[lit-ideas] Re: Is 'All men are immortal' unscientific?
- From: wokshevs@xxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:22:48 -0230
OK, here's my quarter, I'll take a shot.
As stated, the proposition is ambiguous. The proposition could be an empirical
(scientific) claim or it could be a transcendental claim. In the former case,
it makes sense to investigate whether any particular man has never died. I
assume interviewing techniques and documentary analysis would be relevant
research methodologies. Inquiry, the search for truth, is here the search for a
contingent fact.
In the latter case, the claim says that if you find some entity that is mortal,
it's not possible for that entity to be a man. As a transcendental claim, it
expresses a universal and necessary truth; being outside the realm of
contingency it entails that no empirical inquiry is required, or possible.
Did I win? (Consolation prizes also gratefully accepted.)
Walter O.
MUN
Quoting Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>:
> Actually the question as previously asked is falsifiable. The question should
> have been "Is 'All men are immortal' unscientific?" as per above.
>
> Throw in the questions "Is 'All men are fallible' scientific?" and "Is 'All
> men are infallible' scientific?", and answer the second "Not on the evidence
> of Donal's first attempt at a subject heading", if you feel like it (though
> actually it is scientific, just false).
>
> Donal
> Not for nothing a fallibilist in the theory of knowledge
>
>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________
> Sent from Yahoo! Mail.
> The World's Favourite Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
> digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
>
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
