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What does "counterfactual" mean here please?

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» What does "counterfactual" mean here please?

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Specifically, the autoepistemic closure consists in human beings in ordinary waking states not being able to realize the simple fact that the content of their subjective experiences inevitably has strong, self-constructed aspects, because it is representational content, and that it always is simulational, counterfactual content.

@Oh phil,

It seems to me that counterfactual means "against the facts" (well, no duh), and the author is saying that what we think we know ourselves (autoepistemesis?) is in fact an illusion, that Truth is really something else entirely.

@hammersklavier,

hammersklavier wrote:

It seems to me that counterfactual means "against the facts" (well, no duh), and the author is saying that what we think we know ourselves (autoepistemesis?) is in fact an illusion, that Truth is really something else entirely.

A counter-factual conditional is a conditional statement whose antecedent is false. For example: If you had gone to the party, then you would have met Mary. The antecedent of that conditional statement, "You went to the party" is false. But the whole statement is true.

@Oh phil,

I thought counterfactual statements in historical discussions are a presentation of alternative outcomes. It's similar to your conditional, but it's applied to a historical scenario.

@Oh phil,

Those are ways in which I have seen "counterfactual" used, but I am still struggling to fit those concepts into the original sentence I quoted. Can anyone rephrase it in a way that makes it clear what Metzinger was on about?

@Oh phil,

Oh! wrote:

Those are ways in which I have seen "counterfactual" used, but I am still struggling to fit those concepts into the original sentence I quoted. Can anyone rephrase it in a way that makes it clear what Metzinger was on about?

No idea. It does not seem to be English, at least prima facie.

I imagine that by "counter-factual" he means, "contrary to the facts" or, in plain English, "false". But I really don't know.

@Oh phil,

Thanks Kenneth. Metzinger is German, but most of what I have read seems comprehensible. I've just discovered there are published commentaries on his book as well as a precis of the book here: P S Y C H E: Symposia - Metzinger

@Oh phil,

Oh! wrote:

Thanks Kenneth. Metzinger is German, but most of what I have read seems comprehensible. I've just discovered there are published commentaries on his book as well as a precis of the book here: P S Y C H E: Symposia - Metzinger

He seems to speak a variation of scispeak.

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What does "counterfactual" mean here please?

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