William
So I can say something, Miller can deny it; Boris can say something, Mando can deny it. Ad infinitum. Sooner or later we need to agree that our claims and examples for objectivity will trump our subjective experiences, at least for the sake of finding common ground. If we each prefer to assert experience over objectivity, then we have our own opinions and nothing else. Or we can argue over whose experiences are superior, and thus closer to objectivity, than others. In that line claim first place. Who will push me out? Miller? Cheerskep? Mando? Boris? Others? Michael? Maybe Michael.
I'll pass. In fact, I'll pass on standing in any line. Jostling for position in line is like watching Thesis and Antithesis elbowing each other to be first, and then looking up and seeing Synthesis all alone at the beginning of another line. Then everybody rushes over to it and the jostling begins again.
Comparing experiences is a fruitless task, because no one can experience another person's sense of taste or sight, etc. The best one can do is to say, "Bananas taste great. Here try this one. Was I right?" In this little scene, the banana is, of course, the objective fact, that is, if you experience the same thing I experience, there is a high probability that your reaction will be very close to mine. (Such a test, however, doesn't always succeed, as I can attest. Despite what many people say, I detest mushrooms and won't eat them!) All of our experiences are premised on the assumption that the forms of entities in the world remain largely unchanged and predictable (within known and understood conditions) and that individual encounters, either my own repeated encounters or those of many other people, will result in almost the same reactions.
But that's when the cultural stuff kicks in, as you said in your message from Wednesday: "Visual Art is in its reception or not at all and anything visual can be the medium whether or not it was ever intended as art."
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