/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.15025229]

> Nothing exists, there are only structures

Do you agree with this statement?

[Anonymous No.15025247]

The metaphysics boards are /lit/ and /his/

[Anonymous No.15025256]

>>15025229
Absolutely not.
The assumption that everything we observe exists is central to the very concept of science.
If all observations are illusions, we can't expect them to behave consistently on an indefinite basis, because we never know when a change will occur in the imperceptible medium creating the illusions.
If we can't expect the things we observe to behave consistently, there's no point in measuring and documenting their behavior for use in predictions and engineering. Which is to say, there's no point in science.
Science has worked thus far. It's enabled engineering, and engineering has proved practical.
The claim that the world we observe exists is unfalsifiable, as is the claim that it does not. Neither claim can ever be verified or falsified, neither by science nor logic; neither by induction, abduction, nor deduction.
When a claim is so nebulous and abstract that no method whatsoever of reason can discern its truth, what we believe of that claim is rightly at the mercy of which belief is most useful.
Science is more useful than nihilism, and therefore I choose science.
TL;DR: The world exists because thinking the world exists lets me make computer but if me think world no exist then no computer

[Anonymous No.15025284]

>>15025256
you are a tolerated rule-breaker who is discussing metaphysics on a board not specifically designed...
...OR SHOULD I SAY
D
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!!!

[Autolycus No.15025297]

>>15025229
Apart from the experiences of subjects there is nothing, bare nothingness. The concrete enduring entities are organisms. The whole concept of materialism only applies to very abstract entities, the products of logical discernment.

[Anonymous No.15025300]

>>15025297
That's an interesting argument. But instead of actually considering it, I'm just going to call you a schizo!

[Anonymous No.15025314]

>>15025284
ana con

[Anonymous No.15025327]

>>15025314
go to /lit/ and tell them I told you to read pic related

[Anonymous No.15025331]

>>15025327
>KIM
Why would i read a book about some woman

[Anonymous No.15025335]

>>15025331
I'm not replying to this comment.

[Anonymous No.15025338]

>>15025335
You just did

[Anonymous No.15025362]

>>15025297
>The concrete enduring entities are organisms.
Organisms are just structures

>>15025256
Structures exist, but nothing else.

[Anonymous No.15025368]

>>15025362
Well, structure isn't a formal term, so how was I to know what was meant?
In that case, yes, I agree, only material things exist. After all, we have no reason to believe anything exists which can't be observed, and whenever something new is observed, it comes to be regarded as material. So even if there's anything that isn't a material thing, it actually *is* a material thing, we just don't know it yet.

[Anonymous No.15025405]

>>15025229
"Things" are another way the mind orders sense data, by separating the whole into parts and giving them names. In a sense they are an unconcscious invention - the mind constructs them, but not by our conscious design. We cannot perceive the "whole", but we can assume it exists, otherwise where is the sense data coming from? "Structures" are again just things in an abstract space, or just another way of communicating about parts of the whole.

[Anonymous No.15025425]

>Ladyman

[Anonymous No.15025477]

>>15025425
I was gonna point that out, have a (you)

[Anonymous No.15026366]

>>15025229
>Nothing exists
>there ARE only structures
So, first he assume that nothing exists and then he say things exists, this is a contradiction

[Anonymous No.15026476]

Some things do not exist but nothingness does not exist.