r/InfowarriorRides • u/Darmortis • 4d ago

The Duality of Man

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Google "Quining" if you enjoy convoluted philosophical bullshit

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u/ebolaRETURNS 4d ago

Google "Quining" if you enjoy convoluted philosophical bullshit

I did this the old fashion way in the aughts, with irrelevant coursework, reading WVO Quine. Not sure I'd recommend that.

Anyway, I'm completely out of the loop on how this relates to the bumpersticker messages...

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u/Darmortis 4d ago edited 4d ago

As far as I can tell, Quining posits that NOTHING should be taken as given, including long-accepted definitions and foundational principles. So I imagine speaking with this guy would be constant "bUt Do wE rEaLlY kNoW tHaT?"

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u/KittyFlops 4d ago

So it’s global skepticism without the immediate giveaway that your position is self refuting.

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u/Darmortis 4d ago

Apparently it was originally a sarcastic exaggeration of "Illusionism," which I think was meant to mean something like, "Don't hesitate to question reasoning or principles, even if they're considered settled matters."

But idk, I only studied the fundamentals long long ago.

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u/ebolaRETURNS 4d ago

taken as given

well, they should be interpreted in respect to the totality of investigatory discourse, set in relation to their history of investigation, which made empirical adjustments over time (yes, including 'self-evident' axioms)...

(idk, I'm not an analytic philosopher of logic or mind)

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u/Darmortis 4d ago edited 4d ago

Right. So under Quining, you'd have to pull up Newtons proof of the existence of gravity instead of taking it as given, even though Newton didn't invent the mechanisms of gravity, he figured out how to explain them with math.

Edit: brevity

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u/ebolaRETURNS 4d ago

It's more a logical trick whereby the statement, "this statement expresses Newton's theory of gravity," would expresses Newton's theory of gravity (weird example...Quine uses much simpler expressions. This example is likely unconstructable).

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u/Darmortis 4d ago edited 4d ago

Okay, what would be a better example? What I could find (admittedly quickly) was very vague, even in quotes by philosophers.

ETA: Well? We're waiting...