conventions/requirements for 'is' vs '==', 'not vs '!=', etc

inhahe inhahe at gmail.com
Thu May 22 12:13:16 EDT 2008


>Ma: Symbolic identity is a mathematical relation
>Mb: Symbols are acausal
>m: Matter is causal
>C: Symbolic identity is not defined on matter.

What is defined on matter then?  You're saying all symbolism is not defined 
on matter.  Much of our thinking about the world itself is symbolic.  How do 
we 'define on matter' without thinking about it?  Definition is another 
symbolic thinking thing we do.  What does it mean to 'define on matter'?  If 
you were to paint symbol/matter like the mind/body problem interpreted on 
dualism (not to beg the question, but just to say if you're saying they're 
different substances) then some people would ask, how does one thing 
interact with the other?  You could say that symbols don't exist and 
inferring symbols is just a way of thinking of the world, but since we think 
in symbols, thinking becomes something that doesn't exist and is inferred 
from a way of thinking about the world, which doesn't exist and is inferred 
from a way of thinking about the world, etc.  I don't think you can say that 
thought-symbolism is a different question from mathematical symbolism 
because Aristotle inferred "a is a" directly from the way we think about the 
world.  cf:
>>>a is a
True

Perhaps symbols and symbolic identity are defined as algorithms which happen 
in the real world to come to a conclusion.  It raises the question of how 
causal an algorithm is.  But if you call an algorithm 'a way of doing 
something' then it's much more down-to-Earth.   But it raises the question 
of how we define the boundaries of whether doing something is 'doing that 
thing' (since an algorithm is strictly formal and mathematically 
deterministic), given that you never step in the same river twice, since you 
then have to define the boundaries of determining whether doing something 
falls within the boundaries or not, ad infinitum.

I don't have a conclusion.  Suffice it to say it obviously works out 
somehow.  I'm just wondering about what 'defined on matter' means.









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