rEvolutionist wrote:Samsa vs Weaver over an inconsequential semantic point! Get the popcorn, it's a couple of pages already!

I've technically given up trying to explain it a couple of times now but then someone will quote him and see that he's saying that I'm basing my argument on X when I'm explicitly and clearly stating that I'm not basing it on X.
For anyone at all interested in the summary, it goes like this:
1) we're in a metaphysics thread
2) Theropod claims that we should reject anything based entirely on logical reasoning
3) Ughaibu asks where that leaves mathematics (given that it's based entirely on logical reasoning)
4) Weaver asks ughaibu how he can "have it both ways" because somebody had said that mathematical evidence can used to support metaphysical claims
5) practically everybody responds with a "What the fuck are you talking about?"
6) Weaver and others accuse people of misrepresentation for a while until he graciously accepts that he made a mistake, and explains that when he said "you" in reply to ughaibu he didn't mean to say that he himself had claimed mathematical evidence can be used to support metaphysical claims but rather someone on ughaibu's "side" had said that.
7) practically everybody responds with a "What the fuck are you talking about?"
8) Weaver argues that people are trying to find hidden messages in his posts rather than accept his own clarification, even though nobody (that I can see) is doubting or questioning the use of the word "you" and what he says it refers to. They aren't doubting or questioning it because it's irrelevant.
9) I explain multiple times that the problem is that ughaibu's claim about rejecting logical reasoning leading to a rejection of mathematics has absolutely nothing to do with metaphysics or anything that anyone has said in the thread. I explicitly state a few times that the ambiguity of the word "you" is irrelevant and has nothing to do with my argument.
10) I get accused of trying to find hidden messages in Weaver's post and basing my position on the idea that Weaver meant "you" to refer to ughaibu rather than a general "you".
It's so fucking mind numbingly moronic. It should have been a simple: "Oh, I see. Man I fucked up there". When he responded angrily and accused others of misrepresentation then the next best response would have been "Oh, I see, man I fucked up there AND I also owe you guys an apology for being an ass". Instead he's gone for the head in the sand approach where you apologise for an inconsequential 'error' that nobody cares about and then pretend that people only care about that 'error'.
“The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.” - B. F. Skinner.