Re: D1. Separate computer science ontology from philosophical ontology
Avril,
There is no question that much of what people think they know
is actually true for the range of experiences from which it
has been derived.
It also true that large amounts of scientific knowledge can be
preserved, even when the foundations are completely transformed.
Newtonian mechanics, for example, is still true for the range
of phenomena that Newton considered.
There are also mathematical theorems that follow from certain
assumptions. Every theorem is of the form
If hypotheses, then conclusion.
Such things can also be true. But the question of whether the
hypotheses are absolutely true of any particular aspect of the
world is fallible.
> So, when did things such as the principle of contradiction
> and ''cogito ergo sum'' stink?
The principle of contradiction can be true of a mathematical system
(see the above comment).
As for Decartes's method of universal doubt, I would say that it has
stunk to high heavens since the time he stated it. (But his math
is much more useful.)
John