Silas:
First---I have never shifted meanings on the definition of arithmetic. Arithmetic means the standard model of the natural numbers. I believe I've been quite consistent about this.
Second---as I've said many times, I believe that the most plausible candidates for the "fabric of the Universe" are mathematical structures like arithmetic. And as I've said many times, obviously I can't prove this. The best I can do is explain why I find it so plausible, which I've tried to do in my book. If those arguments don't move you, well, so be it. I've never claimed they were definitive.
Third--you seem to think (unless I've misread you) that this vision of the Universe is crucial to my point about Dawkins. It's not.
Fourth---Here is my point about Dawkins; it would be helpful to know which part(s) you consider the locus of our disagreement:
a) the natural numbers---whether or not you buy my vision of them as the basis of reality---are highly complex by any reasonable definition (I am talking here about the actual standard model of the natural numbers, not some axiomatic system that partly describes them);
b) Dawkins has said, repeatedly, that all complexity---not just physical complexity, not just biological complexity, but all complexity---must evolve from something simpler. And indeed, his argument needs this statement in all its generality, because his argument makes no special assumption that would restrict us to physics or biology. It's an argument about the nature of complexity itself.
c) Therefore, if we buy Dawkins's argument, we must conclude that the natural numbers evolved from something simpler.
d) The natural numbers did not evolve from something simpler. Therefore Dawkins's argument can't be right.
Second---as I've said many times, I believe that the most plausible candidates for the "fabric of the Universe" are mathematical structures like arithmetic. And as I've said many times, obviously I can't prove this. The best I can do is explain why I find it so plausible, which I've tried to do in my book. If those arguments don't move you, well, so be it. I've never claimed they were definitive.
Right, I've explained before why your arguments are in error. We can talk more about that some other time.
...Third--you seem to think (unless I've mis
A monthly thread for posting rationality-related quotes you've seen recently (or had stored in your quotesfile for ages).
ETA: It would seem that rationality quotes are no longer desired. After several days this thread stands voted into the negatives. Wolud whoever chose to to downvote this below 0 would care to express their disapproval of the regular quotes tradition more explicitly? Or perhaps they may like to browse around for some alternative posts that they could downvote instead of this one? Or, since we're in the business of quotation, they could "come on if they think they're hard enough!"