Let me rephrase this. There’s a reality. The universe is what it is. There are no logical truths. There is not a “1+1=2”. There is not even a “there is a reality” or a “there are no logical truths”.
Logical truths exist within a system, and while in one sense that system does not exist in the universe, we can still note that our induction tells us the concept ‘logical system’ and its subconcepts ‘logical truth’ and ‘logical falsity’ apply with a very high probability to the universe.
There are a series of observations where one unit and another unit are combined and the result is two units. There are no observations where one unit and another unit are combined and the result is one unit, or three units, or any number of units other than two. There isn’t a general law that says 1+1=2. These assertions seem disingenuous when considered together. It appears you want more out of ‘general law’ than ‘applies in every case’.
There’s a reality. The universe is what it is.
…
There is not even a “there is a reality”
What, in your mind, distinguishes ‘There is a reality’ from ’The sentence “there is a reality” is true”?
What, in your mind, distinguishes ‘There is a reality’ from ’The sentence “there is a reality” is true”?
‘There is a reality’ is the closest I can get to expressing the physical truth. It’s still a failure. It’s a map, not the territory, but it’s the closest I can get to the territory. ‘The sentence “there is a reality” is true’ is more like a map of a map. It’s clearly supposed to be a map. It’s an obvious attempt at a logical truth.
Put another way, if I draw a picture of a pipe, and it’s not convenient to actually give you a pipe, I probably mean a pipe. If I draw a picture of a picture of a pipe, I couldn’t have been referring to anything but a picture.
When I say reality is true, I mean it’s there. “There is reality” is only there in the sense that you wrote it. If I wrote “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”, (which I did), it would be there.
It appears you want more out of ‘general law’ than ‘applies in every case’.
I use it as a tool. All I want for that is for it to generally work. For it to be real, ‘applies in every case’ is neither sufficient, nor necessary. It has to actually exist. This keyboard I’m typing on is real. Can you give me a single case in which it applies?
There’s nothing inherent in a statement that makes it true or false. It’s just useful to think that way.
I’d say that it’s really just somebody vibrating the air, but even that is an abstraction, and has no more real truth than anything else.
http://yudkowsky.net/rational/the-simple-truth
Let me rephrase this. There’s a reality. The universe is what it is. There are no logical truths. There is not a “1+1=2”. There is not even a “there is a reality” or a “there are no logical truths”.
Logical truths exist within a system, and while in one sense that system does not exist in the universe, we can still note that our induction tells us the concept ‘logical system’ and its subconcepts ‘logical truth’ and ‘logical falsity’ apply with a very high probability to the universe.
There are a series of observations where one unit and another unit are combined and the result is two units. There are no observations where one unit and another unit are combined and the result is one unit, or three units, or any number of units other than two. There isn’t a general law that says 1+1=2. These assertions seem disingenuous when considered together. It appears you want more out of ‘general law’ than ‘applies in every case’.
What, in your mind, distinguishes ‘There is a reality’ from ’The sentence “there is a reality” is true”?
‘There is a reality’ is the closest I can get to expressing the physical truth. It’s still a failure. It’s a map, not the territory, but it’s the closest I can get to the territory. ‘The sentence “there is a reality” is true’ is more like a map of a map. It’s clearly supposed to be a map. It’s an obvious attempt at a logical truth.
Put another way, if I draw a picture of a pipe, and it’s not convenient to actually give you a pipe, I probably mean a pipe. If I draw a picture of a picture of a pipe, I couldn’t have been referring to anything but a picture.
When I say reality is true, I mean it’s there. “There is reality” is only there in the sense that you wrote it. If I wrote “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously”, (which I did), it would be there.