Comment on Dissenting Views

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 21:31:13 GMT

This is completely backwards. It's non-materialism that irrefutable, pretty much by definition.

Non-materialism is irrefutable within its own framework, agreed. So then we are left with two irrefutable theories, but one is epistemologically useful within X and one is not. Materialism wins.

Nevertheless, just to echo your argument across the canyon: reality doesn't care what theories we “allow”, it is what it is. We might deduce that such-and-such-theory is the best theory for various epistemological reasons, but that wouldn't make the nature of the universe accessible if it isn't in the first place. Just reminding that ascetic materialism doesn't allow conviction about materialism.

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