Re: It's a Republican thing

You postulate inchoate binary slogans?

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No, I vertically integrate leveraged B2B strategies to focus on core competencies.

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Seriously, though, Peter's got a point here. People who know the physics but slept through the philosophy are nicely complementing people who know the philosophy but read the physics in <cite>New York Times</cite> articles, and the result is lots of mumbo-jumbo that only sounds respectable if your criterion is "uses lots of big words".

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And unfortunately, philosophy of mind is currently rife with these sorts of folks who, while they provide a nice counterpoint to the equally-stupid eliminative materialists, need to go back and re-read their Wittgenstein -- whereof they do not know, they should keep silent.

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I see an earnest attempt to try to collect some phenomena that may.. be related to The Mystery (of why there is anything at all.) The screed Cannot / Could not ever "describe the Real"

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Whenever I see someone talk about "the Real" I want to beat them over the head with Kant's Critiques. Yeah, there is in all likelihood a "Real" out there. No, we ain't ever gonna get at it. Yes, it's a fundamental limitation of what we are. The best we can ever manage is rigorous empirical testing that lets us conclude "well, it seems to work this way, but we could still be wrong about that". The Truth is out There in the continuinuinuinuum, and it's all very quantum. Accept it and move on.

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(can you tell I don't care much for metaphysics?)

Indeed the world is filled with small amateurs with Big mouths (I tend to regard even less, the Professional Class; anyone can profess-to-know.) Some things you have to do entirely alone -- even within the noisiest culture yet

As to canny Ludwig... Kant as Rock Star of the age? Hard to better such gems as,

Someone who knows too much finds it hard not to lie.

(Love It when he agrees with moi; The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.)

I reiterate my main bone of contention with *all* flippant dismissals of The Mystery, whether from those who acknowledge little-interest-in the topic they are so Certain about - or those who imagine that meta- is about raps on tables in seances. And fie on every, 'show me the Proof that there's The Real and, THIS is IT.pdf'

Having paid my dues in BS (Big Science) I fancy I grok adequately its general appropriateness for mapping one's cell. Having paid other dues, where the lab is in unmapped territory - I notice I become less tolerant of either the casual smug dismissals - or the I Know Truth!! of the besotted acolyte.

I maintain that, in these matters the most probably 'True' response to just too many casual assertions is,

You Don't Know Shit.

Yes, I too subscribe to niti niti [not this.. not that..] .. an awareness that our jelloware faculties are far better at recognizing the smell of that which is unTrue, than ever noticing outright ... some gleaming little bit of the True. Why, there are whole Schools built around that theme. Just not at Harvard or CalTech.

oTpy

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