Re: Are First Person prime?

[George Levy]

1Z wrote: I don't even know what you mean by "first person". David Nyman wrote: Peter It's a bit late in the day perhaps to tell me you 'don't even know what I mean by first person'! However, I'll have another go. I'm concerned to distinguish two basic meanings, which failing to specify IMO causes a lot of confusion: 1) First person 1 (FP1) - the point-of-view that is directly claimed by an individual (FP1i) such as David or Peter, or what is generally meant when the word 'I' is directly uttered by such a person. 2) First person 2 (FP2) - representations of an FP1 point-of-view as modelled within members of the FP1 community. The usage of 'David' or 'Peter' in point 1) exemplifies one type of such representation, whose presumed referent is an FP1i person. Here is an explanation more grounded in Physics: The concept of "first person" comes directly from the Everett manyworlds,  Schoedinger cat experiment and the quantum suicide (thought) experiment. In a quantum suicide the subject of the experiment does not see himself dying. He can only see himself continuing living along a branch of the manyworld in which his experiment went awry. His perception is first person. Witnesses to the experiment are likely to see the subject die and their point of view is third person. Thus first person and third person imply some kind of "relativity" contingent on the  observer's own existence. More generally, one can assume that the laws of physics themselves are contingent on the observer -ie. the world is being destroyed every nanoseconds or faster when it diverges into MW branches not supporting life. - the only worlds we can observe are those worlds upholding those physical laws supporting life. According to this hypothesis our primary perception of the world is first person. Thus first person perception of the world comes about when our own existence is contingent on our observation. Third person perception comes about in situations when our own existence is not contingent on our observation. George --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---