More than one truth;
What is "texture" to us, is "terrain" to an ant. President Clinton is indeed
the president of the united states, but only to humans.
The "events" of the world about us may indeed have some "objective" quality
about them, but we could never "know" that. Instead, we "choose" the
"objects" of the world, in accordance to our needs (objects are defined by
edges, -spatial ones, and events are defined by temporal edges; but the
edges themselves are those which we can perceive.)
We can, and do, have it 'both' ways, and should . The evolution of
perception is the evolution of the ability to manage several different
'frames of reference simultaneously. Thus 'primitive' perception is of the
'stimulus-response' type, whereas phylogenetically 'higher' species - such
as ourselves- use 'perception-as-information-processing' which requires
fairly complex predictive models of the world about us. Hence conceptual
complexity, hence 'intellect', memory, imagination, etc. We do not
'sense-perceive' reality (in the way Piaget used "perception"), we predict
it, and use sensation to test our predictions. Therefore, we have evolved a
fairly complex conceptual construct of "objective reality" (what would the
world look like from another point of view, such as his, or hers, or so far
into the future, etc.) - which is really a counterpoint to the egocentric
reference frame ( :subjective reality). All predators have to do this to the
extent which will allow them to predict the behavour of potential prey. A
complex predator, which utilises manipulation of aspects of the physical
world (tool using, etc) must also evolve a 'naive physics' to facilitate
predictions of trajectories, and suchlike (because others of the same
species may utilise such manipulatons aginst one). This in turn leads to
complex intellectualising about "the physical world", which is sometimes
regarded as synonymous with "objective reality" ( : what the world would be
like without taking into account my / our presence).
There is a long tradition of conceptualising this physical world / objective
reality as "machine", with a known 'output' resulting from a known 'input'.
(harmony of the spheres, clockwork universe, etc.), whilst regarding
organic, sentient life as some form of complex aberration, thus emphasising
our 'separateness'.
The deterministic view AND the freewill (free agent) view BOTH stem from
this conceptual framework.
The reason the argument can't be resolved is that the answer is mu, - the
question is wrong.
regards
ppl
----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Ketchum" <mketchum@stetson.edu>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: 18 February 2000 19:20
Subject: Re: MD truth
> Roger wrote:
>
> > Matthew;
> >
> > I have never seen someone do such a great job of answering their own
> > question. Your answer for truth is in your post on Russell. If you read
> > William James, you will see basically the same arguments. Chapter 8 of
Lila
> > goes along these lines too. Reality is event based. It is based on
> > experience. ( I challenge every member to reread Lila cover-to-cover
and
> > underline how many times he stresses this and clarifies that he ain't
talkin'
> > 'bout no subjective experience).
> >
> > "President Clinton" is a high quality interpretation of common
experience
> > between us. But the term and the mental image are not the same as the
> > near-infinite stream of events that compose him-and-you.
> >
> > Do you see?
>
>
> Reality is indeed event based. "Quality events" create reality. However,
I
> still maintain that the reality created by these events is one way and
only
> one way, and that the way that it is what we label "truth". Dynamic
> Quality, of course, makes it so that reality is ever-changing, but at any
> given moment, reality is one way and only one way. There aren't multiple
> truths. Once again, at this moment, Bill Clinton is either President or
he
> isn't. We can't have it both ways.
>
> Incidentally, I would still like to see some examples where there is more
> than one truth.
>
> - Matt
>
>
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