The purpose of this list is to consider the nature of the fabric of reality. How much can our deepest theories of the world -- including quantum physics and the theories of evolution, computation and knowledge -- explain? Do they point the way to "a unified theory of everything", as David Deutsch argues in his book? Is quantum theory literally true, as the many worlds view (and most thinking in the field of quantum cosmology and of quantum computation) assumes? Is the human race "...just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting round a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies", as Stephen Hawking asserts? What are the implications of quantum theory for the understanding of the significance of knowledge? Is certainty possible in mathematics? Where does free will fit in the picture painted by quantum theory? What is the scope of virtual reality? What are the implications of the nature of the fabric of reality for everyday life?
... Popper is not an idealist. From Conjectures and Refutations, Chapter 3, Section 6: "Theories are our own inventions, our own ideas; they are not forced
... So, we'd have to interpret the world through theories before we could even think about starting to do induction? Our theory about what is the same, or not,
... Well I suppose we'd need some kind of theory that made us feel confident that we were experiencing the same circumstances in relevant aspects. -Philip
... Experimental activity, which involves setting up circumstances believed to be relevantly the same and noting the result, presupposes the real independence
... Just to make things clear, I would like to insist that I agree with the whole post of Alan here. Except, perhaps, as it is frequent in those difficult