[lit-ideas] Re: Where are the empiricists? [Was] Re: The Meaning of Life: Isn't there a wikipedia article on that?
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 19:42:09 +0100 (BST)
'Robert Paul and I', as well as being an unusual phrase on this list, seem to
agree these examples are useless as a test. But why? Is it simply that ob,
inf and op are interchangeable or inextricably linked? Might a philosopher
say the problem is that the propositions are not sufficiently definite or
spelt out. T'whit:
> 1. The plant is not important to the students in this classroom.
If the reason given is that they did not save it when the firebell rang,
then...ok, bad example. Even that 'fact' seems to involve ob, inf and op of
some sort. [Although there is an crucial diff between inf in the deductive
sense and inductive: we did not deduce this, we can only have inf'd in an
inductive way.]
But are there not examples where, certainly as regards ordinary language or
commonsense, we would be inclined to say of a proposition 'that's a matter of
observation' or 'that's a matter of opinion'? Isn't it an ob that we can see
a duck on the lawn, a matter of inf that ducks therefore exist, and a matter
of op that they are much uglier than swans?
Accordingly might we not suggest:-
> 2. Carol looked tired.
Is ob if we saw her baggy eyes and saggy posture (even if we are wrong that
she is tired we still ob'd that she "looked tired")? Is mere op if we have no
adequate ob for our assertion?
> 3. I bet it takes you a long time to get to your classes.
Ob/inf if said of someone who we know always walks very slowly? Op if we just
think everyone should get to classes quicker than they do?
> 4. I was on roller blades when I fell and broke my leg.
Could be mere op/inf, and not 'direct' ob, if I was unconscious of ever
having
been on roller blades because I was launched like the Titanic by friends who
put them on me having fed me a huge cocktail of drugs? Could be indirect
ob/inf if I later saw the phone camera footage they took of me as I whizzed
down the hill?
> 6. Frogs croak to talk to each other in a pond.
Ob that they croak, op as to why - unless we know and can converse in frog
for example.
> 7. The girl looked sad as she walked home from school.
Ob that she walked home if this was seen by us; as to 'looked sad' see above
at 2.
> 8. I have a headache.
Ob, normally.
> The odor gave me a headache.
Ob again - it was here the smell of shit coming from the Bush admin.
> 9. The music hurt my ears.
Ob that my ears hurt, op that music was the cause [unless was Wagner, P-Diddy
etc].
> 10. The umpire looked mad.
See 2.
And see also that the examiner was perhaps challenging students to attack the
question - genius!
Donal
Setting the bait
Before feeding Lucky later
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