From arosta@uclan.ac.uk Tue Nov 06 11:36:08 2001 Return-Path: X-Sender: arosta@uclan.ac.uk X-Apparently-To: lojban@yahoogroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 6 Nov 2001 19:36:08 -0000 Received: (qmail 82627 invoked from network); 6 Nov 2001 19:36:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (216.115.97.167) by m5.grp.snv.yahoo.com with QMQP; 6 Nov 2001 19:36:08 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO com1.uclan.ac.uk) (193.61.255.3) by mta1.grp.snv.yahoo.com with SMTP; 6 Nov 2001 19:36:08 -0000 Received: from gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk by com1.uclan.ac.uk with SMTP (Mailer); Tue, 6 Nov 2001 19:12:37 +0000 Received: from DI1-Message_Server by gwise-gw1.uclan.ac.uk with Novell_GroupWise; Tue, 06 Nov 2001 19:48:18 +0000 Message-Id: X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.2 Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 19:47:35 +0000 To: lojban Subject: Re: [lojban] Some metaphysical basic info Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline From: And Rosta X-Yahoo-Profile: andjamin Thanks! I think this is very helpful in orienting people in the discussion = and=20 in providing points of reference. Hopefully it will in due course help to clarify our debates; in particular I hope it will help to clarify which iss= ues each of us think we are and aren't debating. (Plus, the subject is one that is very exciting in itself, so worth talking about for its own sake.) I haven't had time yet to provide proper comments, but my first response is= =20 that we need to distinguish between conceptual schemata and (theories of)=20 their ontological basis. Or, to make a different but similar point, to note= that=20 the major categories of theories you list are theories of different things = so not=20 mutually exclusive. So first you have Nominalism v Conceptualism v Realism= =20 (which I guess is a category that includes the prototype theories you list,= at=20 least at the present level of sketchiness), and then the final set of theor= ies=20 are about the true nature of the empirical realm. Or to put it a third and different way, the prototype theories listed are a subset of models of categorization, while the antiprototype theories are subset of models of their ontological status, while the nonindividualist theories are models of the categorizands. If any of these remarks are less than helpful, please ignore them; I'm writ= ing in haste. --And. >>> 11/06/01 05:35pm >>> If you were following and and pc's discussion a while back and wondering wh= at=20 all the metaphysics was they were talking about, a short intro (capable of= =20 expansion on request) is at http://members.aol.com/pycyn/metaphysics.html=20 Comments sought.