William writes: "I am not sure why IS needs to be restricted to physical entities. Why can't ideas exist in their own sort of ISness? Didn't even Descartes split the mind from the body on that very issue? But we are in a post Cartesian era, I think."
With my interpretation of what William says, I'm with him on this. Given the sort of idea of "is" most of us have, my position is that indeed ideas do have "ISness". There are two kinds of "things" -- those in the "material" world "out there", and those in the notional world. We are in many ways in a post-Cartesian world, but not in the sense that the mind--body problem has been resolved in everyone's mind. Many professional "thinkers", as well as laymen, continue to feel that the "stuff" of consciousness -- our thoughts and feelings -- though it may be correlated in time with the physical world, is not identical with it. A "feeling", they would say, is not "material". ************** Plan your next getaway with AOL Travel. Check out Today's Hot 5 Travel Deals! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212416248x1200771803/aol?redir=http ://travel.aol.com/discount-travel?ncid=emlcntustrav00000001)
