Universe and Time

That is why one must choose his language and stick with it. Do not use one language if the other person is using the same words for a different language. What language is chosen is arbitrary as long as all parties agree to use the same meanings for the associated words. Be consistent. And a language is merely an arbitrary set of chosen definitions.

That is Your language.

In my language;

Thus a “Lack of Consequence” is a Lack of Affect (or Effect).

How would you know? :wink:

If you are a “Nothingness Agnostic”, then you cannot say that “nothingness” represents something that you believe exists and yet has no affect (that would be a “Nothingness Theist”). That was the question that started all of this, "Name something that you believe exists, yet has absolutely no affect".

In the long run, you discover that the very idea of nothingness is an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a word or phrase that is contrary to itself, such as; “square-circle” or “round-square”, “intelligent-liberal”, or “good-socialist”. An oxymoron is an incoherent thought. An oxymorononic entity has no opportunity to exist even as a coherent idea. And it turns out that “nothingness” is such an idea, lacking any opportunity to exist as a coherent thought.

No, that’s the English language in a philosophy dictionary.

That’s okay, if the language convention is accepted, and it is accepted.

That was a joke! My correct answer is: I don’t know whether it is my “nothingness” or not.

I am not saying that, but I am saying: “I don’t know whether nothingness represents something that I believe exists and yet has no affect”, and therefore I can say: “Maybe or maybe not that nothingness represents something that I believe exists and yet has no affect”.

I didn’t ask for a “maybe”. I asked for what you believed, not what you suspect might be.

Do you know of anything else that you BELIEVE exists and also BELIEVE has absolutely no affect upon anything whatsoever?

I find it funny how it has never been facts that have had the greatest effect on mankind, but the evolution of a system of beliefs. Beliefs have always been stronger than fact. Nobody won a battle by having the facts presented to them; they won because they believed fully that they could and they didn’t get in their own way.

Besides the special cases: no.

That, with the other things mentioned, is why it is rational to accept the definition of existence being “that which has affect”.

The next question is about the possibility of absolute homogeneity of affect. For absolute homogeneity of affect to be the state of the universe, the affectance would have to be infinitely identical in all locations. What is preventing that?

The “infinite homogeneity” and something which is “infinitely identical” are not the same.

Well one cannot have infinite homogeneity without having infinite similarity, so what distinction are you trying to make?

The distinction between “homogeneity” and “identity”.

I didn’t say, “Identity”. I said “identical”.

That’s right. You said “identical”, and I said “identity”. You used the adjective, and I used the noun (substantive).

So back to the question:

Germany. The German team.

[size=200]7 : 1 [/size][size=150]in Brazil.[/size]

[size=150]Germany 7 : Brazil 1.[/size]

3 goals in 3 minutes, 4 goals in 6 minutes, 5 goals in 18 minutes … Great!

Have you seen it?


Another answer could be:

The affectance is not “infinitely identical” in all locations of the universe because if something is “homogeneous” it does not mean that it is “identical”.

If you have the phenomenons “A” and “B”, then “A” can be “homogeneous” or “similar” to “B”, but not identical to “B” (because “A” can merely be identical to “A”). In German the words “(der/die/das)selbe” and “(der/die/das) gleiche” stand for the English word “(the) same”, but the former means “identical”, “same in an identical way”, and the latter means “homgeneous”, “equal”, “similar”, “same in a homogeneous way”.

I believe that you are misinterpreting the English.

When I say, “the two things are identical”, I mean that there are two separate things that have all of the same properties and to the same degree. I do not mean that the two things are one and the same thing (“same identity”).

Homogeneity involves many locations of similar substance. At each location there is a “different identity” of substance, but the properties of the substance are “identical”, meaning that you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart except for their location. And “infinitely identical”, means that there truly is absolutely no distinction to be found between the two locations within the substance, but the locations are still a different “identity”.

I know the meaning of the English „identical“, but in this case I interpreted it as „self“ („selbst“ in German because the German word „identisch“ and the English word „identical“ have exactly the same meaning and can be interpreted as „self“ and as „same“), although I know that it also can be interpreted as „same“ (for example: of two or more things). But you shouldn’t change the word „identical“ because in the English language it is not possible to have one of those two meanings in merely one word. It is possible in the German language but not in the English language. In English one has always to decide whether „x“ or „y“ is meant (because both can be meant), in German one can use the word „selbig“ or „selbst“ (cp. the English „self“, although it can’t be used in this way) for the meaning of „x“, and the word „gleich“ (cp. the English „same“, although it is used in both ways) for the meaning of „y“. Whereat „x“ means „same of one thing“ and „y“ means „same of two things or of one thing, if this one thing has changed very much" (cp. the ship of Theseus).

Well, that being the case, I think that in German, I mean “gleich” referring to each thing having the very same properties and to the same degree as each other = “homogeneous”.

So if that is correct, my question is still,
“Why can’t each point in space have the exact same properties to the exact same degree as all others?”

Because the potential-to-affect is not identical anywhere.

But what is preventing it from being that way? :sunglasses:

You mean what is preventing the potential-to-affect from being identical anywhere? :sunglasses:

That’s what I mean. And don’t say that it is because “the word ‘identical’ means… whatever…” I am not talking about the words, but the issue of infinite similarity.