Veritas Aequitas wrote: ↑Sun Jul 23, 2023 3:10 am
However, whenever I discussed with philosophical realists I am accused of being a solipsist.
Someone may have accused you of being a solipsist, but that's not a good summation of the critical reactions to your position. Some people asked questions and/or criticized arguments where you defended against the charge of solipsism. That's people disagreeing.
However philosophical realists are so ignorant that they are the ones who are solipsistic indirectly, thus kicking their own back.
Why don't you follow your own advice? At the end of this post you write....
Btw, this is merely a discussion for philosophy sake, so don't get too dogmatic, pedantic and emotional.
You just called the people you disagree with ignorant, but then say this at the end up the post. Seems hypocritical, n'est pas?
I had gathered from the Kantian perspective, Philosophical Realism is indirectly Solipsistic. I will throw this argument back at the philosophical realists ONLY when they accused me or others as solipsistic.
You are starting an independent thread, the third on this topic. You're not doing it simply in response, it is now aimed at any philosophical realist.
So far, my arguments below has not been convincing and objections had been raised.
- Premise 1: Philosophical realists (who are also transcendental realists) believe in a mind-independent reality.
You might want to tighten up this sentence. It is unclear if you are saying that all philosophical realists are also transcendental realists or if your argument is aimed at a subset of philosophical realists who are also TRs. It can be read both ways right now.
Premise 2: Kant argues that Transcendental Realism inevitably falls into difficulties and gives way to Empirical Idealism, which treats mere appearances as self-subsistent beings, existing outside us.
Your premise is that Kant asserts something. IOW premise 2 is not you asserting something about realism, it is you assertion that Kant asserted something about realism. It's not really an assertion in this deduction; it fits some disagreement about interpretations of Kant. You need to assert what you say Kant did yourself. The problem with having a premise about what Kant asserted becomes really clear when one sees below that one must read the CPR and then argue against Kant. Your premise is that your paraphrase above is 1) a correct summation of Kant's position and that 2) Kant was correct. If anyone has a problem, you give them the task of reading someone else's work and demonstrating that least 1 or 2 is not correct. If you assert number two yourself, then people don't have to go off and read CPR (again, for some) to have a discussion with you.
Premise 3: Empirical Idealism considers the objects of outer sense as distinct from the senses themselves, implying that reality and other minds are confined to the empirical idealist's mind.
IOW you're not taking responsibility for an argument here. You sending people off to argue with a dead philosopher.
Conclusion: Therefore, philosophical realists (who are transcendental realists) are implicitly solipsistic, as they subscribe to a view that confines reality and other minds to the mind of the empirical idealist.
You and Chatgpt need to reword that sentence. As it stands now it is unintelligible.
This argument attempts to show that philosophical realists, according to Kantian reasoning, end up adopting a position that can be seen as indirectly solipsistic.
So far it's not doing that. See above.
One [a non-Kantian] may not agree with the premises but the above argument is valid.
I don't think it's intelligible. And the argument isn't above. The argument is partly here and partly in the reading of the CPR. And then someone who disagrees with you may well end up having long arguments with you about whether your interpretation of Kant is correct. If you assert Premise 2 yourself, instead of saying Kant said it, they you can have a direct discussion with someone here.
If one do not agree with the valid conclusion, one will have to argue why Kant is wrong on the above premises.
Or the first and/or the third premise are false. Or partly false. Or the logic is not correct.
To argue against Kant, one will need to understand [not necessary agree with] Kant's CPR thoroughly.
Hey, we can all give people hoops to jump through. Discussions are free processes.
You have an idiosyncratic way of mounting an argument and delegating responsibility for your own position onto Kant and your readers. It's within the diversity of human styles of interaction. We'll see if anyone actually accepts the premises you have around what makes for a good conversation and who bears the onus for what.
My point: "people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"
That makes very little sense. Why? First off it implies that people should point out possible entailments of your position, because you will then point them out in their position. But neither of those acts is nasty or out of bounds. In fact they can be useful. Further, perhaps your position is solipsistic AND realists or some of them are also solipsistic. Perhaps both positions entail, for different reasons, solipsism. IOW you seem to be assuming no one should question whether your question is a kind of solipsism or entails solipsism, because their position might entail or be solipsistic.
That's viewing this as a team sport. Both positions could have problems and it would be good, right, to find those out, regardless. There's no problem with probing your position as potentially solipsistic or even asserting it is and trying to show that. 'Punishing' realists for going into that potential problem of your position is like someone saying 'Hey don't tell me I'm cheating on my wife because I'll tell people you're embezzlling money.' It has nothing to do with philosophy. Further, it assumes that if realists are wrong or their position is problematic in some way, then your position is correct. That's a faulty assumption. Both positions could have problems and/or be incorrect.
Whilst solipsism is a philosophical topic for discussion, do not childishly accuse others of being solipsistic.
So, you responded to what you consider childish by being what you consider childish.
Btw, this is merely a discussion for philosophy sake, so don't get too dogmatic, pedantic and emotional.
I mean, the most obvious of the three criteria you are being hypocritical about is the last one. It is obvious you are being emotional about this when you call realists childish and ignorant. It's pretty pedantic to say that
if you have a problem with my (supposedly) valid argument, then you'll have to read the CPR by Kant and understand it thoroughly. To disagree with you, one must demonstrate the errors in the arguments of Kant in the context of the entire CPR. I don't think I've ever seen anyone be as implicitly pedantic as that.
And what a great criterion you're trying to impose on anyone who might disagree with you. The ensuing complicated fracas over the CPR could be avoided if you actually argued the deduction yourself and took responsibility for it.
Dogmatic:
inclined to lay down principles as undeniably true.
Now in this post you did present your argument in more tentative terms than you usually do. But you regularly present your ideas and
especially your criticisms of others in very dogmatic terms.
It's not 'I disagree'
It's that those you disagree with have barbaric primitive evolutionarily default positions.
Realism is a scandal and jeapordizing the whole human race.
I don't know, but that sounds a tad emotional and dogmatic.
You frame the issues in a dogmatic way regularly. If you don't realize this, well, you've already told us you don't give a damn what people say and argue, so we've been forewarned.
One person's pedantry is another person's pointing out errors in reasoning.
It's a great vague accusation. As are the other two.