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General Tabletop Discussion
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
The Best Thing from 4E
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6569779" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>There is a category error here.</p><p></p><p>Let's assume that a fantasy world has laws of physics. And let's assume that a realist metaphysics of natural laws is the correct one. (Both are contentious assumptions, but can be made for the sake of argument.) Then it follows that the physical laws of a fantasy world are independent of the beliefs of the inhabitants of that world.</p><p></p><p>But it doesn't follow that they are independent of the beliefs of the authors of the fiction in question. In fact, I think they are obviously dependent, in some fashion, on such beliefs. For instance, it wouldn't be true of Middle Earth that elves can sail west on the "straight path" except that Tolkien imagined this to be so, and wrote it down.</p><p></p><p> [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION] is not supposing that the inhabitants of a fantasy world throw dice to determine the laws of that world. He is supposing that the inhabitants of the real world (ie him and his fellow players) throw dice to determine what sort of fantasy world they are authoring.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 6569779, member: 42582"] There is a category error here. Let's assume that a fantasy world has laws of physics. And let's assume that a realist metaphysics of natural laws is the correct one. (Both are contentious assumptions, but can be made for the sake of argument.) Then it follows that the physical laws of a fantasy world are independent of the beliefs of the inhabitants of that world. But it doesn't follow that they are independent of the beliefs of the authors of the fiction in question. In fact, I think they are obviously dependent, in some fashion, on such beliefs. For instance, it wouldn't be true of Middle Earth that elves can sail west on the "straight path" except that Tolkien imagined this to be so, and wrote it down. [MENTION=27160]Balesir[/MENTION] is not supposing that the inhabitants of a fantasy world throw dice to determine the laws of that world. He is supposing that the inhabitants of the real world (ie him and his fellow players) throw dice to determine what sort of fantasy world they are authoring. [/QUOTE]
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