From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Sun Nov 09 2003 - 22:30:14 GMT
DMB (Matt mentioned):
> DMB wrote:
> It seems that intellect was born trying to express the oldest idea known
> to man; that there is an order and rightness in the universe, one that
> can be detected in music, cosmology, morals and everything else.
> Platt added:
> For all you Rorty fans, DMB has just expressed a fundamental truth
> because you must accept it in the process of denying it.
> dmb says:
> Huh? A fundamental truth? Must accept it in denying it? The point of my
> post was to show the distinction between the social and intellectual
> levels, a point you apparently missed. It was not aimed at Rorty fans
> either.
Nobody said it was. Apparently you're not too sure about the rightness
of your original statement: " ... the oldest idea known to man; that
there is order and rightness in the universe." I have a much stronger
belief in its rightness than you. It's fundamental. I can't wait to see
somebody try to deny it without using an orderly sentence or two in an
attempt to show why she's right.
Regarding Pirsig and fundamental truth, when he speaks of a "supremely
high quality intellectual belief that external objects exist," he
admits to an irreducible, fundamental truth because without such belief
he would be forced to question his own existence. Nor can he deny the
fundamental truth of the event that took his son's life, or that he
wrote a couple of books including one describing a metaphysics based on
evolutionary morality entitled, "Lila."
I use "fundamental" in the same sense as used by David Chalmers: "I
propose that conscious experience be considered a fundamental feature,
irreducible to anything more basic. The idea may seem strange at first,
but consistency seems to demand it." Similarly. the idea of
"fundamental physics" doesn't give me conniption fits. (Some on this
site faint dead away with the very mention of of the word
"fundamental.")
I won't comment on the the rest of DMB's diatribe because Matt
described it so well in another context in another post: "I'm pretty
sure he (DMB) means every arrogant and ignorant thing he says."
Platt
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