David said: One thing I'd want to make clear here is that possibilities do exist for us and are very important. The possibility of another world war is very real and also is possible and not actual because its manifestation remains un-actualised and unphysical in some sense. And let's hope it stays that way, but as a possibility we are stuck with it for the time being.
Matt: Uh-hunh, and they are actual and physical in exactly the same way God is: breath emitting from from our throat, neurons firing in our brain, etc. David said: You know my problems with physicalism have reduced somewhat recently after reading a very good version in Nick Maxwell's from Knowledge to Wisdom, where he is very clear about the aspects of human experience that are clearly incomprehensible in terms that we associate with the physical sciences. Matt: Well, I don't know what "incomprehensible" is supposed to mean in this context, but Rorty's been very clear since the sixties that reductionism functions on the "all X's are Y's" theorem. The theorem itself isn't a problem, just the addenda "and understanding Y's will tell you all there is to know about X's." The addenda is reductionism, the theorem is just analogy. The point is that if we find _any_ language besides the mathematical language of theoretical physics useful (assuming for the moment that "physical reality" can be reduced to a set of mathematical formulas as scientists, at least once, hoped) in dealing with reality, then the continued use of that language is all we need to justify the assertion "there is more to life than physics". After I read the beginning of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature, where Rorty distinguishes between the intentional and the physical, that was pretty much the end of me getting worked up over declarations of "Science can explain everything!" and "No, some of it is incomprehensible to science!" Both are true, but boring. The problem was always reductionism, which produces the declarative. My thoughts are pretty well outlined in "The Parable of the Reductionist" (http://pirsigaffliction.blogspot.com/2006/03/parable-of-reductionist.html). Matt _________________________________________________________________ Going green? See the top 12 foods to eat organic. http://green.msn.com/galleries/photos/photos.aspx?gid=164&ocid=T003MSN51N1653A Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
