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Philosophy

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  • Maybe we should just stick with the actual world? Commented 2 days ago
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    @ScottRowe: It's the nature of an 'explanation' to say why things when the way they did and not some other way. If we don't care to consider who things might have gone wrong (in some non-actual world), then we can't ever explain anything; everything 'just is'. Careful of the pre/trans fallacy here; the transcendental awareness of the present moment is not at all the same thing as animalistic moment-by-moment existence. Commented 2 days ago
  • Ok. I guess to me an explanation means, "this is the sequence of events that happened." So possible worlds just sounds like probable rubbish. Alternate worlds, many worlds and so on are basically like trying to explain things using Astrology. You can say anything that way. Tell me what did happen, or say, "I don't know." I respect not having an answer more than hand waving. Commented 2 days ago
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    @ScottRowe: Well, I suppose I'd call that a description, not an explanation. An explanation has to have some effort to get at the 'why' or 'how' of things. I mean, if I roll a die and I get a 5, I have to acknowledge (1) that I could have gotten a different number, and (2) that there's a reason I got a 5 instead of one of the others. A description just says "I got a 5"; and explanation starts to consider °1 and °2. 'alternate worlds' is just a jargony way of saying 'other things could have happened" (e.g., an alternate world in which I got a 4, or one in which I got a 3). Commented 2 days ago
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    @ScottRowe: Just think of 'alternate worlds' or 'possible worlds' as the sample space of a (not necessarily probabilistic) event, like saying there are alternate worlds where you might have had a chicken salad sandwich or tuna casserole for lunch. Commented 2 days ago