(Obviously, any physical/logical fact follows trivially from the set of all physical/logical facts.)
Ah, I took GRTd to mean that ‘every true statement (including all physical and logical truths) can be deductively derived from the set of purely physical and logical truths (excluding the one to be derived)...’.Thus, if the totality fact is true, then it should be derivable from the set of all physico-logical facts (excluding the totality fact). Is that right, or have I misunderstood GRTd?
I may, I think, just be overestimating what it takes to plausibly posit the totality fact: i.e. you may just mean that we can have a lot of confidence in the totality fact just by having as broad and coherent a view of the universe as we actually do right now. The totality fact may be false, but its supported in general by the predictive power of our theories and an apparent lack of spooky phenomena. If we had all the physico-logical facts, we could be super duper confident in the totality fact, as confident as we are about anything. It would by no means follow deductively from the set of all physico-logical facts, but it’s not that sort of claim anyway. Is that right?
The edit is fine. Let me add that ‘the’ totality fact may be a misleading locution. Nearly every model that can be analyzed factwise contains its own totality fact, and which model we’re in will change what the ‘totality’ is, hence what the shape of the totality fact is.
We can be confident that there is at least one fact of this sort in reality, simply because trivialism is false. But GRTd does constrain what that fact will have to look like: It will have to be purely logical and physical, and/or derivable from the purely logical and physical truths. (And the only thing we could derive a Big Totality Fact from would be other, smaller totality facts like ‘there’s no more square,’ plus a second-order totality fact.)
I didn’t intend for you to read ‘(excluding the one to be derived)’ into the statement. The GRTd I had in mind is a lot more modest, and allows for totality facts and a richer variety of causal relations.
GRTd isn’t a tautology (unless GRTm is true), because if there are logically underivable nonphysical and nonlogical truths, then GRTd is false. ‘X can be derived from the conjunction of GRTd with X’ is a tautology, but an innocuous one, since it leaves open the possibility that ‘X’ on its lonesome is a garden-variety contingent fact.
Ah, I took GRTd to mean that ‘every true statement (including all physical and logical truths) can be deductively derived from the set of purely physical and logical truths (excluding the one to be derived)...’.Thus, if the totality fact is true, then it should be derivable from the set of all physico-logical facts (excluding the totality fact). Is that right, or have I misunderstood GRTd?
I may, I think, just be overestimating what it takes to plausibly posit the totality fact: i.e. you may just mean that we can have a lot of confidence in the totality fact just by having as broad and coherent a view of the universe as we actually do right now. The totality fact may be false, but its supported in general by the predictive power of our theories and an apparent lack of spooky phenomena. If we had all the physico-logical facts, we could be super duper confident in the totality fact, as confident as we are about anything. It would by no means follow deductively from the set of all physico-logical facts, but it’s not that sort of claim anyway. Is that right?
The edit is fine. Let me add that ‘the’ totality fact may be a misleading locution. Nearly every model that can be analyzed factwise contains its own totality fact, and which model we’re in will change what the ‘totality’ is, hence what the shape of the totality fact is.
We can be confident that there is at least one fact of this sort in reality, simply because trivialism is false. But GRTd does constrain what that fact will have to look like: It will have to be purely logical and physical, and/or derivable from the purely logical and physical truths. (And the only thing we could derive a Big Totality Fact from would be other, smaller totality facts like ‘there’s no more square,’ plus a second-order totality fact.)
Excellent, I think I understand. GRTd sounds good to me, and I think you should convince EY to adopt it as opposed to GRTt/m.
I didn’t intend for you to read ‘(excluding the one to be derived)’ into the statement. The GRTd I had in mind is a lot more modest, and allows for totality facts and a richer variety of causal relations.
GRTd isn’t a tautology (unless GRTm is true), because if there are logically underivable nonphysical and nonlogical truths, then GRTd is false. ‘X can be derived from the conjunction of GRTd with X’ is a tautology, but an innocuous one, since it leaves open the possibility that ‘X’ on its lonesome is a garden-variety contingent fact.
Sorry, I didn’t expect you to read my post so quickly, and I edited it heavily without marking my edits (a failure of etiquette, I admit).