needle ninja Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 Yea, it has been one of those days. Anyway this is about points of view - what it is can make everything different, or at least seem different. One day there was a frog on a rock. Is the frog at rest or about to jump? If you are a human observer watching from the shore you might say the frog was at rest. The reality of the frog might be totally different, however. To an insect flying over the pond, the frog would be seen as poised to lunge forward in one sudden and terrible motion, potentially ending the insect's existance. Perhaps a casual observer would not even see the frog, the meer fact that you, a human with human vision and human thoughts saw the frog at all says something about you. For example, you are one of the few who would see the small detail nessecary to spot the shape of the frog agaist the background. There is a reason that frogs are hard to spot. So, you are somewhat of a naturalist, perhaps someone with experience looking for frogs. Your experience will always color your view. Your memories are an indelable fact of your existance and they will be there with you as you look out over the surface of the pond and spot the frog. You are also more likely to assign your present condition to the condition of the frog. If you are at rest, you will see the frog as at rest as well. So is fire hot or cold? depends Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTP Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 I wouldn't bring the viewpoint with which an individual sees the world into connection with the question whether fire is hot or cold. It is justified to use the term "fire is hot" because It will be perceived as hot by most humans and animals. The frog, however, won't. Just a question of viewpoint. Well, maybe, but not with something as basic as fire I would say. Sure you can say fire is cold and thus you will be one of only some very few people who say that ... it's your point of view and you're free to have that. The only question is whether you'll find so many people / individuals to interconnect to who share the same point of view, so it's basically just a question how fun it is for you to say that fire is cold. But it's actually true that the viewpoint matters and not so much the circumstances. I would second that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted November 23, 2011 Share Posted November 23, 2011 I'd say fire is hot, because I'd say the whole common concept of heat (not the scientific definition) is based around fire. But yeah, points of view get weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
longloststar Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 You discovered the great philosophical secret that almost every sentence can be doubted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PRS Posted November 24, 2011 Share Posted November 24, 2011 philosophy sucks... or does it? hey, i'm just asking questions... but it's a fine line it seems to me =_= and don't get me wrong here, i love me some thinking. maybe it's just amateur philosophers that get to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
needle ninja Posted November 25, 2011 Author Share Posted November 25, 2011 I wouldn't bring the viewpoint with which an individual sees the world into connection with the question whether fire is hot or cold. It is justified to use the term "fire is hot" because It will be perceived as hot by most humans and animals. The frog, however, won't. Just a question of viewpoint. Well, maybe, but not with something as basic as fire I would say. Sure you can say fire is cold and thus you will be one of only some very few people who say that ... it's your point of view and you're free to have that. The only question is whether you'll find so many people / individuals to interconnect to who share the same point of view, so it's basically just a question how fun it is for you to say that fire is cold. But it's actually true that the viewpoint matters and not so much the circumstances. I would second that. Don't let fire get in your way. The ability we have to think of things as constant is infinite. Fire is a moment in time and is usually thought of in relation to the absence of fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psychedelic chipmunk Posted April 2, 2020 Share Posted April 2, 2020 To us fire is hot, but it's just semantics. There's little hope for any significant progress here since we can always turn it into a game of semantics: what is hot or cold, what is fire and so on.. As any philosopher would say "well, it depends.." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabax Posted April 3, 2020 Share Posted April 3, 2020 Not only philosophers : cold, lukewarm ... these are judgments made on a factual measurement in C, F, K... the fire of your match is not hot enough to melt metal. your solar oven is too hot to light your cigarette.the fire in your chimney is too hot for human skin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padmapani Posted April 4, 2020 Share Posted April 4, 2020 this is not a question of philosophy, it's a question of chemistry. any fire is a reaction that gives off heat, so fire is clearly hot. no matter how you look at it, any materials on fire are hotter than the same materials (in the same circumstances but) in the absence of fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted April 5, 2020 Share Posted April 5, 2020 You know people are bored in quarantine when they revive 9 year old threads about whether fire is hot or cold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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