> On 2 Jun 2019, at 13:43, John Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > > Bruno Marchal Wrote: > > >> I see little point in reading a book written by someone who knows even > >> less about how the world really works than I do. Life is too short to read > >> every book ever written so one must use judgement and be selective. > > > You confirme that you criticise what you have not studied. > > Yes, it takes very little study to conclude some books are of more value than > others and reading a 2500 year old book, or even a 1500 year old book, will > be of little or no help in solving modern physics mysteries. One does not > need to eat the entire egg to know it is bad.
It is only with the advent of Quantum Mechanics that physicists begin to grasp the problem of relating first person description and third person theory. Ot out Everett’s wording, the importance of the difference between the subjective and some possible objective knowledge. But that is just because the theological paradigm has been unchallenged since a long time. Before that, people (I mean the intellectuals) were totally aware of that problem, and indeed platonism was already a reaction toward the belief that realty is fundamentally, or ontological material. The fact that you compare Plotinus ir Proclus to a Caveman shows that you have not even try to read them, and that add evidence that you seem unable to doubt your material hypothesis. That is dogmatic thinking I’m afraid. It is “religion” in your pejorative sense. Doing metaphysics or theology with the scientific attitude consists first in doubting all possible theories, and providing some test to evaluate them. There is no other method. Deciding that metaphysics *cannot* be done in this way, is the usual means by dogmatic people to conserve the metaphysics of their time, and make it unchallengeable. It keeps up the obscurantist statu quo. Bruno > > > That is hardly rational. > > You can not claim to have read every book ever written, so how do you > rationally determine which books are worth your time? And remember this is > time that could have been spent reading some other book. > > John K Clark > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected] > <mailto:[email protected]>. > To view this discussion on the web visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv0RrB9jJ_8QuzPqS%2BqtMmTQ%2BPUQCwpRH7MCtGsyUesBWw%40mail.gmail.com > > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv0RrB9jJ_8QuzPqS%2BqtMmTQ%2BPUQCwpRH7MCtGsyUesBWw%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/B290C9AC-2EC6-4428-8A69-B0963C22B701%40ulb.ac.be.
