Uhuh...

So part of the universe is trying to understand the universe. The universe is trying to understand itself.

This notion of "understanding" seems dubious to me also...

Variables, accounting, solutions, problems. Sounds like you are trying to bend the universe to your will, not understand it.

Mind you, that's not a terrible thing. That's what I am trying to do.
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Re: is/ought, final answer

Post by Advocate »

[quote=Skepdick post_id=497064 time=1613591091 user_id=17350]
[quote=Advocate post_id=497062 time=1613590158 user_id=15238]
Answers are a framework for understanding. That's the first step. Then, after you account for all of those relevant variables, you get solutions.
[/quote]
Uhuh...

So part of the universe is trying to understand the universe. The universe is trying to understand itself.

This notion of "understanding" seems dubious to me also...

Variables, accounting, solutions, problems. Sounds like you are trying to bend the universe to your will, not understand it.

Mind you, that's not a terrible thing. That's what I am trying to do.
[/quote]

Even if what i'm trying to do is totally solipcistic, that does not affect it's pragmatic function one iota-speck.

The foundation for understanding everything in the universe is metaphysics and epistemology - Truth wisdom. Words like self-reference, regress, circular, have no place in any rational system of understanding - that would be to formalize ignorance as knowledge. The universe is self-referential in every way possible so appeal to that particular sort of feature as a problem is incoherent. Our epistemology needs to be certain Enough, because transcendent certainty is never an actual option.

If there's anything that can't be explained rationally it simply means we don't understand it yet. The universe is infinitely casual and anything that belles that fact is ignorance.

The purpose of all knowledge, wisdom, and understanding is actionable certainty. Replicated experience provides certainty. When it's of external experience/material measurement, that's scientific/empirical. When it's about the relationships between entities, that's logical.

"Part of the universe trying to understand itself" does not indicate a logical problem for anything i've said. I don't know what you're looking for but the answers are all right there and they're simple. Can we move from answers to solutions yet?

Since you're going to misinterpret everything i just said and ignore the parts that address the other parts anyhow, let me reiterate the part that matters most; The foundation of everything is replicable certainty, aka epistemology, and the metaphysical Truths that are apparent when you get it right.
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