For Joralex - Metaphysics, Science, & Evolution

Loudmouth I find it interesting how different the actual world is from the assumptions made at this website . I have found 3 errors just in a light skim through the site.Perhaps the people who put the site together did not do serious investigations into their assertions.I find it amazing how uncritcal these people can be.[This message has been edited by sidelined, 10-07-2003]

NosyNed Anything for a fellow Canuck.(1) "Without an explanation or an interpretation of the world around us, we would be helpless to deal with reality. We could not feed ourselves, or act to preserve our lives."
The most obvious contradiction of this statement is animals themselves who, without the benefit of metaphysics, deal with reality far better than we do.They both feed themselves and act to preserve their lives.Since we are animals ourselves we too are fully capable of operating without a working philosophy and,indeed did just so for a lot of our history.(2)The next one is from Existence Exists.
"The very fact that one is aware of something is the proof that something in some form exists"The fact that one is aware of something is not even PROOF that one is aware of something.It is an agreed upon assumption for the most part as a basis for a starting point to see if anything can be further deduced.What exactly existence is is only found in the minds of egotistical philosophers.There is no guarantee that our science can descibe everything and that even through the proper use of logical construction that everything can be understood.(3)In questions and answers /Questions from a relativist there is a highlight on the word skepticism which leads to this gem of clarity."For example, inductive skepticism claims that induction does not bestow true knowledge. They claim that if you have seen 100 sheep, and they all had ears, you are unjustified in claiming "All sheep have ears" because somewhere out there might be a sheep without ears. Even if you have analyzed all sheep that you can find, there might be another somewhere. Skeptics will claim that only knowledge gained through deduction from known facts is knowledge."If you wish I will point out the problem with this statement but I need to run some errands for the wife and I have no doubt whatsoever that SHE exists.

I agree science makes assumptions that it uses as a starting platform.It then TESTS the assumption against the only thing we have which is the thing we tend to call reality.I do not think people doubt their existence without bringing to bear the confusion that philosophy often becomes.And science does one thing the philosophers never do .Experiment.

I think you make an error in judgement here since you state that science makes a "meta"-physical assumption.Without the physical world already agreed upon by concesus philosophy cannot make further categories since it would therefore have no referent.

Ok let us make room for some clarity here.What definition for metaphysics are we using here?

There are theoretical physicists who are the main source of much of my understanding of science nowadays. Richard Feynman Julius Schwinger Murray Gell-Mann are in the elite category (most especially Feynman) who had a great enough grasp of the physics as an extention of their minds that they have been known to bring to bear theories in contradiction of then known experimental data and categorically state that the experiments were in error.And they were found to be correct.
I am at present intrigued with a website that not only shows the level of refinement that our present knowledge is at but also shows how pervasive the levels of error are in what is being taught to people through their education.I highly recommend taking the time to check it out.It gives me insights that never before occured to me and I always come away with the distinct impression that my mind has just participated in high level gymnastics.For those with any inclination the site is
http://www.explorepdx.com/feynman.htmlHey don't dare say I didn't warn you.Philosophy has always struck me as people trying to get out of a one door room through the ceiling and wondering why everybody cannot see the same exit.