Nick, Sometimes I can't tell from careful efforts to be rigorous (like the common thread in Whitehead, Ryle and Wittgenstein you point out), whether it refers only to semantics and theories or also refers to physical things. A lack of clarity on whether a subject concerns the forms of mental constructs or the forms of things outside the mind to which we can only point is the most common of the misplaced referents I know of. To me it's highly relevant whether the subject is inside or outside our minds, as the former tend to be projections which can be associated with any other and are limitlessly pliable and extendable, and the latter are not. Does your understanding of category error' include that?
Phil Henshaw ¸¸¸¸.·´ ¯ `·.¸¸¸¸ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 680 Ft. Washington Ave NY NY 10040 tel: 212-795-4844 e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] explorations: www.synapse9.com <http://www.synapse9.com/> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Nicholas Thompson Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 5:02 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [FRIAM] More friam followup Hi all, I think of our discussions as cumulative, so here is somethat that was discussed today that I would like to nail down. We isolated the concept of "misplaced concreteness (Whitehead) which is a version of a "category error" (Ryle) or the violation of a language game (Wittegenstein) or the error of Hypostization. (spelling?)(source?) or Reification (ditto). We will ALWAYS disagree when somebody says that to say that hunger is IN the stomach is an example of misplaced concreteness, but we will never again be confused or ignorant about what is being asserted: that hunger is a complex set of relations that may involve the stomach essentially, but also involves many other things. Even our use of words like probabililty (I probably will go down town today) or (there is a 50 percent chance it will rain today) or causality (guns dont cause crime; people do) lays us open to accusations of misplaced concreteness. Nick Nicholas S. Thompson Research Associate, Redfish Group, Santa Fe, NM ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Professor of Psychology and Ethology, Clark University ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
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