Talk:Counterpart theory

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Philosophy, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of content related to philosophy on Wikipedia. If you would like to support the project, please visit the project page, where you can get more details on how you can help, and where you can join the general discussion about philosophy content on Wikipedia.PhilosophyWikipedia:WikiProject PhilosophyTemplate:WikiProject PhilosophyPhilosophy

???

This article has not yet received a rating on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

???

This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

Associated task forces:
/
	Metaphysics

Please state examples of bad prose and not just add a banner. Maybe then I can write changes. I spend a lot of time writing this piece and as far as I know there is yet nothing more complete about counterpart theory on the web. English is not my mothertongue so exemples will help me improve my prose.

--RickardV 11:48, 8 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

In my opinion, the article's far too technical. Wikipedia is an general encyclopedia, not a reference manual, and at the moment I don't think someone who's not an expert in the subject already would understand this. I have a degree in philosophy & two years of a physics degree, so am presumably the "target" audience for this, but in honesty having read the article, I really don't understand what it's about — iridescent (talk to me!) 14:23, 8 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Not anything??? --RickardV 14:38, 8 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that this is far too technical. I do not have a degree in philosophy (not quite, anyway), but I am pretty well versed. I suggest removing all of the formal logic and beginning instead with a simple discussion of near alternate worlds and their counterparts therein. Does that make sense? I will try to understand better what you are saying on this page before going forward, but I might try to start doing some rewrites if that is OK. -- Wylfing (talk) 15:27, 10 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I don't agree. The logic is atmost first-order predicate logic, for the explanation of counterpart theory, and there is not much on it in the rest of the world wide web yet. The proof of the necessity of identity is important in itself and therefore the article is linked to the issues of modal logic. I hope someday in the future to also look through the article and fix some of it. But go ahead. --RickardV (talk) 11:27, 13 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I found this article extremely helpful as a reference. Please don't delete the formal bits - they are essential. If you edited every formal thing out of every logic article you came across there'd be nothing left!! --NoizHed (talk) 19:24, 5 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

This article has been tagged as providing "insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject" because it does just that.

In what possible world is the following a reasonable introductory sentence for an article in a general encyclopedia?

Counterpart theory (CT) is a theoretical framework. It uses the counterpart relation (hereafter C-relation) to replace the identity relation between objects in different possible world/times/spaces. Identity is a reflexive, symmetric and transitive relation. The counterpart relation is only a similarity relation, it doesn’t have to be transitive or symmetric.

Counterpart theory is "a theoretical framework"? Fine. In what field?

What are you referring to when you discuss counterpart and identity relations? What is the significance, in a broad sense, of the former similarity relation replacing the latter reflexive relation?

What's the point, in layman's terms?

76.197.135.132 (talk) 06:44, 1 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

- - This theory was discovered by David Tourtellot!!! not David Louis....David Tourtellot's Theory of Counterpartivity was heralded far before Louis'. Although, they do differ in some ways, David's theory is based on more concrete ideas and evidence. The Krey-Lutmun discovery of '94 is one such example. My only aggrivation is that Tourtellot's theory was not allowed on Wikipedia and this David Louis's was....anyway Tourtellot's theory proves that many individuals have counterparts living in their own time/space/world. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Raurex (talk • contribs) 08:27, 29 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I did a bit to tidy up the introduction and make it more accessible. I also patched up some (not all) of the grammar. I think the formal logic section should be retained (although possibly add a link to Propositional Calculus), because it describes the system very succinctly, and is useful to more advanced readers. I also feel that the article desperately needs to include the work of several philosophers, not just David Lewis. If other philosophers haven't touched this, then I would question its notability. Even as it stands, I question whether the subject merits so thorough a treatment in a general encyclopedia. Ethidium (talk) 18:10, 12 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]