Recent content by Paul Martin

Thank you, Fzero. Since I am the person who first raised this question with Greylorn, it is appropriate that I take his suggestion and "jump into the fray" here. Thank you for giving this question some thought and for taking the time to respond. In your first sentence you seem to dismiss the...

Touche. How careless of me. (Years ago Dr. Dick told me I needed to be more careful when I talk to smart people. He was right; and you are among the smartest people I have ever talked to. Sorry.) I agree. I like the way you expressed it. I also have a few reasons for choosing to see it this way...

Yes. I think you have put your finger squarely on the difference betwen our respective philosophies. Warm regards, Paul

You're welcome, mosassam. I think you have an excellent brand of logic. You seem to get right to the point using English without the difficult and cryptic symbolism of mathematics or symbolic logic. Let me try to interpret what you said here using your own brand of logic: There must...

Make that three of us. I think that's the same as saying that we have nothing but logic. That also seems to be closer to my worldview than to yours. Some time ago, you and I expressed different views of what might be ultimately fundamental. You thought it might be motion; I think it is the...

Sorry to butt in here, but to continue with what I said earlier, I think you are using the term axiom in a non-mathematical way. I could agree with you by interpreting what you said as follows: 'Out of the undefined' springs the axioms of logic and from those spring mathematics and within that...

Yes, it has made me uneasy ever since my first serious math class. It has always been a puzzle to me how we know what the rules of logic are, and how we know we can trust them. I fully intend to go back and take a course or two in Foundations of Mathematics just to try to come to grips with this...

I wish I were as quick and sharp as you, mosassam. I have been struggling to understand Dick's result for six or seven years now, and as you can see, I have just now come to catch on to part of it that you have grasped in mere weeks. I don't feel qualified to answer your question, but I'll...

No. I made no such claim. Nowhere. People who publish that literature do not consider Dick a peer because he is not associated with any approved university. Not only do they refuse to publish it, they refuse to read it. That also holds for the mathematical literature and the community that...

How do you know that? I didn't say that it is erroneous, I said that it can be erroneous. I don't think we have any way of determining whether any assertion is true or not. The problem with asserting that "I exist" is the same problem I have with the premise in Descartes' cogito: "I...

In a way it is; and in a way it is not. Dick's theorem is equivalent to A = A in the same sense that all theorems are. All equations, by definition, are assertions that the left side is equal to the right side. That is, that both sides are identically equal or the same. The fact that each side...

Does the Rational Mind exist? If so, is it the unified whole (it can't be part of it otherwise the unified whole wouldn't be a unified whole without parts)? Or, is it outside of, and separate from Reality? If that is the case, we would have to conclude that the Rational Mind is not real but...

I think this needs to be emphasized because I think it is a common stumbling block for people trying to understand Dick's work. Maybe a simple analogy will help. Suppose one were interested in solving a particular problem whose solution is a solution to a quadratic equation. To solve that...

I don't know what specific post of mine you read, Rade, but I'll try to clarify my position. I wouldn't claim that "logic cannot be used as a foundation for any specific philosophy". Logic could very well serve as the foundation for SOME specific philosophies. In fact, mathematics itself...

Good suggestion.