Truth, Math, and Models (Part 8 in a series on the scientific method)

Re:Truth, Math, and Models (Part 8 in a series on the scient... by ysofunny on Monday May 27, 2024 @07:38PM (#40495860)

But Gandalf absolutely exists in objective reality. it's a very real fantasy figure. there exists posters, figurines, drawings, the word "Gandalf" printed millions of time in tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of printed physical copies of LOTR

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Re:Truth, Math, and Models (Part 8 in a series on the scient... by lisper on Monday May 27, 2024 @07:48PM (#40495915)

> But Gandalf absolutely exists in objective reality.

I address that here:

https://blog.rongarret.info/2015/02/31-flavors-of-ontology.h...

That essay was written earlier, so it's not part of the series, but that's the answer. Yes, Gandalf exists in objective reality, but as a fictional character, not as a wizard. So "Gandalf was a wizard" is false if it is taken to mean that Gandalf was an actual wizard in the real world.

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Re:Truth, Math, and Models (Part 8 in a series on the scient... by skulk on Monday May 27, 2024 @07:54PM (#40495956)

But wizards are, by definition, fictional making Gandalf a bona fide wizard. Unless we're holding out hope that magic might be actually real.

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Re:Truth, Math, and Models (Part 8 in a series on the scient... by lisper on Monday May 27, 2024 @08:24PM (#40496145)

> But wizards are, by definition, fictional

No, they aren't fictional by definition. It's possible wizards exist in objective reality. That's an empirical question, not a definitional one.

An example of something that is true of wizards by definition is that they can do magic.

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