This post reminds me of so many versions of this same thing.
For example: When people talk about love, they often are not talking about the same thing, without anyone in the discussion realizing it. They’re just talking past each other. Often times they agree with each other, even though they are not using the same definition for the word “love” (they are too far apart, and the difference is enough to prevent mutual understanding).
The same thing happens for lots of words/phrases, for example:
“I’m sure X is true.” People have different conceptions of what it means to “be sure”. I recall a discussion with my then-8-year old kid that drives this home. Kid: I have to pee. Rami: Like right now? You’re sure it has to be now? Kid: Yes, I’m sure. A few days pass and we’re doing some math work. Kid: I’m sure I got the right answer. Rami: Do you mean you’re sure of it like when you’re sure you have to pee? Kid: No.
“X is true.” People have different conceptions of what it means for an idea to be “true”. True from the perspective of an omniscient being? Or true from the perspective of all existing human knowledge? Or true from the perspective of a single human being’s knowledge? It’s much more clear to say “X is true [as far as I know and here are all the ways that I checked to see that I’m wrong: A, B… Z].”
“Does God exist?” People have different conceptions of what God is. So, which of the conceptions of God is being asked about in this question? None of them? Any/all of them (the ones that exist already and future ones that haven’t been invented yet)?
“Does X exist?” People have different conceptions of what it means to “exist”.
“Do we have freewill?” People have different conceptions of what freewill is, yet most people talking about freewill do not establish what another person means by freewill before concluding that that other person is wrong about freewill.
I think that in all of these cases, people are making the same conflationary alliance mistake that you’ve identified.
This post reminds me of so many versions of this same thing.
For example: When people talk about love, they often are not talking about the same thing, without anyone in the discussion realizing it. They’re just talking past each other. Often times they agree with each other, even though they are not using the same definition for the word “love” (they are too far apart, and the difference is enough to prevent mutual understanding).
The same thing happens for lots of words/phrases, for example:
“I’m sure X is true.” People have different conceptions of what it means to “be sure”. I recall a discussion with my then-8-year old kid that drives this home. Kid: I have to pee. Rami: Like right now? You’re sure it has to be now? Kid: Yes, I’m sure. A few days pass and we’re doing some math work. Kid: I’m sure I got the right answer. Rami: Do you mean you’re sure of it like when you’re sure you have to pee? Kid: No.
“X is true.” People have different conceptions of what it means for an idea to be “true”. True from the perspective of an omniscient being? Or true from the perspective of all existing human knowledge? Or true from the perspective of a single human being’s knowledge? It’s much more clear to say “X is true [as far as I know and here are all the ways that I checked to see that I’m wrong: A, B… Z].”
“Does God exist?” People have different conceptions of what God is. So, which of the conceptions of God is being asked about in this question? None of them? Any/all of them (the ones that exist already and future ones that haven’t been invented yet)?
“Does X exist?” People have different conceptions of what it means to “exist”.
“Do we have freewill?” People have different conceptions of what freewill is, yet most people talking about freewill do not establish what another person means by freewill before concluding that that other person is wrong about freewill.
I think that in all of these cases, people are making the same conflationary alliance mistake that you’ve identified.