ontolog-forum
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [ontolog-forum] Is Philosophy Useful in Software Engineering Ontolog

To: ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: John F Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:39:39 -0400
Message-id: <559AF59B.1040804@xxxxxxxxxxx>
On 7/5/2015 8:07 PM, Rich Cooper wrote:
> The question is about the nondeterministic properties of the 11D string
> theory model promulgated by Brian Greene in the video I posted...
> So we can't possibly all be looking at the same universe given those
> sources of uncertainty.  Right?  Or do you have a response on that?    (01)

As I said in my note to Tom, Descartes's search for absolute
certainly led a few of centuries of philosophers to think that
absolute certainty is possible or even desirable.    (02)

The fact that there are quantum-mechanical uncertainties at the
submicroscopic level does not mean that everything is uncertain.
The following points are beyond doubt:    (03)

  1. We all inhabit planet earth.  That is the basic meaning of
     the word 'world'.  All others are metaphors or other extensions.    (04)

  2. There is vastly more information about our planet than
     anybody has ever observed or imagined.  Scientists or
     anybody who is walking down a road keeps encountering
     surprising new things with just the unaided senses.    (05)

  3. None of those facts mean that we're inhabiting a different
     planet.  They just mean that we're looking at different
     aspects.    (06)

  4. The fact that there are countless more details at the
     submicroscopic level waiting to be discovered does not
     mean that all our beliefs are false at a working level.
     It just means that we should expect countless more surprises
     about the details.    (07)

John    (08)

_________________________________________________________________
Message Archives: http://ontolog.cim3.net/forum/ontolog-forum/  
Config Subscr: http://ontolog.cim3.net/mailman/listinfo/ontolog-forum/  
Unsubscribe: mailto:ontolog-forum-leave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shared Files: http://ontolog.cim3.net/file/
Community Wiki: http://ontolog.cim3.net/wiki/ 
To join: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?WikiHomePage#nid1J    (09)

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>