Kaia

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General discussion for Christianity.SE, pseudo-meta support, a...

Kaia

Jan 21 21:46

I tried my best at an answer that's hopefully close to right, but if anybody wants to take a look and ensure that my theology isn't horribly wrong & at least explains the grammar (or take their crack at writing a better one) it'd be awesome

Kaia

Jan 21 21:44

Hi all, I came across a Christianity-related ELL question: ell.stackexchange.com/questions/361482/…

Discussion on question by Jo Wehler: …

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Kaia

Dec 26, 2024 09:10

A reminder that since comments are frequently deleted as part of clean-up (and not preserved in the edit history), it might be worth copying relevant things into block-quotes if you're asking about them.

Discussion on question by TheMatrix E…

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Kaia

Dec 19, 2024 11:50

I don't follow what the "information is never lost" has to do with this ("information" in the stat-mech sense has much more to do with "temperature" than it does "books"--i.e. a car's tank of gas would usually be assessed as having much more information-content than all the text in a book.)

The Symposium

A Party Space for Philosophy.SE! Both philosophy and mundane c...

Kaia

Dec 12, 2024 23:03

Just want to dump some vote-to-close related meta.SE questions:

https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/173833/can-we-do-anything-if-a-question-is-being-continuously-closed-and-reopened
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/140723/after-voting-to-close-delete-and-reopen-i-cant-cast-a-close-vote/140724
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/125/how-about-a-vote-not-to-close-option-to-counter-the-vote-to-close
https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/332692/does-stack-exchange-need-do-not-close-votes/332694

Discussion on question by Syed: How d…

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Kaia

Dec 12, 2024 09:03

(Syed, @MichaelHall you might start a chat to hash out the whatever the disagreement and turn it into an answer or edit to the question, as appropriate?)

Kaia

Dec 12, 2024 09:03

@MichaelHall I think that would represent a fairly good answer, should this question be reopened. (Or at least, I've encountered it before in the context of bayesian rationality, where a lot of arguments go something like "well, all your beliefs should be consistent, because what if a little devil froze time and up and asked if you wanted to wager $10 on a guaranteed-to-lose series of bets" and a lot of the counterarguments go "why would I ever accept bets from devils who pop up and offer me bets in the first place!?")

Kaia

Dec 12, 2024 09:03

I created a meta thread about this question. I'd like to see it reopened.

Discussion on question by user80226: …

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Kaia

Dec 7, 2024 15:18

Not sure why this has attracted close votes for "Questions that push a personal philosophy with no question beyond 'am I right' or 'what do you think'"? It doesn't seem like it's pushing anything; it asks a question, etc.

Kaia

Dec 7, 2024 15:18

I think you might need to specify what you would consider 'fundamentally random'--one might have different answers for e.g. electron orbitals in QM, classical statmech, a shuffled deck of cards, or the frequency of car crashes on a given bit of road.

Discussion on question by Rhymehouse:…

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Kaia

Dec 6, 2024 17:17

@JBH The infinite list/finite list distinction seeems silly--it depends on how you slice it. there's 100+ cultivars of soybean, so saying "2-8 options" is just taking a preference on binning? As for storybuilding: isn't this exactly the definition of "A good storybuilding question is an objective request for help resolving a story development problem..."

Kaia

Dec 6, 2024 17:17

@JBH I really don't understand why "what chemicals are industrially useful and shock-sensitive" is close-worthy, but "what crops are efficient for industrial farming with limited land" isn't? They seem like very close mirrors of each other. "here are some constraints, do any real-world things fit these conditions?"

Discussion on question by Miss Unders…

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Kaia

Dec 4, 2024 21:50

@MissUnderstands OK, but the underlying analogy is the same. Finding a watch on the beach is evidence of human habitation, finding a watch on mars is evidence of alien habitation, and, analogously, finding life on earth is evidence of something-that-creates-life (to the theist, intelligent design). The part of the question people disagree on is "is life on earth different from a watch on the beach (in terms of their quality as evidence for a designer)"

Kaia

Dec 4, 2024 21:50

"NOTE: Don't vote to close this because the question has already been asked. It hasn't been asked in this way, responding to objections to ID." -- would valid answers to the question be any different if the question was framed differently? what is the actual question here, if it isn't a duplicate?

Discussion on question by Amelia Sala…

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Kaia

Oct 12, 2024 17:00

I don't think that the "opinion-based" close votes are warranted. The answers aren't "i think xyz is the best!", they're arguments based on Camus, evopsych, etc, or pointing out specific elements of flawed reasoning.

Kaia

Oct 12, 2024 17:00

@MichaelMior I think that could be a good answer to the question, just for completeness' sake.

Discussion on question by yorkiepudpu…

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Kaia

Oct 11, 2024 18:37

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Kaia

Oct 11, 2024 18:37

@JD I guess my point is that there's a balance to be struck between "I want this question to be reopened and I can see a way to edit it" vs not stepping on the toes of OP or existing answers, since this question already has answers that answered the old question, not the new one. Sometimes it's best to ask a new question or @ OP and suggest a change.

Kaia

Oct 11, 2024 18:37

@JD I'm unsure that that's the same question that was originally asked (does the canon include Confucius?), though I was surprised we don't have an outright "what is the western philosophical canon" question

Kaia

Oct 11, 2024 18:37

(I will say that I don't think making a list of 100 books prior to reading any philosophy and then deciding to grind through them is the best way. E.g. maybe you read some philosopher and go "wow, I really need more context, let me read some philosophers that this book was in dialogue with/more by this author!" Or maybe you read some philosopher and go "ugh i cannot STAND this guy" and then you see that they appear 5 more times on your list. I'd maybe suggest choosing 5 books at a time based on some theme, then repeat)

Kaia

Oct 11, 2024 18:37

Voting to close, while I think it's very fun to give recommendations it's the classic "opinion-based" question. sorry for being No Fun Gang.

Discussion on question by BabiBaba: W…

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Kaia

Sep 25, 2024 17:41

@GraySheep I don't think that is 1. kind or 2. correct, but I think you're welcome to start a Meta question about "how come this question is closed"

Kaia

Sep 25, 2024 17:41

@JBH I thought the requirement was "as soon as an answer has 2+ upvotes" or something, but yeah.

Kaia

Sep 25, 2024 17:41

@BabikaBabaka I'd suggest not deleting the question. It will be "closed", meaning nobody can write new answers for it, but it's still valuable (indicated by the upvotes and discussion it's generated).

Kaia

Sep 25, 2024 17:41

My impression is that 1) this rules as a story idea 2) it feels like an opportunity to have multiple answers and have that say something about the society or the story you want to tell. E.g. old money aristocracy might think some schools of magic are important, new money magitech barons likely feel that there's something else more important, etc.

Discussion on question by sofi: How D…

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Kaia

Sep 21, 2024 09:06

Submitted a edit request to 1) remove the apologies at the start/end 2) lay out the assumptions/context a bit more 3) split paragraph 2 into "my view" and "the scripture's view". Feel free to revert any or all of those if you'd like!

Kaia

Sep 21, 2024 09:06

(Voting to reopen as well. My view is that, while this has answers on other sites, those answers will be different than on this site. I.e. the christianity ones focus primarily on bible quotes, where here I'd consider the ideal answer citations to philosophers/theologians who considered this issue and how they answered it.)

Kaia

Sep 21, 2024 09:06

@sofi stackexchange has a really difficult writing style to get used to, since (ostensibly) everything on stackexchange is intended both to answer your question AND be a searchable archive for future people to find answers to the same question. (Part of the effect of of StackOverflow, the main site, being a programming Q&A website.) It takes practice to get used to! I created a chatroom if you want to talk through how to update the question. (CC: @JoWehler)

Kaia

Sep 21, 2024 09:06

Continued: judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/64046/… Islam: islam.stackexchange.com/questions/23754/… islam.stackexchange.com/questions/65072/…

Kaia

Sep 21, 2024 09:06

Kaia

Sep 21, 2024 09:06

You mention the bible; are you interested specifically in Christian philosopher/theologians answers, or broadly Abrahamic theologians' answers? You may also find answers on Christianity SE, Judaism SE, Islam SE and Biblical Hermeneutics SE

Discussion on question by Meanach: Ch…

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Kaia

Sep 7, 2024 08:15

I think you might post this to Politics SE or reframe it as specifically how have philosophers/politicians/political theorists suggested it be improved. As it stands, it's very opinion-based "how would YOU fix democracy"

Discussion on question by Igor F.: Wh…

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Kaia

Sep 6, 2024 15:37

The "line under two propositions to indicate the conclusion drawn from them" that you use in the "no english words" linear equation doesn't seem standard in math? Certainly one might use that with a + sign to indicate adding the two equations, but usually in a math assignment I'd write that with a bit of text like "solving the system, we obtain..."? I think a lot of the formal logic symbols are just ways to eliminate that bit of text.

TRPG General Chat

Main chat room for tabletop role-playing games. Anyone can ask...

Kaia

Sep 5, 2024 23:10

Maybe it's best to just treat each case that comes up organically as a separate question though and not try and create the Most General Wish Guide

Kaia

Sep 5, 2024 23:09

At the same time, it does feel like there's particular concerns that only come up with Wish-likes? "Help! My player just wished for something that would ruin everything. How do I not give them what they want without being a jerk or making Wish seem useless?"

Kaia

Sep 5, 2024 23:06

I'm tempted to create one, but I'm not sure there's anything there that isn't "talk to your player/gm" or just very opinion-based

Kaia

Sep 5, 2024 23:05

There's not, as far as I can tell, a [wish] [gm-techniques] question of like "how should I GM a Wish", is there?

Discussion on answer by Peter Rankin:…

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Kaia

Sep 5, 2024 05:02

(If you want to improve the answer, Peter, I think you could cite somebody for #2, since "first mover" is one of the absolute classic arguments for why God is more necessary than a teapot.

Kaia

Sep 5, 2024 05:02

I don't think this should be downvoted. Making a good case for "yes there is more evidence" should be upvoted, even if it won't convince you (or me), the reader. Particularly since this is the only answer that stakes the unequivocal-yes position, and it provides an overview of a number of common arguments for the position.

Discussion on answer by Pertti Ruismä…

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Kaia

Aug 24, 2024 17:59

Classical statistical mechanics uses entirely classical mechanics, and it is deterministic (in that if you had total knowledge of the system's microstate and there was no exchange of heat w/ the outside, you could theoretically predict the state at any time in the future) but it absolutely still has entropy and thermodynamics. The point is just that there's a distinction between the macrostate and microstate and the observer only cares about the macrostate

Discussion on question by user77058: …

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Kaia

Aug 23, 2024 12:51

It seems to me that for a 'most general conception of god', you can certainly have that without an objective morality. A "divine watchmaker" style first-cause god that sets things in motion doesn't seem to have anything to do with morality necessarily.

Discussion on answer by Speakpigeon: …

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Kaia

Aug 18, 2024 08:25

@Speakpigeon you cut up my message into little quotes and then tried to misunderstand them absent the rest of the sentence. Was that intentional, or did you really not understand?

Kaia

Aug 18, 2024 08:25

How would you define 'p implies q'? (and is this your personal definition, or proposed by someone else?) I'm also not sure that removing implication is sufficient. Suppose P and ¬P. Then P ∨ Q. Since ¬P, Q. While you can rewrite P ∨ Q as ¬P -> Q if you use the standard definition of implication, the implication is not necessary; we can prove explosion in a language that does not include -> as a symbol

Discussion on question by TheMatrix E…

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Kaia

Aug 17, 2024 05:10

I think the title and the question asked in the body of the question seem disconnected. one is about using science to resolve metaphysical questions, and one is about whether one's personal beliefs have philosophical weight?

Discussion on question by J Kusin: Is…

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Kaia

Aug 10, 2024 12:16

@DoubleKnot I'd note that in many studies, the concept of depressive realism has failed to replicate. And also... social-psych from the 80s to 2010 is really heavily impacted by the replication crisis--at least for me personally, I take"results" from that field with at least a good degree of skepticism.

Kaia

Aug 10, 2024 12:16

I suspect that a moral realist, for instance, would look at an ethically-acting moral anti-realist and say "they don't realize the existence of moral truths, but clearly they still know them, because they act according to them", right?

Discussion on question by user77033: …

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Kaia

Jul 24, 2024 06:20

I think there might be other SE sites that are better for this; skeptics.SE or politics.SE or something

Discussion on question by Hudjefa: Is…

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Kaia

Jul 10, 2024 04:52

math.stackexchange.com/questions/36289/is-infinity-a-number much better discussion on Math SE

Discussion on question by Mark: Are t…

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Kaia

Apr 26, 2024 06:55

I think a lot of religions make testable predictions, its just that when you test them they don't actually happen.

Discussion on answer by TimR: What do…

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Kaia

Apr 16, 2024 17:06

I think an underrated part of this answer is "can, as everyone knows". I would really struggle to explain the difference in "has that ability" vs "has the ability" and I think you got it exactly right.