I’m going to share with you a short exchange I had with
a couple of philosophers, because it was interesting to me, and helped me think
through a few things more carefully. The issue it raises might be something
you’ve thought about as well.
A short aside: for the most part, I have reproduced my
partners’ conversation mostly verbatim. I’ve only altered a couple of punctuation glitches, and made a couple of small
line changes in my response. I’ve also inserted a few lines after-the-fact to
help you track and to make it work as an article. But the substance is pretty
much exactly as it really happened.