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Meaningness's profile
David Chapman
David Chapman
David Chapman
@Meaningness

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David Chapman

@Meaningness

Better ways of thinking, feeling, and acting—around problems of meaning and meaninglessness; self and society; ethics, purpose, and value.

meaningness.com/about-my-sites
Joined September 2010

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    1. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      There are almost no just-plain-true (or false) facts in the macroscopic natural world. We’ve engineered our environment to support deductive reasoning, which doesn’t work in nature. Text from Elijah Millgram’s _Hard Truths_pic.twitter.com/e6HLMSjpb3

      5 replies 28 retweets 142 likes
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    2. 𝕵𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐚‏ @Jayarava 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness

      And yet, David, I bet you still refrain from jumping off tall building and eating poison.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Jayarava

      Right. The point here is that many things are “true enough” or “more-or-less true” or “true for this particular purpose.” The false dichotomy is between “really truly true” and “meaningless” or “hopelessly vague.”

      2 replies 2 retweets 12 likes
    4. 𝕵𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐯𝐚‏ @Jayarava 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness

      I think this might be more interesting for me if I knew who "the Rationalists" are/were or if I'd ever seen anyone make the point you are arguing against. 🤷‍♂️ Most of the people I know are irrationalists.

      1 reply 0 retweets 2 likes
    5. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Jayarava

      Rationalists: Plato, Kant, Russell, Gödel. Almost all 20th century analytic philosophers. Most working scientists (but inconsistently). On your other point: yes, and I’ll take rationalists over irrationalists any time!

      5 replies 0 retweets 6 likes
    6. Paolo G. Giarrusso‏ @Blaisorblade 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @Jayarava

      For modern rationalists, that's almost a strawman. Rationalists are informed by their science, and modern science understands uncertainty much better, not just in the social domain but also in life sciences. And we can *reason* on uncertainty with statistics.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    7. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Blaisorblade @Jayarava

      “True enough for this purpose” is an ontological matter, not an epistemic one. The issue is not uncertainty, it is indefiniteness. Rationalists frequently make this move, of changing the subject to uncertainty (for which they have a story) when the topic is indefiniteness.

      1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
    8. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @Blaisorblade @Jayarava

      “HIV causes AIDS” is about as certain as anything we know; there is no meaningful doubt. However, what it means for it to be true is highly dubious ontologically. In fact, each of the three words in the statement is extremely ontologically indefinite.

      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
    9. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @Blaisorblade @Jayarava

      HIV is defined as “whatever vaguely-related viruses cause AIDS” and AIDS is defined as “whatever diseases are caused by HIV.” And no one has any workable story about what “causes” means, in general.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    10. Paolo G. Giarrusso‏ @Blaisorblade 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Meaningness @Jayarava

      I agree philosophers have rightfully debated causality. But for AIDS and especially HIV, I'd wager that's not the definition, but at best "how we get to a definition".

      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
      David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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      Replying to @Blaisorblade @Jayarava

      Well… having looked into the matter in some detail, I think that as a matter of science, you are mistaken. HIV is polyphyletic; the only criterion for inclusion in the taxon is that it infects humans (not other primates).

      4:33 PM - 21 Apr 2018
      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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        2. Paolo G. Giarrusso‏ @Blaisorblade 21 Apr 2018
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          Replying to @Meaningness @Jayarava

          So "HIV refers to a questionable list of viruses" is now an ontological issue?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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          Replying to @Blaisorblade @Jayarava

          It’s ontological in that the issue is that there is no Truth about whether a particular virus counts as HIV. If there were a Truth, but we had difficulty knowing that Truth, it would be epistemological.

          1 reply 0 retweets 1 like
        4. 6 more replies
        1. David Chapman‏ @Meaningness 21 Apr 2018
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          Replying to @Meaningness @Blaisorblade @Jayarava

          Oh, and also it has to result in immunodeficiency syndrome. SIV strains that infect humans harmlessly don’t count has HIV.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
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