Hi Jonathan:
In a post dtd Mar 28, 2001 you wrote:
> The discomfort that Elephant and Roger seem to feel over "atomic awareness"
> is, IMHO linked to the whole subject/object dichotomy and the issue of
> CAUSALITY. As I have said before, the word "cause" sees to have two meanings,
> one subjective and on objective.
> Subjective cause is something very human - "living/fighting/dying for the
> cause . . ."
> Objective cause is something very mechanistic - what CAUSES objects to
> behave the way they do.
>
> The subject/object dichotomy causes us to regard all events as the results of
> (objective) causes external to, but acting on objects. e.g. A is attracted to
> B beCAUSE of gravity. The trouble with this is that the apparent attraction
> between A and B *is* gravity, not because of gravity. We can unite objective
> cause and subjective cause by simply saying "A and B *want* to be together -
> it is their cause". It only sounds funny because we are not used to it.
>
> What is notable is that modern science seems to come up with these strange
> sounding expressions all the time (as illustrated in Platt's quotes). When
> scientific ideas surface that are compliant with the data, testable
> (falsifiable) and explanatory, but yet they still sound strange, we can take
> one of three paths:
> 1. Claim that the data are wrong (the resort of the Ostrich)
> 2. Claim that the science is wrong (the resort of the Mediaeval church)
> 3. Claim that the problem is in our system of understanding.
>
> I think Pirsig's biggest contribution is to show that 3 is a viable option.
> When things get lost in a hiss of irrational babble, we must never forget to
> consider the possibility that it is our own rationality that is out of tune.
Brilliant, Jonathan, absolutely brilliant. I'm going to have "A and B want
to be together - it is their cause" emblazoned on a T-shirt. I only wish it
could be emblazoned in big, bold letters in front of every scientist's,
logician's and philosopher's classroom throughout the world.
Hyperbole I know, but if there is any contribution that this site has made
to advance human understanding, my vote would be for the passage
cited above. I'm not kidding. Did this suddenly just come to you, or
has it been on your mind for some time?
In any case, Jonathan, many thanks. Reading hundreds of posts over
the years has paid off in many ways, but none more so than this post of
yours.
Platt
Platt
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