"As a student...", there he goes again with the condescending schoolmaster tone.
Cheerskep wants things philosophical two ways: first he wades us into the black deep currents of philosophical traditions and their technical terms but then, with expectant visions of a wise Brown Trout and the water pouring over the tops of our waders, he takes us back to the muddy shallows where "commonsense" terms, quips, illustrations -- little minnows -- are said to be the same as the elusive and frightful prize. When I started "as a student" in philosophy, the first lessons had to do with Naive Realism, or commonsense belief and its easily demonstrated falsiies. WC --- On Tue, 12/30/08, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: Malcolm Gladwell and beliefs > To: [email protected] > Date: Tuesday, December 30, 2008, 5:17 PM > In a message dated 12/30/08 5:51:49 PM, > [email protected] writes: > > > Phenomenolgy is about the mind representations of the > reality we can never > > attain directly. If it's mind, it's fiction > (an as-if make-believe). When I > > say mind, I am not implying a brain-independent > condition. This is not a > > far-fetched goofball idea. Husserl is a start. > > > As a student one is taught it started even earlier: with > Kant and his notion > that the "noumenal" world is forever > "unknowable", and all our brain can > entertain is the phenomenal world. Indeed he said such > elements of awareness > as > time, space, causation are contributions of our minds, and > we have no reason > to > believe they obtain in the noumenal world. > > Do you want to take a shot at the question I put? Perhaps I > can sharpen by > asking, do you feel "Snow White" and "Newman > is Dead" are EQUALLY "fiction"? > > > > > > > > > >Occasionally I have seen words effectively > murdered by > > > over-stretching them > > > >-- for example, 'obscene' and > > > 'awesome'. > > > > > > > >William, can you conceive of any notion > you'd call > > > non-fiction? > > > > > > > >If you can't, then what word would use in > trying to > > > convey a distinction > > > >between an entirely made-up story like SNOW > WHITE AND > > > THE SEVEN DWARFS, and > > > >a > > > >so-called "fact" like PAUL NEWMAN > DIED THIS > > > YEAR or THE EMPIRE STATE > > > >BUILDING > > > >IS > > > >IN NEW YORK CITY? > > > > > ************** > One site keeps you connected to all your email: AOL Mail, > Gmail, and Yahoo Mail. Try it now. > (http://www.aol.com/?optin=new-dp& > icid=aolcom40vanity&ncid=emlcntaolcom00000025)
