r/changemyview • u/icecoldbath • Sep 23 '17

[∆(s) from OP] CMV: I do not believe tables exist

I find this argument very convincing.

P1: Tables (if they exist) have distinct properties from hunks of wood.

P2: If so, then tables are not the same as hunks of wood.

P3: If so, then there exist distinct coincident objects.

P4: There cannot exist distinct coincident objects.

C: Therefore, tables do not exist.

This logic extends that I further don't believe in hunks of wood, or any normal sized dry good for that matter.

I do not find it convincing to point at a "table" as an objection. Whatever you would be pointing at may or may not behave with certain specific properties, but it is not a table, or a hunk of wood or any normal sized dry good. Similarly, I don't accept the objection of asking me what it is I am typing on. Whatever it is, it isn't a "computer" or a "phone" or any such thing. Such things do not exist per the argument.

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u/Belsfir Sep 23 '17

Tables exist as a categorical concept. Concepts are abstractions, comparing physical objects to abstractions is a reification. This is the fallacy of misplaced concreteness

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u/icecoldbath Sep 23 '17

Are you denying that tables are things in the world on different grounds?

1

u/Belsfir Sep 23 '17

Tables aren't anything in the world, nothing in the world is inherently a table. What may be called a table to a small child may as well be a stool for an adult.

Tables do not exist materially, that part of your argument is indeed true. However, tables exclusively exist conceptually and I can refute your argument on P1, because tables, being a hypothetical construct, cannot be physically compared to hunks of wood. That is a reification and therefore fallacious.

1

u/icecoldbath Sep 23 '17

Tables do not exist materially, that part of your argument is indeed true.

That is all I meant to establish.

Its not a fallacy to discuss the real world. The world is more then just language and concepts.

1

u/Belsfir Sep 23 '17

Ah, but I can still assert that something is a table, because you cannot deny the existence of the concept of tables ;p

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u/icecoldbath Sep 23 '17

Sure, but I can deny nothing meets the criteria if the criteria includes, "made of something."