#987 Tuomas Tahko: Meta-Metaphysics, Fundamentality, and the Building Blocks of Reality

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RECORDED ON MARCH 12th 2024.
Dr. Tuomas Tahko is Professor of Metaphysics of Science at the University of Bristol. He specializes in contemporary analytic metaphysics, with an emphasis on methodological and epistemic issues: “meta-metaphysics”. He also works at the interface of metaphysics and philosophy of science: “metaphysics of science”. Broader research interests include issues in epistemology, philosophical logic, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, and history of philosophy. He was the PI of an ERC Consolidator Project "The Metaphysical Unity of Science" (MetaScience, 2018-2023).

In this episode, we talk about meta-metaphysics. We first discuss what it is, and how it relates to metaphysics. We talk about the differences between metaphysics and ontology, the different ways of conceptualizing reality, what mind-independence means, and realist and anti-realist positions in meta-metaphysics. We then go through concepts in meta-metaphysics like substances and properties; substance ontology and process ontology; a “first philosophy”; minimal truthmakers; natural kinds; fundamentality; foundationalism; essence, ground, and modality; and structure. Finally, we discuss whether there are any building blocks to reality.

Time Links:
00:00 Intro
00:36 Meta-metaphysics
07:57 The difference between metaphysics and ontology
10:02 Different ways of conceptualizing reality
13:38 What does mind-independence mean?
20:38 Realist and anti-realist positions in metaphysics
26:13 Are colors real?
35:08 Substances and properties
38:22 Substance ontology and process ontology
43:21 What is a “first philosophy”?
45:50 Minimal truthmakers
49:48 Natural kinds
54:55 Fundamentality
1:01:57 A foundationalist approach to reality, and coherentism
1:06:03 Essence, ground, and modality
1:21:11 Structure
1:22:45 Are there no building blocks to reality?
1:32:38 Follow Dr. Tahko’s work!
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Twitter handle: @ttahko
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[guillermobrand]

I would suggest to Tuomas that before addressing the issue of meta-metaphysics he should focus his efforts on trying to understand how human language operates in the construction of the reality that the human unconscious elaborates. This is because humans use language, whose potential for action we use without consciously knowing about said potential.

[aminam]

This may be more clear to understand what information is: Imagine that current humans put a car in the middle of humans who have never seen a car before. That car carries information resulting from the current humans’ thinking process, but it is just data. For the humans who have never seen a car before, they will expect it to be an animal because the car is moving, and gradually they will be able to know that it is not an animal through the gradual processing of data related to that car. If they see a human inside it, the process of understanding will become faster. The bottom line: For humans who have never seen a car before, everything about that car is just data that needs to be processed to become meaningful information for them. If that human gets out of the car and is able to communicate with them, the matter will become much easier due to the transfer of knowledge.

[aminam]

here the irrational used both blunt theft and thievery as patchwork techniques (what he said seems familiar, isn’t it?!) but it’s very clear that he can’t differentiate between self concept and personal identity at all 14:00 “Michael Graziano: Consciousness, Animal Minds, and the Neuroscience of Suffering
Robinson Erhardt”

[aminam]

I think this is a good example of how they twist what Carl Jung wrote, taking human thoughts as a reference (hiding human traces by distorting what Carl Jung wrote in a way similar to what happens in religions) “CONDESCENDING Teenager Thinks Citing Smart People is an Argument | Shannon Q & Belief it or Not
The Line”, The caller saw what some irrational thieves had done to distort what Carl Jung had written, believing that this was really what Carl Jung had written (distorting human thoughts about the concept of self, personal identity, consciousness type one and type two, perception, …. etc ).
Notice the reply of the interviewer, she knows what Carl Jung wrote and What did he mean by what he wrote!

[aminam]

even the steam piston was there during the Roman Empire, almost two thousand years ago, and it was only a matter of time before the crank was added. The destruction of Rome without the ability to transmit knowledge had disastrous effects on all of humanity, and the biggest disaster is the persistence of the barbarian culture to this day (a real disaster, especially since they are being targeted by the Juju).

[aminam]

probably this is much clearer: information is a process of giving meaning to data, and that will never happen miraculously! humans should have minds to turn data or reprocessing information into information (logic is essential part of the human thinking process), it’s possible for AI to process data because of built-in human logic, but AI don’t possess mind similar to humans.

[aminam]

Throughout the long history of humanity, the slaves have embraced the religion of their masters, so how can that change now?!
Or is it a religion for the elite only?!

[aminam]

A very deep cultural and moral gap has occurred since Rome was destroyed by the barbarian tribes and then they sat on the seven hills of Rome. There is no relationship between ancient Greek culture and Roman culture on the one hand and barbarian culture on the other hand as they claim now! The transfer of knowledge did not take place due to the inability of the barbarian tribes to absorb Roman culture such as architecture, libraries, cleanliness, entertainment, art, etc. For example, they did not realize the importance of baths until recently (a few hundred years ago). Also, the targeting of the top of the power pyramid by the Jujus has led to a major catastrophe against humanity, human civilization and science, so that the culture of harmful parasites appears as a curse on the human race. It is very easy to notice the vast difference between the Roman civilization and the ugliness of the Byzantine Empire (note the ugliness of Byzantine architecture and art, … compared to previous civilizations), and this continued until what is called the Renaissance, when the process of rediscovering Roman civilization began and rebuilding on it in what is currently called Italy.
It is a very deep civilization gap (a real catastrophe that destroyed human civilization and established a culture of harmful parasites that feed on human tragedies).

[aminam]

it’s not true that humans in different cultures share very similar ideas such as souls and gods by chance, or because all humans share the same characteristics, Mayans and some other ancient societies never were offering human sacrifices to hidden gods by chance, all of them had a direct contact with malicious intelligent alien entities those who manipulated, misled and abused mankind badly since thousands of years ago, actually some of the so-called prophets mentioned the details of alien aircrafts, they called them gods, they had clear contact with many societies in ancient Mesopotamia. actually humans still offering human sacrifices till this moment such as the religious conflicts, people of the gods are superior to humans, so they can kill humans with impunity, ….etc many of human writings are based on ancient religious texts such as souls, spirits, gods, paradise, judgment day, …. etc

[aminam]

By the way, Human thoughts have nothing to do with so-called dualism (the religious approach), the irrational thieves want to interpret human thoughts based on their irrational defective logic and being bias to their irrational nonsense! self concept is not a magic because there’s no magic (everything is governed by science and only science and nothing would come into existence without science whatsoever), there are two cycles for sure, cycle one (this universe) built within cycle two, so there’s no meaning for their nonsense (basically the religious texts that don’t belong to humans).

[aminam]

One of the greatest tragedies that the human race has been exposed to is the destruction of Rome and then sitting on its seven hills without transferring knowledge, which caused a very deep cultural, scientific and human gap.