Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 24, 2014
Friday, May 16, 2014
The Phantom of the Qualia
The Phantom of the Qualia
Lyrics for a Musical Philosophical Parody
By
Jason Zarri
(The following is "mashup" parody of [and tribute to!] "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Music of the Night" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical The Phantom of the Opera and the debate over the ontological status of qualia in the philosophy of mind. Thanks also to Peter Hollens and his wife Evynne Hollens for their Phantom of the Opera Medley on YouTube, which is what inspired this post.)
:-)
In sleep she sang to me, in dreams she came.
Her voice; it calls to me, and speaks my name;
and in this labyrinth, where brains are blind,
The Phantom of the Qualia is here, and soothes my mind.
Qualia, qualia, defy some's comprehension,
but qualia, qualia are the stuff of intellection!
Quite magically the senses, they break the mind's defenses,
enthralling us in taste and sound and sight,
the power of this "phantom of the night"!
Let this Phantom lead your journey to a strange possible world
Leave all thoughts of the one you think is real!
Let her song guide you where you wish to be...
Only then will you belong to she!
She has called you,
to the seat of sweet qualia's throne,
to this kingdom where all must pay homage to qualia, qualia;
you have come here, with one purpose and one alone
Since the moment you first heard her sing,
you have needed her with you to serve you, to sing;
about qualia, qualia!
Monday, May 12, 2014
A Fuzzy Argument for Crisp Negation? (Maybe.)
Here's an argument that might be taken to show that 'not,' in English, does not express a fuzzy negation function; otherwise we have a paradox. (I'll assume throughout that talk of "degrees of truth" still makes sense for other, especially formal, languages or metalanguages.) Consider sentence S1:
S1: This sentence is half true.
S1 is true, i.e. has the value 1, if and only if it is half true, i.e. has the value 1/2. Grant for the sake of argument that we'll set aside "fuzzy dialetheism", that a statement could have multiple degrees of truth. It follows that S1 is neither true nor half true. The only value that it seems to make sense to assign to it is 0.
Now consider S2:
S2: This sentence is not half true.
S2 would seem to be true, i.e. have the value 1, if and only if it is not half true, i.e. iff it does not have the value 1/2. (If S2 did have the value 1/2, it would seem to be false, and hence also have the value 0; and we have ruled out it's having two different truth degrees.) Since it can't both have the value 1 and some value other than 1, it would seem that the only value that it makes sense to assign to it is 1.
But here's the catch: In standard fuzzy logic, p and ~p are equivalent when they both take the value 1/2. So if I were to say of some statement p that it is half true, that would, assuming that 'not' is fuzzy, be in some sense equivalent to saying that it is also half false. But S2 (so the argument goes) is equivalent to the negation of S1. It does make sense then that they have opposite truth values, given the definition of negation in fuzzy logic; yet given what I've said about the equivalence of half-truth and half-falsity their content would appear to be the same, and thus that they should accordingly have the same truth value! Strange; nay, even paradoxical, no?
Well, honestly, I'm not sure. What do you think?
S1: This sentence is half true.
S1 is true, i.e. has the value 1, if and only if it is half true, i.e. has the value 1/2. Grant for the sake of argument that we'll set aside "fuzzy dialetheism", that a statement could have multiple degrees of truth. It follows that S1 is neither true nor half true. The only value that it seems to make sense to assign to it is 0.
Now consider S2:
S2: This sentence is not half true.
S2 would seem to be true, i.e. have the value 1, if and only if it is not half true, i.e. iff it does not have the value 1/2. (If S2 did have the value 1/2, it would seem to be false, and hence also have the value 0; and we have ruled out it's having two different truth degrees.) Since it can't both have the value 1 and some value other than 1, it would seem that the only value that it makes sense to assign to it is 1.
But here's the catch: In standard fuzzy logic, p and ~p are equivalent when they both take the value 1/2. So if I were to say of some statement p that it is half true, that would, assuming that 'not' is fuzzy, be in some sense equivalent to saying that it is also half false. But S2 (so the argument goes) is equivalent to the negation of S1. It does make sense then that they have opposite truth values, given the definition of negation in fuzzy logic; yet given what I've said about the equivalence of half-truth and half-falsity their content would appear to be the same, and thus that they should accordingly have the same truth value! Strange; nay, even paradoxical, no?
Well, honestly, I'm not sure. What do you think?
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Luther's In Depth Theology for Theological Therapy: the Coram Relations
The coram-relations are analogous with the intra-psychic ego states: the superego, ego, and id and represent the relational ones for our deep selves and extended, social selves for theological therapy.
Saturday, May 10, 2014
Singer's "Famine, Affluence and Morality": Exposition and Appraisal
In his article "Famine, Affluence and Morality" Peter Singer gives a seemingly devastating critique of our ordinary ways of thinking about famine relief, charity, and morality in general. In spite of that very few people have accepted, or at any rate acted on, the conclusions he reaches. In light of these facts one might say of Singer's arguments, as Hume said of Berkeley's arguments for immaterialism, that "... they admit of no answer and produce no conviction."[1] While I do think that Singer's considerations show that people should do considerably more than most people actually do, they do not establish his conclusions in their full strength or generality. So his arguments admit of a partial answer, and once properly qualified may produce some conviction.
Friday, May 09, 2014
What is Nothing? (original)
This is your mind on Frege and Russell and Rorty and Postmodernism and Lawrence Krauss (or something). ;-)
Thursday, May 08, 2014
Link: Owl City Fireflies Parody - Celebrity
I don't mean to offend any celebrities of good will by linking to this--only those who are just "famous for being famous", as the saying goes.
;-)
Everyone screws up; however (and sorry Quine, but I think this is Analytic) no one should screw up on purpose just to get attention (even though, of course, a lot of people do like attention; though most that do just want to be loved).
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
Link: Fitness video by Lisa Tanker
I'm a guy, but I do try to be fit; so thanks to Lisa for posting!
Sunday, May 04, 2014
"This Is A Video EVERYONE Needs To See."
Ok, but things are more multifaceted than that; I think. Another name for this might be: The "Excessive Moderation Paradox Video". Different people engage with the world differently! Still, Spread the Love !!!
Cash Holes: A Quantum-Cosmological Metaphor for Misers
First, everyone should check out this article on Hawking Radiation,
and then look at this drawing of a miser ("Smaug the Stupendous"; from deviantART.com).
Get what I mean? There's a huge, Dragon-sized difference between liking money and being a miser (a cash-hole) like Smaug. A miser (or 'cash hole', in the rest of this post) is someone whose love, in the sense of charity, has collapsed into a singularity of egoistic self-centered-ness, whey money only leeches out accidentally through the outflux of "virtual cash pairs": both of which have become "real"; one of which has gotten trapped by the monetational force of the cash hole, and the other of which has escaped gone out into the universe as a "free" particle and which has a direction; but is not really "aimed" at any particular person, persons, or cause. But, of course, small enough cash holes may eventually evaporate in a frenzy monetary activity! So please, everyone, be charitable and share your love through your wealth! Don't become a cash hole!! If you do, you might end up alone, like a rock or an island!
Saturday, May 03, 2014
Castlevania The Concert: Wood Carving Partita (Performed by Michiru Yama...
I've Imagined for a while that Lisa and Dracula met at a ball where this was being played (maybe by skeletons in fancy dresses and tuxes)?
Friday, May 02, 2014
Castlevania Lords of Shadow Final Boss Cut-scenes and Ending
Gabriel Belmont: Every man has the power to repent! I have FAITH in THAT!!!
Thursday, May 01, 2014
For the [sake] of dispelling myths that vegans are weak, have a look at this..: Marzia Prince, vegan fitness model!
https://twitter.com/search?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marziaprince.com%2F
Not vegan anymore, but when I'm doing better, maybe I can become vegan or at least vegetarian again.
A Geeky Idea for A "Pluralistic Realism" Essay Contest: Zen-ish Reasons to be A Lot Nicer to Each Other
By
Jasonus Zarrinus
A Geeky Latin-ate Comededic Philosophy / Paradox Student and Philosopher Dude
(or, in your essay, "By [insert your own name-ish thing and sub title]")
Ok, have I gotten your attention? The idea here is simple but also complex: Write your own essay inspired by this very post, submit to to jlzarri@scholardarity.com, and the most well-argued and complex yet concise ones will be posted for free on Scholardarity.com (Scholardarity.org).
Thanks, and Best Wishes!!
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