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Negative Numbers

ragus
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Posted 10/25/09 - 09:34 AM:	#21
Arkady wrote that point is irrelevant. I have zero apples regardless of how I came to be divested of them Divested. You don't want to use the positive or negative words, then? The earlier Banno warning is beginning to intrude. A promissory note of having apples isn't an actual quantity. The note isn't a claim of having apples but one of owing or being owed apples. What's an actual quantity?
"A word in your ear is like an untethered goat in a field" Wittigenstein

Arkady
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Posted 10/25/09 - 09:41 AM:	#22
ragus wrote: Divested. You don't want to use the positive or negative words, then? The earlier Banno warning is beginning to intrude. I'm not hiding from any terminology. If you want me to say 3 apples were "subtracted" from my bag, I'll happily do so. ragus wrote: The note isn't a claim of having apples but one of owing or being owed apples. What's an actual quantity? Ragus, let me ask you: do you or don't you believe it is possible to have a quantity of negative 3 apples? If so, what would such a quantity look like; how would it be any different from having 0 apples?
"Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." -T.H. Huxley

ragus
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Posted 10/25/09 - 10:04 AM:	#23
Arkady wrote do you or don't you believe it is possible to have a quantity of negative 3 apples? The note in your bag says you owe me 3 apples. Since you're happy to subtract apples from your bag what are you going to do if you have 2 apples in your bag?
"A word in your ear is like an untethered goat in a field" Wittigenstein

Arkady
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Posted 10/25/09 - 01:39 PM:	#24
ragus wrote: The note in your bag says you owe me 3 apples. Since you're happy to subtract apples from your bag what are you going to do if you have 2 apples in your bag? Ragus, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you really believe what you're saying and aren't simply trying to be argumentative, but I'm truly scratching my head here. If I owe you 3 apples and I have only 2 apples, then I'm in hock 1 apple. It doesn't then follow that I have negative 1 apples. That is a nonsensical proposition: you cannot have a "negative quantity" of anything. Edited by Arkady on 10/25/09 - 01:55 PM
"Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." -T.H. Huxley

Banno
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Posted 10/25/09 - 10:44 PM:	#25
Arkady, stop trying to get out of your debts by sophistry. It won't work here.
Davidson: We make maximum sense of the words and thoughts of others when we interpret in a way that optimizes agreement. Russel Morris: There's a meaning there, but the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing... Ned: Such is life

Arkady
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Posted 10/26/09 - 03:45 AM:	#26
Banno wrote: Arkady, stop trying to get out of your debts by sophistry. It won't work here. Well, I knew that one day my apple addiction would catch up with me. At first, it's just, "Hey buddy, got a spare apple?..."
"Sit down before fact like a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing." -T.H. Huxley

Incision
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Posted 10/26/09 - 04:39 AM:	#27
Ragus, what if we say that when Arkady lost his apples, he added -3 to his bag? That at least gets "-3" in there somewhere.

Minyun
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Posted 10/26/09 - 05:21 AM:	#28
Arkady wrote: Well, I knew that one day my apple addiction would catch up with me. At first, it's just, "Hey buddy, got a spare apple?..." If I don't have a spare apple, does that mean I have -1 apple? or 0 apples? 0 apples = plural... funny that.

Minyun
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Posted 10/26/09 - 06:25 AM:	#29
Another thing I find funny: I work for a magazine. A good article is one that is laid upon the page with equal spacing. You may have two pics and some text, and you throw them on the page, perhaps putting the pictures side by side with no space inbetween them. Maybe you lay out the text with no paragraphs. This in general is as they say 'a wall of text' and is not attractive to the observer. This got me thinking... Its the space between that makes something beautiful, or rather more attractive to the eye, or to go further, it makes it more functional and user friendly. Consider this website, imagine that it didn't have the white lines that seperate each post, at a glance how would we tell where one post began and one ended. What is this space essentially? Well generally, it is considered by most to be nothing. This got me thinking... What is it that divides us as people? Is it the subjective? e.g: Subject A) I am not hungry. Subject B) You should be, because you have no apples. So, what is the subjective? Can be it quantified and defined? Clearly as we have seen on these forums, it cannot. Therefor, it is a no-thing. I draw the conclusion, that this is what makes us... us. The I is the space between us, our minds are the space between the observable world and this is what allows us to function, this is what makes us beautiful. It is the interaction between the some-thing and the no-thing that creates life as we know it. Banno wrote: I suggest we do away with nothing. Why would you want to get rid of that Mnr Banno... I mean, as if it were even possible to get rid of nothing

Banno
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Posted 10/26/09 - 01:02 PM:	#30
Minyun wrote: Why would you want to get rid of that Mnr Banno... I mean, as if it were even possible to get rid of nothing Of course, since we haven't got rid of anything, we have got ride of nothing. My suggestion has already been implemented.
Davidson: We make maximum sense of the words and thoughts of others when we interpret in a way that optimizes agreement. Russel Morris: There's a meaning there, but the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing... Ned: Such is life

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