Rom
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If I listen for the ringing it's there, sometimes it "imposes itself". Is it there otherwise??? Is my hand there when I put my arm behind my back? I can only suppose.
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I'm failing to get the point across. The question I'm raising isn't whether sounds, arms, etc. continue to exist when they're not being perceived, i.e. whether they're
objective. Rather, the question I'm raising is whether it's possible to have false beliefs about the
subjective, i.e. things that exist only while you're experiencing them.
Pain is often taken as the paradigm subjective thing (presumably because it's often vivid and there's no objective analogue with which it might be confused). Hence my original question: 'Do you know whether you're in pain right now?' You replied (in part): 'I gather some amputees can still feel (including pain from) the missing limb'. I should have stopped you there, because the relevant question isn't whether amputees can be mistaken that they're feeling pain
from a missing limb, which evidently they can, but whether they can be mistaken
that they're in pain. Can you see the distinction?
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For x = x, I would treat it as a definition or a bloody good assumption, not necessarily provable ... because I would have to use x = x to prove it. An axiom. For me, x = x is 'more' self evident than god exists is self evident. For example some of the evidence for god existing can have other explanations. Whereas other evidence for x <> x is meaningless?
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First up, the fact that
some of the evidence for God's existence can be explained in other ways is kind of irrelevant, since we're talking specifically about the putative
self-evidence of God's existence. Can that be explained away in a manner in which the putative self-evidence of 'x=x' can't?
Either way, the main issue here is whether you know that x=x, and the alternative you've given to its being an assumption (which is where I want to end up) is that it's a definition. A definition of what? And is a definition the sort of thing that can be true or false? If so, how do you know whether it's true or false that x=x?
Rem