Archive for May, 2007

May 21, 2007: 4:34 pm: Personal

Well, this weekend I got to hang out with my bro-in-law, my sister, my little nephew, my grandparents, my brother, and my cousin. Whew. Yup, I stayed up at my grandparent’s home this weekend, and capped it off with a trip up Marshall Pass (near Salida, Colorado). Stirling, my nephew, loved throwing rocks in the raging creek.

Yes, I said “raging.” Whoever still thinks Colorado is in a drought needs to try to walk up Marshall Pass. Er…”swim” is more like it.

In any case, this was what I needed. A bit of R&R to take my mind off work, my broken computer, the spring heat, etc. There’s a reason the Sabbath was invented! :-)

May 18, 2007: 10:51 am: Personal

I had forgotten how boring it can be without my computer at home. No way to write, chat with folks in #pros, respond to T-Stone. *sigh*

On the plus side, my Xbox works and I’ve been playing my ChessMaster game on it. So maybe I’ll become the next Josh Waitzkin….

Yeah.

May 17, 2007: 2:11 pm: Personal

Well, I’m having some problems with my home computer, so I won’t be able to connect online from there for a bit. I’m getting the comp checked out now…but this could mean I have to buy a new one.

Not that I didn’t already WANT a new one; I would have just preferred this NOT be the reason why!!!

May 16, 2007: 12:15 pm: Philosophy

The nice thing about asking T-Stone questions is that before I ask them I already know both the manner in which he will respond (obliquely, at best) as well as the fact that he would never pause to consider the reason why I asked the questions I did. As such, T-Stone is actually quite easy to “lead” to a specific area, which was the reason I asked the questions I did.

For instance, I originally asked:

How is it possible for you to even determine that you have a filter that needs corrected in the first place?

T-Stone responded:

If you are asking how can I determine *for certain* that I have such a filter, I can’t.

But he then said:

Contradictory accounts of the same event suggest that a) either we weren’t witnessing the same event in the first place, or b) one or more (or all) of us has an interpretation of the event that is at odds with what actually happened.

Given the choices of a) and b), b) seems more plausible (emphasis added).

The problem with this is that in order to determine plausibility in any meaningful way, you have to know what things ought to be normal. In other words, for T-Stone to say that b) is more plausible than a), he must know that reality more closely corresponds to b) than to a). In saying which is more “plausible”, T-Stone is smuggling in an objectivist claim.

Similarly, T-Stone continued:

A unified reality with various amounts of distortion in the perceptions of observers would explain the contradictions more naturally than some sort of “personal universes” or “multiple histories” view that maintains the perfection of the observer’s perception, and instead messes with the underlying reality to resolve the contradictions (emphasis added).

T-Stone says that accepting his view is “more natural” than other views. This is therefore an objectivist claim. Likewise, he argues that these opposing views “[mess] with the underlying reality to resolve the contradictions.” But in order for T-Stone to know that these view “mess” with this “underlying reality” he is first required to know what the underlying reality is. Again, while claiming to be subjective, he’s engaging in objectivist claims.

This is most obvious in his answer to my question, “You are assuming that you have a subjective filter. Why? Because ‘everyone’ does?” In response, he says:

Simply because this assumption has proven the most effective for me as a model of the real world (emphasis added).

This statement simply cannot be made subjectively. There is no “subjective” way to determine that an assumption has proven effective, nor that it models “the real world” unless you know what the real world is. T-Stone’s argument requires him to have objective knowledge of the universe in order for him to make his subjective claim.

Naturally, T-Stone may simply reply, “It is only my subjective opinion that it would be more natural to believe what I do, or that it would model the real world accurately, etc.” But note A) T-Stone does not speak as if this is his mere opinion; he speaks using objectivist language while saying we ought to read it as if he applies a subjectivist disclaimer before he says it (but that subjectivist disclaimer refutes his very argument, which is why he never explicitly states it!); and B) if it really is just his subjective appeal all the way down, T-Stone’s denial of objective reality is based on a position of pure fideism. It is T-Stone’s belief that this is the case. There is no underlying basis for his position other than T-Stone’s bare faith. This is, indeed, the very definition of blind faith. He merely believes because he wants to believe, not because there is any reason for him to believe.

T-Stone also said:

I don’t know for certain that Abraham Lincoln will not show up on my door tomorrow.

This is the silly sort of thing that T-Stone is reduced to stating because of how hard he must grasp at subjectivity. The fact of the matter is that he does know “for certain” that Abraham Lincoln will not show up at his door tomorrow. He only says he doesn’t know this “for certain” because if he said those two magic words, he’d be committing himself to an objectivist position.

But even not saying those two magic words, T-Stone has still committed himself to an objectivist position, for he has said that reality is objectively such that it he cannot be certain that Abraham Lincoln won’t show up at his porch tomorrow. In saying that he cannot rule out the possibility, he is saying that it is objectively the case that Honest Abe could possibly do this; and he can only know that Abe could possibly do this if he is making an objective statement about reality. Of course, T-Stone hasn’t considered this because he doesn’t really believe it. His subjectivity claims are merely to avoid having to argue for his position (remember, he only has bare fideism–and irrationalism–for his position).

To be fair to T-Stone, he did get close to the truth here:

But I have no experience available to me, no precedent, for the re-appearance of a long dead American President. I can’t be certain that it can’t or won’t happen, but I have no empirical basis to suggest that it will.

I remind T-Stone that I originally asked him:

Is it reasonable for you to couch all your truth claims in subjectivist language, or is it instead reasonable to assert dogmatically that reality is what you think it is because you have no reason to think otherwise?

While I disagree with T-Stone’s empiricism in his above quote, I point out that the existence of it ought to lead T-Stone to an objective position rather than a position of subjective doubt. It is unreasonable to doubt everything. Again, my original post on radical skepticism dealt with this.

T-Stone finishes:

Hey, why am I answering all these questions you offer, when you won’t answer the few that I’ve put to you?

Firstly, how am I supposed to know the inner workings of an irrational mind in or to answer the question of why you do anything? :-P Secondly, I have answered your relevant questions. Thirdly, if you’re referring to the definitions of subjective and objective (as is implied by your previous comments), it’s not like I’ve never provided a definition for them. Look at almost any one of my interactions with Dawson for examples of this. I don’t see a need to continually repeat myself simply because you don’t read.

But if you insist, a basic definition is easy. Objective truth is truth that is dependent upon the object; subjective truth is dependent upon the subject. Objective truth is true regardless of what the subject thinks, dreams, imagines, believes, etc because it is based on the ontology of the object. Subjective truth can never leave the subject. It is confined to each individual subject. Therefore, it is impossible for a subjective truth to be true for more than one subject (even if two subjects hold the same proposition, it is not really the same proposition for the first subject’s proposition is only true for the first subject, etc.).

May 15, 2007: 3:53 pm: Politics, Science

I’m thinking Algore puts the “mental” in environmental.

May 14, 2007: 9:55 pm: Atheism, Philosophy

This post will consist of two parts in one post. The first part is directed toward T-Stone. The second part is for everyone else :-)

Part I

In comments on this post, I pointed out the irony that Touchstone would defend Cameron’s subjective testimony during his & Comfort’s “debate” (which isn’t really the correct word for what happened) with Brian Sapient and Kelli Whatshername (you know, from the Green Day song). The irony of T-Stone’s comment is due to the fact that T-Stone never misses a chance to bash the Triabloguers who, rather than presenting subjectivist “testimony,” actually produce arguments.

T-Stone took umbrage with my classification of his position. He said:

Peter,

The problem is that you offer arguments that are supremely subjective, yet suppose they are objective. Nothing wrong with subjective arguments, or objective arguments. But it’s a problem when you try to claim the mantle of objectivity for your subjective assertions. A “truth in advertising” problem.

-Touchstone

(If you disagree, let’s have a look at your “objective arguments”, shall we and we’ll see just how much subjective you tuck away in there…)

The problem is that T-Stone hypocritically applies a radical skepticism to anything I say in an attempt to turn everything into a subjective argument when he does not use the same radical skepticism against his own views. There is a reason for this. He isn’t a radical skeptic (no one is, for we all must actually live in this world).

When it comes to T-Stone, I could argue “2 + 2 = 4 in a Base-10 system is objectively true” and T-Stone would counter: “Have you considered quantum mechanics possibly making 2 + 2 both equal to and NOT equal to 4 at the same time and in the same relationship? No? Then you’re being subjective while pretending to be objective!”

T-Stone’s refuge is to hold onto pure skepticism as his weapon against the T-Bloggers. But his skepticism comes at a price. If T-Stone is to remain faithful to his skeptical position, he can never assert any positive claim. This includes his claim that I am being subjective instead of objective, as well as his claim that skepticism is a valid approach.

Perhaps the best argument is a demonstration. So, T-Stone can have it back now. He begins by saying: “The problem is that you offer arguments that are supremely subjective, yet suppose they are objective.” T-Stone: is this an objective statement? That is, can you objectively demonstrate that my arguments are “supremely subjective”? Can you even define “subjective” and “objective” (without doing another of your “trivial Google searches” that you are so fond of)? And if you do define those words, how do you know that you defined them correctly? Isn’t your use of the words themselves subjective rather than objective?

T-Stone continues: “Nothing wrong with subjective arguments, or objective arguments.” Really? Is THIS an objective statement, or a subjective statement? How do you know it is true that there is nothing wrong with either type of argument?

T-Stone charges: “But it’s a problem when you try to claim the mantle of objectivity for your subjective assertions.” But A) how is it objectively a problem for me to lie (if, indeed, that is what I have done) and B) how do you KNOW that i) it actually is a problem for me too and ii) that I did violate this principal? What is your objective proof that I am engaged in such bad behavior here? Show me your objectivity, T-Stone.

You challenge me to show my arguments (as if I hadn’t already done this hundreds of times). I’m challenging you to back up your statements.

And since this began as a discussion in interpretation in the first place, I want you to objectively prove to me right now that you have objectively understood my statements (whether you agree or disagree with them). Keep in mind that no matter what you say, I’m going to respond with, “But how do you know this is true?” just as you do.

Dealing with the radical skeptic is oh-so-fun, isn’t it T-Stone? But if it’s good enough for you to behave this way, it’s good enough for me to respond in kind. When you’ve had enough of this nonsense, we can move on.

Part II

While my above challenge to T-Stone is a serious challenge (that is, T-Stone has to do it if he’s going to keep any sense of self-respect), it may also actually appear to some as a valid method of attacking someone’s point of view. It appears valid because A) the method employed is only asking questions and B) there is a level of “uncertainty” associated with knowledge. But in reality, the radical skeptic approach is self-contradictory and, as such, it is impossible for it to actually be true.

It is rather simple to demonstrate this if we take the radical skeptic view toward radical skepticism in the first place. “Is radical skepticism objective? How can we know? Have we understood radical skepticism correctly in order to know whether we’re using it right in the first place?”

The bottom line is, if radical skepticism is true we cannot know that it is true. If we know that radical skepticism is true, then we know that radical skepticism must be false for radical skepticism cannot know anything. This is the self-contradictory nature of radical skepticism. As such, even before we look at the questions in any attack against our position, we know that at the basic level skepticism can no longer be viable.

But there is another level where the radical skeptic approach becomes self-contradictory, and that is during its application. When we get into language (which is where this subject with T-Stone originated), this means that the radical skeptic who assumes that there can be no objective transfer of meaning in a text must, in the midst of attacking that text, make an objective statement about the very text he is criticizing. To illustrate this, consider the following:

I write out a concept C. Our radical skeptic reads concept C and applies his radical skepticism to it. His radical skepticism says, “I cannot know for certain anything about C.” But in order to make this claim, he must have universal knowledge of C! If he does not know the totality of C, he cannot say, “I cannot know anything about C” for there could remain a part of C that he is able to know, if he surveyed it. Thus, in order for the skeptic to say that he cannot know anything about a concept, he must first assert that he knows all there is to know about the concept!

In reality, the skeptic, in an attempt to remain consistent, can only say: “I cannot know that I cannot know anything about concept C.” But this, in turn, is yet another concept! This concept (“I cannot know that I cannot know anything about concept C”) we will call concept C’. C’ falls to the same problem. The skeptic cannot say, “I cannot know C’” without knowing C’ universally. This leads to C”: “I cannot know that I cannot know C’.” Ad infinitum.

Maintaining a radical skepticism is, therefore, inherently irrational. Skepticism must end somewhere. And in language this is ultimately demonstrated in the fact that the radical skeptics will write, talk, gesture, or use all other types of language in order to convey the meaning that you cannot know any meaning they are attempting to convey. This hypocrisy undoes their arguments, for it is obvious that if they convince someone to their position they have conveyed the meaning they wished to convey using the very means they say cannot do this.

As such, it cannot be “skepticism all the way down.” There must be some point where we have unquestionable positions, for to question them would be to commit ourselves to infinite regress.

T-Stone said he wanted examples of my arguments that were objective so he could see how much subjectivism was in them. Perhaps he can start with this one…

: 6:36 am: Politics, Satire

Cruise Ship Hits Rock: Global Warming to Blame. Yeah, yeah. Global Warming isn’t specifically mentioned in the article. But think about it. Why would a cruise ship hit a rock that’s always been there? It wouldn’t. Therefore, changing sea levels must have caused this accident. Although sea levels are supposed to rise, not fall, um…maybe the rushing currents of melting glaciers moved the rock! Yeah, that must be it!!!

Stupid Bush!

DOD Bans Information For/From Soldiers. Yup, they’ve decided to block YouTube and MySpace amongst OtherSites that have two words SmashedTogether with NoSpace between them. The reason given is that the massive bandwidth drain of these sites causes problems with the network. Despite this official reason, the truth is revealed in the article:

If the restrictions are intended to prevent soldiers from giving or receiving bad news, they could also prevent them from providing positive reports from the field, said Noah Shachtman, who runs a national security blog for Wired Magazine.

Yes, never mind that the DOD said the reason was reduce drag and increase bandwidth. We know that the DOD is just a bunch of liars because of BUSH.

May 13, 2007: 4:59 pm: Personal

Even though my parents are currently in France, I still wanted to send out a Happy Mother’s Day for Mom :-)

May 12, 2007: 10:27 pm: Politics

Oops.

Brownback forgot he was in Wisconsin when he started to talk about Peyton Manning being the greatest quarterback of the NFL. Of course, being in Wisconsin, that comment didn’t go over well. So he recovered by saying he really meant Bret Favre as the greatest quarterback ever. Which only shows how stupid he is because the greatest quarterback ever was John Elway.

Sadly, more people probably care about football then they do about Brownback’s position on anything.

May 11, 2007: 9:31 pm: Personal

Spidey got me. No, not the movie. I was tagged by SpideyGeek.

I blame Bush for this.