--- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > --- In [email protected], "authfriend" <jstein@> wrote: > > > > --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <no_reply@> wrote: > > <snip> > > > *That* is why I keep bringing up your tendency not > > > to believe your own experience, Lawson. > > > > I don't actually recall any instances of Lawson > > not believing his own experience. > > > > Do you have any examples in mind? Or does it > > just seem to you like a fun basis for a putdown? > > Lawson has been outspoken in past dialogues > here and on a.m.t. about the fact that he > doesn't trust his own perceptions.
What I asked was whether you recalled any instances of Lawson having reported an experience and saying he didn't believe it. Perhaps you meant to write, "your tendency to say you don't trust your own perceptions." What I *do* recall is Lawson reporting having had experiences quite straightforwardly, without any suggestion that he didn't believe them. The proof of the pudding, in other words, is in the eating. And you > know that, because you compulsively read > every post. Well, I don't read every post, actually. And I don't necessarily recall every detail of every post I *do* read. That's why I posed it as a question, you see, in case you recalled something I did not. In any case, what I find particularly interesting is how poorly defined the question of believing one's own experience is. For example, you had asked Lawson whether, if he were to see someone hover but nobody else did, he would believe his own eyes. You claimed that a simple yes-or-no answer would suffice. But the question was ambiguous. I asked you to clarify it: believe your own eyes *that what*? You didn't respond. I can think of at least three possibilities: --Lawson would believe the person had actually hovered in physical reality --Lawson would believe the person had actually hovered, but in some reality other than the physical --Lawson would believe he had had the experience of seeing someone hover The last of these three, I would suggest, is the only one any of us can ever be certain of. And it would make no sense whatsoever not to believe it.
