If all men are mortal...

[Peter Kropotkin]

this classic chestnut has been around for a long, long time,
but I have a problem with it... it depends on an assumption....

that all men are mortal....

as a matter of fact, we can't know that all men born have actually died....
we can assume that they died, but we can't actually know that....to know
would mean that we would have to account for all persons alive to
have also died...we can't know that....
for all we know, that there is someone who was born say 12,000
years ago and is still alive....and if I were that old, I sure the hell
wouldn't advertise it... just every few years move to another place to
keep one step ahead of the curious... let us say, we find a person who
is 12,000 years old... how quickly would that person find themselves
being locked up and studied for the next thousand years or so?

that being immortal has been the goal of most of the human race
and people will do practically anything to discover how its done...
and one person, just one person living that long will upend
practically everything, if discovered...

personally, I go with the ''be careful what you ask for'' rule...
I think living forever is a nightmare of epic proportions...
but I seem to be a minority in this one.... anyway, back
at the ranch...

that old chestnut is basically an assumption about
men being mortal...

Kropotkin

[LuckyR]

You don't even have to go that far. You and I aren't dead. Could we be at the beginning of our immortal lives? Sure, it's possible. It's always been possible. Not controversial.

[Peter Kropotkin]

actually I was commenting on the syllogism that

all men are mortal
Socrates is a man,
therefore Socrates is mortal...

and this is an assumption.... that was my point....

Kropotkin

[LuckyR]

actually I was commenting on the syllogism that

all men are mortal
Socrates is a man,
therefore Socrates is mortal...

and this is an assumption.... that was my point....

Kropotkin

And you're absolutely correct since "all men are mortal" is completely unproven as we both demonstrated.