If choice and counterfactuals exist, then an action is something that can affect the future, while a thought is not. Of course, that difference no longer applies if your ontology doesn’t feature choices and countefactuals...
Will only reply to one part, to highlight our basic (ontological?) differences:
What your ontology should be is “nothing” or “mu”. You are not keeping up to your commitments.
We seem to have very different ontologies here, and not converging. Also, telling me what my ontology “should” be is less than helpful :) It helps to reach mutual understanding before giving prescriptions to the other person. Assuming you are interested in more understanding, and less prescribing, let me try again to explain what I mean.
If choice and counterfactuals exist, then an action is something that can affect the future, while a thought is not. Of course, that difference no longer applies if your ontology doesn’t feature choices and countefactuals…
In the view I am describing here “choice” is one of the qualia, a process in the brain. Counterfactuals is another, related, quale, the feeling of possibilities. Claiming anything more is a mind projection fallacy. The mental model of the world changes with time. I am not even claiming that time passes, just that there is a mental model of the universe, including the counterfactuals, for each moment in the observer’s time. I prefer the term “observer” to agent, since it does not imply having a choice, only watching the world (as represented by the observer’s mental model) unfold.
And very different epistemologies. I am not denying the very possibility of knowing things about reality.
and not converging. Also, telling me what my ontology “should” be is less than helpful :) It helps to reach mutual understanding before giving prescriptions to the other person.
All I am doing is taking you at your word.
You keep saying that it is models all the way down, and there is no way to make true claims about reality. If I am not to take those comments literally, how am I to take them? How am I to guess the correct non-literal interpretation, out of the many possible ones.?
In the view I am describing here “choice” is one of the qualia, a process in the brain. Counterfactuals is another, related, quale, the feeling of possibilities. Claiming anything more is a mind projection fallacy.
That’s an implicit claim about reality. Something can only be a a mind projection if there is nothing in reality corresponding to it. It is not sufficient to say that it is in the head or the model, it also has to not be in the territory, or else it is a true belief, not a mind projection.. To say that something doesn’t exist in reality is to make a claim about reality as much as to say that something does.
The mental model of the world changes with time. I am not even claiming that time passes, just that there is a mental model of the universe, including the counterfactuals, for each moment in the observer’s time.
Again “in the model” does not imply “not in the territory”.
If choice and counterfactuals exist, then an action is something that can affect the future, while a thought is not. Of course, that difference no longer applies if your ontology doesn’t feature choices and countefactuals...
What your ontology should be is “nothing” or “mu”. You are not keeping up to your commitments.
We seem to have very different ontologies here, and not converging. Also, telling me what my ontology “should” be is less than helpful :) It helps to reach mutual understanding before giving prescriptions to the other person. Assuming you are interested in more understanding, and less prescribing, let me try again to explain what I mean.
In the view I am describing here “choice” is one of the qualia, a process in the brain. Counterfactuals is another, related, quale, the feeling of possibilities. Claiming anything more is a mind projection fallacy. The mental model of the world changes with time. I am not even claiming that time passes, just that there is a mental model of the universe, including the counterfactuals, for each moment in the observer’s time. I prefer the term “observer” to agent, since it does not imply having a choice, only watching the world (as represented by the observer’s mental model) unfold.
And very different epistemologies. I am not denying the very possibility of knowing things about reality.
All I am doing is taking you at your word.
You keep saying that it is models all the way down, and there is no way to make true claims about reality. If I am not to take those comments literally, how am I to take them? How am I to guess the correct non-literal interpretation, out of the many possible ones.?
That’s an implicit claim about reality. Something can only be a a mind projection if there is nothing in reality corresponding to it. It is not sufficient to say that it is in the head or the model, it also has to not be in the territory, or else it is a true belief, not a mind projection.. To say that something doesn’t exist in reality is to make a claim about reality as much as to say that something does.
Again “in the model” does not imply “not in the territory”.