Originally posted by knightmeister
I didn't really get that ...but it is complex. My point was that the laws of physics are the way they are. So if they are brute facts and there is no reason why they are the way they are then presumably they could have been anything at all (just like a quantum event could be anything).
If that's true (and the laws of physics controlled the big bang ...[text shortened]... think the laws of physics could have been any different? Are they the way they are by chance?
….My point was that the laws of physics are the way they are. So if they are brute facts and there is no reason why they are the way they are then presumably they could have been anything at all (just like a quantum event could be anything).
.…
I think your confusion here is this:
you assume that if something is a brute fact
B then it could have been something other than what it is -and that’s where you logically go wrong!
and here is the most critical question of this post:
How do you know that it is NOT ALSO a brute fact
C that it couldn’t be anything other than what it was?
Note that, just as I implied in by last posts, such a brute fact
C would NOT really be a PROPER “explanation” of brute fact
B ( because just to say “it couldn’t have been anything other than what it is” doesn’t explain why so ) thus this doesn’t contradict the notion that fact
B is a BRUTE fact.
Also note that BECAUSE it could be the case that it is ALSO a brute fact
C that it couldn’t be anything other than what brute fact
B was, the mere fact that fact
B is a BRUTE fact does NOT imply that brute fact
B came about by a CHANCE or RANDOM event EVEN if that brute fact
B itself is about random events! (such as quantum events).
….If that's true (and the laws of physics controlled the big bang) then the big bang must have LOGICALLY been a chance event (because the laws of physics could have been anything -or maybe not have existed at all) ..… (me emphasis)
No it doesn’t! one does NOT LOGICALLY follow from the other for the reason I just explained.
If a law of physics is a brute fact then it does NOT LOGICALLY follow from that fact that it could have been something other than what it is.
…This also BEGS the question of whether quantum random events ( if they are) could stop being random at any moment
.… (me emphasis)
No it doesn’t! how do you know that it is NOT ALSO a brute fact that quantum events can NOT ever be nor have ever been anything other than random?
Note that this would NOT really be a PROPER “explanation” for the brute fact that quantum events are random ( because just to say “it couldn’t have been anything other than what it is” doesn’t explain why so ) thus this doesn’t contradict the notion that it is a fact that is a BRUTE fact that quantum events are random.