Gary F., List: I likewise remain puzzled by the persistent claims that André (or anyone else) is somehow "arguing against mathematics," especially with over-the-top language about an alleged "phaneroscopy vaccine against the mathematics virus." After all, he states plainly in slide 21 that "*mathematics *comes up with fundamental principles essential to phaneroscopy." As for the acknowledged misquotation in slide 23, I brought it to André's attention yesterday and he replied as follows.
ADT: Thanks, Jon, for alerting me to this conflation. How that could have happened is beyond my memory: I compiled a list of quotations many years ago, and put it to different uses over time. I’ll make the correction once I return next week from all an all-too-brief and rare vacation week. Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Tue, Aug 10, 2021 at 9:09 AM <g...@gnusystems.ca> wrote: > Bernard, thank you for a thoughtful post (and thanks to Jon S for an > equally thoughtful reply to it). I especially appreciate your tacit > acknowledgement of the emotional basis of your own response to De Tienne’s > choice of language at “the starting point in slide 23.” But my own response > will be limited to this part of your post: > > BM: By pointing at the opposition egocentrism / world existence, De > Tienne is repeating the well known duality between abstract and concrete, > imaginary and existence. BTW Marty is entitled to see it as excluding > mathematics out of a scientific realm that will end confined into the > experimental sciences. I don't think that such a project can be qualified > as peircian. > > GF: Of course Marty is entitled to carry on his crusade against a putative > attempt (by De Tienne and other scholars) to “exclude mathematics” from > science and from a Peircean understanding of it. He is also “entitled” to > attribute malicious intent to anyone who does not sign on to his crusade, > even to those who simply ignore it. But in my opinion, the rest of us are > no less entitled to ignore it as simply irrelevant to what De Tienne is > saying about phaneroscopy, and to maintain a focus on the actual content of > his slides. > > After a few attempts to communicate with Robert on a reasonable basis, > which I soon realized were futile, I have simply turned my limited > attention elsewhere. Frankly, given a choice to spend my time reading Marty > or reading Peirce, I will choose Peirce every time. Robert is entitled to > carry on his crusade as long as he likes, and others are entitled to give > it the attention they think it deserves. As for me, I have nothing to say > about it that hasn’t been said already. > > Turning back to the “slow read,” I might point out that it is about > *phaneroscopy*, including its non-reciprocal dependence on mathematics > for abstract principles. The fact that nearly all sciences call upon > mathematics for principles under which to organize their observations is > *taken > for granted* in De Tienne’s talk, as it is too obvious to be made a focal > point in a discussion of phaneroscopy. Robert and his fellow crusaders > naturally interpret this taking-for-granted as a *denial* of the > importance of mathematics, and insist on reading this denial into De > Tienne’s explicit text, regardless of what it actually says in its context. > As we have seen, questioning this style of interpretation only leads to > more unfounded accusations of malicious intent and various intellectual > sins. Consequently I feel entitled to say nothing further about the whole > crusade, which I consider a distraction from more relevant issues. In fact > I’m already regretting giving so much time and thought to it in this post. > Enough already. > > Gary f. >
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