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Dennis Hackethal addressed criticism #4369.
#4369·Dennis Hackethal, about 21 hours agoAccording to Popper (ibid), opponents of world 3 “usually say that all these entities are, essentially, symbolic or linguistic expressions of subjective mental states”, that they’re merely, “means of communication…”
Popper counters this criticism with two thought experiments (107-108).
First, if all our machines and tools were destroyed, and so were our subjective knowledge of how to use them, but libraries were not, then we could re-learn to use them by reading books.
Second, if all libraries were also destroyed, we couldn’t re-learn from books. Civilization wouldn’t re-emerge for millennia.
Therefore, Popper argues, world 3 is important and real.