Comment on Does Consciousness Disappear in Dreamless Sleep?
pjhenry1216@kbin.social 1 year agoIf the threshold changed, the actual definition changed. The same words to describe a different point. If the definition described two different things, its changed. That's basic and simple reasoning. If a definition no longer describes the same thing, it's because it's actual meaning has changed.
jarfil@lemmy.world 1 year ago
“To the end of the road” doesn’t change meanings when the road gets extended another 10 miles. The point changes, the definition doesn’t.
pjhenry1216@kbin.social 1 year ago
yes, the definition changes. it used to mean one point. now it means a point 10 miles away. come on. simple substitution. if you define it only with relative terms then its poorly defined as there's no actual concrete meaning. so you either have a poorly defined term or you have a term that has changed meaning over time. which still makes it poorly defined. i don't know how else to explain it. so i'm going to leave it here. this is going in circles.
jarfil@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I think I know what you mean, but plenty of terms have relative definitions (“behind”, “bright”, “x+1”, “etc”… etc). If you’re looking for an absolute point, you won’t find one, because their meaning is the relationship itself.
Both “life” and “death” define a state relative to another. The definition of “life” is a particularly tricky one, because it includes multiple relative definitions like “growth”, “reaction”, “functioning”, and a “reproduction” that includes both cloning and “imperfect” cloning. Being “death” the opposite, it’s necessarily as relative and tricky too.
pjhenry1216@kbin.social 1 year ago
Which is the crux of this whole conversation. We don't have an actual definition of death. It's all relative and changing over time.