Introducing Otto_West

Hello everybody my name is Otto_West and I am here to enlighten you all on philosophy as I’ve noticed you’re all a bunch of vulgarians. Seriously, you all frankly disgust me. First off, I reside in London England where I run my own private security organization. I’m an American but I was left stranded here by some woman named Wanda in 1988 where I’ve been in London ever since. She got married to a local magistrate and headed to Buenos Airies without me. Women, go figure! At any rate I’m what you call a hopeful cynic and pessimist. At first that seems contradictory but really it isn’t. I am here to deliver you all from evil, illusion, and your own self destruction one person at a time.

Also, I noticed you all have username titles, I want mine to read as Doom Pornographer. If somebody within your moderation group will make that possible I would greatly appreciate it. Hopefully it has been a real pleasure for you all meeting me here as people generally come to that conclusion after talking with myself. I’m really that good…

We look forward to that discourse Otto.

Your life sounded complicated… is it less so now?

You’re welcome :wink:

Otto, welcome to ILP. Can’t wait to be enlightened.

I am sorry you have to live in London.

:neutral_face:

Yes, the city certainly has changed a lot since the late 80’s.

What shall I enlighten you on? Any suggestions?

Well, I got done with a stint trying to rob somebody. I am trying to put my criminal past behind me though. I’m all done being a house burglar.

So what are you now? and I don’t just mean career-wise… what sums you up?

I’m a taxi driver in London that likes talking the ears off of people.

No idea.

Well, when you come up with some sort of idea you let me know then. Something tells me that you’re a man lacking enlightenment.

Explain the distinction between necessity and possibility. That’s a good start I guess.

You don’t know?

I’d never even seen those 2 words until I just typed them.

It sounds like you don’t know much of anything.

Maybe to you.

Finally we can agree to something here.

I mean, I pretty much know everything man. How come you won’t get all philosophical with me and talk about necessity and possibility. I was drunkenly explaining the difference between valid and sound to a girl at lunch today, and I went on a long tangent about necessity and possibility. She ended up vaguely understanding it, or at least convincing me that she did. It was fun. Why you go straight to the ad hom? That’s a fallacy. Some people have various justifications that they’ll use to attempt to dignify such behavior, but those are bullshit. I thought you were here to enlighten. Don’t be the ad hom guy. Be the enlightener. You’re letting me down, and worse, you’re letting yourself down.

Like when one term entails the definition of the other term, and the other term’s definition can be ascertained without reference to context, then you’ve got yourself a matter of necessity. Like water is h20. Its just necessarily true. True in all possible worlds, etc. But if to derive the meaning of a term, or the truth value of a proposition, you need to refer to context, or go through a process of narrowing definitions, then you’re moving into the realm of mere possibility with regard to the truth value of said proposition. Maybe its true in some possible worlds, but not in all of them. Like I’m hungry. That’s false in this world, the actual one. Because I just ate. But it could be true, assuming I take lots of shits before I eat again. So its merely possible that the proposition, “I’m hungry” is true.