Call me Crazy

They say that being crazy means repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting different results. Well, call me crazy ’cause even after a month of acrimonious debate and philosophical bullying from Richard C. I still think that he can be convinced by reason. Maybe after that we can work on his pompous arrogance…

At anyrate, he has set up a quick poll on our debate over at Philosophy, etc. If you have an opinion on the matter please go weigh in! 

UPDATE:

RC has put together a nice list of links detailing the back and forth between us, so if you are looking to get involved in the poll this is a good place to start (though I must voice agreement with GNZ when he wonders about the methodology of the poll…I mean it isn’t really a poll when you debate the respondants. I would prefer it if he would just let the posts speak for themselves)…I will reproduce it here.

1. RB’s Non-Physical Zombies parody argument, and my initial response: how to imagine zombies.

2. His replies: how not to imagine zombies and Beating an Undead Horse.

3. A paragraph in my Zombie Review refines my criticism of his NP analogy (as well as clarifying the original argument, to avoid certain worries about conceivability that had arisen way back when).

4. RB on the role of reduction in the dualism debate; my response; RB with the final post on the analogy (see also comments).

5. RB charges that the zombie argument is question begging. I respond here and here.

6. Having wondered why I’ve spent so much time arguing over the same basic points, I write a more general post exploring ‘The End(s) of Discussion‘. Though it never actually mentions any specific interlocutors, RB seemed quite offended. In that last comment he accuses me of saying, “gee, isn’t this guy stupid; he can’t see that my intuitions are right“. I respond that our dispute has not been about intuitions at all, but meta issues (what makes for a sound analogy/parody, what is begging the question, etc.). This final exchange continues on RB’s blog.

OK, so I got some comments to get to (including one from RC), but it is so nice outside that I have to go and play…but I’ll be back

6 thoughts on “Call me Crazy

  1. I note he has presented the links in the form of an argument for why he is right, and debates with the people commenting trying to get them to agree. I’m not sure either of those would be part of good methodology… At least he set up the poll.

    I’d say this on his blog but I think it would probably provoke a non-productive response.

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