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Old 02-03-2003, 08:00 AM   #11
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Default Re: Re: Uh-oh...

Quote:
Originally posted by Shadowy Man
It'd be easier just to move north of the Arctic circle in the summer.
Or stand on your head, so it falls instead of rising.
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Old 02-03-2003, 08:01 AM   #12
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Default Re: Uh-oh...

Quote:
Originally posted by Shadowy Man
It'd be easier just to move north of the Arctic circle in the summer.
Thanks Clutch and Shadowy Man for the shorter constructions.

If anything, I hope it's been shown that even a question like "Will the sun rise tomorrow?" contains hidden gotchas and assumptions.

I aver that the same is true for a question like "Does God exist?"
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Old 02-03-2003, 08:39 AM   #13
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Asha'man:
In the real world, there are no proofs because there are no facts.

Let me pick a nit here- that should be worded, "There are no absolute proofs because there are no absolute facts." As we normally use the words, there are indeed proofs, and facts. The words contain the unspoken limitations and assumptions which allow us to communicate in a temporary and imprecise world.

Our languages are not capable of handling absolutes and ultimates. Even our mathematics can't handle the concepts flawlessly.
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Old 02-03-2003, 02:54 PM   #14
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Default Re: Prove the sun will rise tomorrow

Quote:
Originally posted by notMichaelJackson
Have you visited the future? Then how can you prove that the event of the sun rising will occur tomorrow? Prove it will.
There's no evidence that it won't, so it seems like a safe bet (a very high probability) that it will, given what we know about physics.
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Old 02-04-2003, 05:26 AM   #15
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Sure, I can prove the sun will rise tomorrow. I'll get back to you first thing in the morning.
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Old 02-04-2003, 08:40 AM   #16
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What was your point, notMichaelJackson? To point up the Problem of Induction that we are already aware of, or something else? I'm interested to hear your response to the excellent replies on this thread. Regards,

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Old 02-04-2003, 08:46 AM   #17
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I find it interesting the way that, in terms of the ordinary man, the sun "rises" at all.

Surely it doesn't rise, the Earth simply rotates into a position from which it is viewable? Similarly, who genuinely considers the curvature of the Earth when travelling.

We may as well live in a flat world, and in fact, from our own personal viewpoint, we do.
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Old 02-04-2003, 09:50 AM   #18
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Actually, tk has made the biggest point here with his "if I move around the Earth" scenario, and found the flaw in notMichaelJackson's OP. The Sun does not "rise," nor does it "set;" rising and setting are a matter of fixed perspective from here on Earth, as we percieve the planet's axil rotation. What notMichaelJackson *should* have asked is "prove that the Earth will continue its rotation around its axis for the next 24 hours." And that, of course, has loads of astronomical observation, geophysical calculation, and other good science to back it up.

--W@L
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Old 02-04-2003, 09:51 AM   #19
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Somehow, andy_d, I missed your last post before making mine!

--W@L
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Old 02-04-2003, 12:09 PM   #20
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Have you visited the future? Then how can you prove that the event of the sun rising will occur tomorrow? Prove it will.

Yes, I have visited the future. From yesterday's perspective, I'm now in the future, no? And soon I will be visiting the future of tomorrow (barring unfortunate accident), where no doubt the sun will rise (or, rather, the earth will continue to rotate to once again reveal the sun), as it has in the 17,000 or so previous times I've visited the future "tomorrow."
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