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Comments
"Use a 30cm ruler to measure a 60cm length. 2 identical lengths of 30cm on the ruler but not the object measured."
They are in different places, so they are different. At best you can say that they hold some points of similarity. If they are the same, how do you know that there are two of them?
"By 'fact' I mean 'justified true belief'." You are insane. By fact I mean "shit you can get evidence for". No evidence - no fact. On your belief system the world is flat, everyone owes me ten pounds and the stars are twinkly lights half a mile in the air.
"The men and women who make our laws and do the killing (where there is capital punishment) are our responsibility. They are part of a society to which we tacitly consent."
So if I don't consent, either tacitly or openly, they lose that power?
How exactly am I responsible for those people?
How do you know that a society exists, btw?
"Wrong on all counts. You see, murder is defined by the government just as much as execution is. Without government there can be no murder, only killing. "
Again, where and when did the "government" acquire these abilities?
"Speaking for our government, it is the consent of the people to make laws."
Again, if I don't consent does that remove the ability to make laws?
"What if you stood behind him at all times watching every decision? His knowledge that you could fire him will definitely control how he behaves to an extent. "
But you don't control him, thanks for the agreement. Stand behind someone and using thought alone, get them to move their hands in a circle, If you can start a circus. If you can't drop the myth that you can control someone.
My point is that you need laws for anything other than murder to exist. As there is no law, there can be no legal excuse, so all killing is murder.
Wrong way round. You need the law to differentiate between types of killing. Otherwise killing is just killing, its not murder, and its not execution.
As far back as we can record virtually all societies have said there is difference between legal killing (eg self defence, war, execution) and illegal killings (murder, manslaughter)
If there were no laws it wouldn't be that self defence or war becomes murder, but murder just becomes a matter between two individuals - the killer and the victim.
You fail to understand. The measurement is the same.
Again, total failure to understand. Evidence is part of justification.
No. Only if everybody does or at least a majority.
You encourage them by being a part of society. I can tell you are because you are using a computer and the Internet which requires all sorts of societal agreements.
I sense it.
Agreement of the people. The mists of time.
See above.
Of course you can control someone. Ever heard of hypnotism? Or blackmail?
Really can't be bothered to repeat myself but one more time. Murder is illegal killing ergo if there is no such thing as illegal (ie against the law) then there is no such thing as murder.
I asked for evidence of two things being exactly the same in the real world. You haven't provided it in fact quite the reverse.
Let's go back to what you mean by "fact" what do you mean by that word. I mean stuff that I can find evidence for. What did you mean again? You appear to be all over the place and I find it hard to follow.
"Evidence is part of justification."
Evident to who and justifed by who to who?
"How do you know that a society exists, btw?
I sense it."
Which sense? Sight, hearing, taste?
"Of course you can control someone. Ever heard of hypnotism? Or blackmail?"
They still freely choose their response to your hypnotism or blackmail.
Murder
n. When a sane person, with intent, malice aforethought and no legal excuse or authority to kill another human being.
If there is no law, then there can be no legal excuses, ever, and so all killing is murder.
You haven't understood - that is evident from your answers. You are only grasping half of what is said.
I know you think you're making clever points about the tenuous nature of reality, but it's all been done before and if you're going to be a skeptic, you're not reducing far enough. Try reading Descartes and see how far you can go.
Good luck living your life though. With that level of uncertainty you're definitely going to need it.
I am absolutely certain that I don't know. As I think in pictures and not words, it's going to be difficult to come to the "I think therefore I am" conclusion though.