If every object was perceptually unique, we could believe sentences like “regarding the omelet that, uniquely in the universe, looks like so-and-so: it is bigger than the one that looks like such-and-such.” 4 But objects are frequently indistinguishable in practice, which means that forming beliefs based on unique descriptions is infeasible. Your omelet and mine were visibly different. And omelets do not come with radio frequency microchips. 3 What physical process could get our brains to believe propositions involving globally unique object IDs? Unfortunately, we cannot consult a Cosmic Object Registry via astral connection. What sort of world would rationalism be true of? It would need a Cosmic Object Registry to issue a unique ID number for every object in the universe. Unfortunately, there is no National Omelet Registry. If there were a National Omelet Registry, we could go look the two of them up on its web site, and could believe “omelet 681650346 is bigger than omelet 798267196.” If that is true of Samantha, the correspondence theory of truth is vindicated.Īt breakfast, we both saw the same thing, so we should both believe the same thing. dog 1514670 is a Samoyed, so dog 1514670 sheds a lot. Now you can reason about the Samoyed by applying a universal truth: Samoyeds shed a lot. There’s only one dog with that ID number, so it refers to the same one in every context, and “dog 1514670 is a Samoyed” always means the same thing. You can believe “dog 1514670 is a Samoyed.” That’s legal because dog 1514670 is in the National Dog Registry. You don’t believe the sentence, you believe what it means, which specifies which dog. So there seems an obvious fix for “the dog is a Samoyed.” Let’s outlaw context-dependent beliefs by decree. 2 This makes it much easier to evaluate the truth of statements like “239 is prime,” because they always mean the same thing. The great thing about “239” is that it definitely, eternally, unambiguously refers to the same object, namely the number 239. 1 “The dog is a Samoyed” is another example: it is true or false depending on which dog is the dog, and that depends on the context. Linguists have cataloged a huge variety of related issues. In this case, it is who is saying, or believing, the statement. There’s a broader problem here: statements whose meaning, and truth, depend on something other than the statement itself. I am available for hire as a speaker, workshop leader, or personal consultant.If “mine is bigger” is true, then shouldn’t I believe it too? But it isn’t true… not if I believe it. I am passionate about helping people create balance in the Cosmic Cow Pie of life! Everything I do revolves around reducing stress and creating new relationships which complement one another. I am fervent about showing fellow professionals how to develop powerful relationships and process the cow pies of life.Īfter applying the fourteen principles I profess, my clients typically experience a significant increase in balance and reduction of stress in their lives. I help independent professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners to demonstrate balance and stay focused to accelerate their business profits. You will also find workshops, webinars and fun stuff to reduce stress. The first book in the Cosmic Cow Pie series, Cosmic Cow Pie…Connecting The Dots is available here in soft cover, CD format, MP3 and pdf download.
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