Ha!
That's some classy trolling.

You should get yourself enrolled on a philosophy course. You'd either give your professors brain hernias or they'll be eating out of your hand. Denial of reality bordering on solipsism is still very 'in' right now.
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 11:51, 1 reply)

That wouldn't be mockery in lieu of a point, would it?
Only, I'm still waiting for this "mighty beat down", which I understand won't be pretty.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 12:00, closed)

Actually it was a genuine compliment
'cos I thought you were joking.

If you're not, I actually think mockery would be the only suitable response. Actually, if there are no objective facts, it doesn't matter what I say. By your logic, even as you read these words, their meaning, or whether they actually even exist, is merely an unproveable hypothesis.
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 13:09, closed)

Indeed.
Yes - everything IS an unprovable hypothesis.

Of course, it's not very practical to view the world in such a way, but it's true nonetheless - the paradox of existence.

As you're well aware, no doubt, mockery is the the best way to indicate you have nothing more to offer in a debate.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 13:16, closed)

I guess you're hung up on the idea of 'proof'
But, you know - David Hume, Karl Popper - it's not like your the first person to see that proof is a problematic idea.

A good way through is to flip the problem round the other way and try to explain the coherence of the world you percieve. There are really no such thing as paradoxes in the universe (not in the way we usually use the term). All such 'philosophical' paradoxes are really just word games, and yours centres around particular hard-and-fast definitions of 'proof', 'truth' and 'fact'.

Also, I was not aware that mockery indicates you have nothing more to offer in a debate. Someone should tell those satirists, they must be feeling very foolish.

I still think you're trolling for the long game, you just don't seem like the sort of crusty hippy I usually have this argument with. But this is literally my favourite thing to argue about.
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 13:52, closed)

Well - 10/10 for being patronising, but
0/10 for progress, making any salient or relavent, or, indeed, counter points.

All debate, however - scientologic and philisolophical - is just semantic - agreed.

Well done on reading a book with long words, though - you'll be telling me the more exams you pass the more clever it makes you, next.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 14:29, closed)

:( I guess you weren't trolling
Still, I don't know what L Ron Hubbard has to do with all this.
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 14:38, closed)

He's the one who married that peasant woman.
But that aside - I'm yet to see this "mighty beat down using your scientific realism stick".
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 14:40, closed)

Meh.
This was a lot more fun when I suspected you were kidding. Now I realise I've ended up bickering about the nature of truth on a comedy website, my heart's not really in it anymore.

Besides, as you've pointed out, mutual confirmation bias means neither of us will ever concede anyway.

If you're interested, I'd recommend Stathis Psilios' book on Scientific Realism. While some of his own ideas are a bit of a stretch, it's a totally non-masturbatory, very fair minded, and a good overview of the various arguments in the philosophy of science.

Even if you're not interested, you should definitely get a copy of Paul Boghossian's Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism. It is 100 pages of pure gold, and the best demolition of an argument I have ever seen.
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 15:16, closed)

I mean,
phwoar, I'll show you my mighty stick if you show me yours. Fnarr.
(leviticus no longer likes the cut of your gib on, Wed 18 Jan 2012, 15:19, closed)