From: David MOREY (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Thu Nov 20 2003 - 20:14:49 GMT
Wim
I like the below.
"What can we know? (ontology)" the problem we are faced with is the
great flux of experience, the answer is of course either that we propose
that this is mere appearance and seek what is essential below it, or we
do not reject DQ and suggest that what we can make sense of is just
that some patterns can be made out that repeat.
Also:" By the way, even the question "What is real?" is not trivial BEFORE
you have
> answered it with 'everything is'. Asking that question CAN be important to
> distinguish oneself from Platonists and other villains."
I agree with this very much, it is why I reject Matt's anti-metaphysics
position.
I prefer a positive ontological/metaphysical position that like Nietzsche
says
there is no distinction between appearance and reality but then syas and
that is our
position, it has great significance as you say, and it is a way of
explaining why closure
is not possible whilst the pragmatists can only hope and failing to put DQ
explicitly at the centre
of their position despite the commitment to keeping the conversation going.
Matt likes
the sophistication of the pragmatist anti-metaphysics posiyion ad I can
relate to that, but I feel
it is unlikely ever to be able to explain itself beyond the philosophically
sophisticated.
regards
David M
----- Original Message -----
From: "Wim Nusselder" <wim.nusselder@antenna.nl>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 7:03 AM
Subject: Re: MD When is a metaphysics not a metaphysics?
> Dear Matt K.,
>
> You wrote 19 Nov 2003 17:13:10 -0600:
> 'If everything is real, then the metaphysical question "What is real?"
(one
> of those questions I listed long ago as Wim remembered) is reduced, not to
> absurdity, but to triviality. Debate about reality, pragmatists say, then
> ceases to be metaphysical and become other things, like politics and
> literary criticism (which, as you say, are debates about high and low
> quality).'
>
> THE questions as you originally phrased them, in your "little Intro to
> Philosophology" of 31/5/01 11:21 -0700 were:
> "There are three branches of philosophology: epistemology, metaphysics,
and
> axiology.
> Epistemology deals with the 'How do I know something?' questions.
> Metaphysics deals with the 'What is reality?' questions.
> Axiology is a little known word that formalises the question of 'What has
> value?'."
>
> I have rephrased them, most recently in my "Economics of want and greed"
> posts (see www.antenna.nl/wim.nusselder/schrijfsels/economics.htm , also
> linked through www.moq.org now):
> 'That is, if metaphysics is understood to mean our answers to three
> questions:
> 1) How can we know? (epistemology)
> 2) What can we know? (ontology)
> 3) How can we know what we should do? (meta-ethics)
> My answers are:
> 1) We can only know by experience.
> 2) Only Quality or value can be known experientially.
> 3) We can only know what we should do by attaching differential meaning to
> alternative actions.'
>
> Are these trivial, too??
>
> By the way, even the question "What is real?" is not trivial BEFORE you
have
> answered it with 'everything is'. Asking that question CAN be important to
> distinguish oneself from Platonists and other villains. Once it is
answered
> (along with the other metaphysical questions) debates about relative
quality
> are of course much more important.
>
> With friendly greetings,
>
> Wim
>
>
>
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