The Parable of the Corn Ear Picture

Part of an ongoing conversation, or, rather, part of my penance for past sins.

The local village materialist says, as he has said so often before:

I am trying to take things step by step. Let us ignore Mechaspeare for a moment and concentrate on Shakespeare.

1. Collect his atomic information, making a list of numbers. Call it list A.

2. Perform classical-mechanics calculations upon list A. This creates a new list, list B.

3. Collect his atomic information again, making list C.

4. Compare lists B and C.

Do you disagree that list B is unique, that there is only one possible set of numbers we can get from classical mechanics and a starting position?

Do you agree that list B must either agree or disagree with list C?

Do you agree that if it disagrees, then Shakespeare’s atoms are not described by classical mechanics? (Please observe, I say nothing about the case when the two lists agree, that is a separate question.)

Please do not jump ahead into interpretations about what it all means. Just answer the questions.

Jump ahead? I am aghast at your chutzpah, sir. You want me to answer the questions without interpreting the questions. You should ask me whether or not I have stopped beating my wife. Or at least ask unambiguous questions.

We have discussed this many, many, many times. Your most recent question is more clever at hiding the hidden assumption which makes it a circular argument, but, no, list B is not unique, for the simple reason that the assumption at step 1 deliberately disregards the crucial information needed to perform the calculation at step 2.

Perhaps an analogy would help.

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Originally published at John C. Wright's Journal. Please leave any comments there.