SUO: Re: Question about Example in KR Book

["John F. Sowa" <sowa@bestweb.net>]

Tom,

I'll admit that my brief soundbite was oversimplified.
But I believe that the basic principle is sound:

  1. Anyone who pretends that the laws of physics are merely
     summaries of past observations, as some self-proclaimed
     nominalists have claimed, is a hypocrite unless he or
     she behaves according to those principles in everyday
     life.

  2. Anyone who is willing to trust his or her life to
     something that is constructed under the assumption
     that the laws of physics are reliable must believe,
     at the only level that really counts, that there is
     something real that supports those laws.

  3. Therefore, anybody who drives a car must believe that
     the laws of physics, as they have been proposed by
     Newton and others and as they have been used by
     automotive engineers, describe something that is
     "really real".

  4. And a person who is willing to admit that the laws
     of physics are real and dependable guides to what
     happens in reality cannot be considered a strict
     nominalist.

I admit that there are as many different shades of
philosophical positions as there are philosophers, but
I stand by the point that nobody who drives a car can
consistently maintain an exrreme nominalism that denies
the reality of physical laws.

And I would claim that anybody who admits the reality
of at least some physical laws is more than 50% along
the way toward being a realist.  The actual percentage
depends on which of various kinds of laws and other
scientific constructs one is willing to admit as "real".

John