----- Original Message -----
From: "Technotranscendence" <neptune@mars.superlink.net>
> > Ah, you see, now you've started this conversation down what I consider
to
> be
> > the interesting road. I -do- believe in a type of reality-- the realm
of
> > mind.
>
> Why?
I -am- going to respond briefly to this.
Let us say that I look at an orange pen. There a few claims that I am able
to make about that orangeness, and each claim can be rated by degree of
certainty.
1.) The pen is orange. (appeal to the reality of existence)
This is a problematic statement for deeper reasons I've already given, but
let's simply deal with the basics: perhaps a light source is altering the
appearance of the pen, perhaps it's virtual reality, or perhaps a piece of
orange gel has been placed between me and the pen. In any case I cannot
have absolute certainty regarding such a statement.
2.) I see the color orange. (appeal to the reality of the senses)
This has much greater certainty. You can't say to me: "Aha, no, the pen is
really blue! I was just bouncing orange light off of it!" because I wasn't
claiming that the pen was orange, I was claiming that I perceived the color
orange. This statement is -almost- 100% absolutely true. Why 'almost?'
Well, it -is- possible that I was hallucinating-- that the pen was a mental
construct and my eyes were actually perceiving nothing at all.
3.) I have a mental construct of the color orange. (appeal to the reality
of the mind)
It is possible to have absolute, 100% certainty regarding the realm of the
mind. You cannot be shown to have been in error. If you were
hallucinating, if it was virtual reality, if the image was placed there by
aliens from another planet, you are still 100% correct to state that you
experienced a particular brain state. Currently this is the only realm in
which we are able to make absolute statements of reality.
I -do- believe in the mind.
I link the reality of my mind functionally to my external environment-- this
way I don't bump into sharp objects.
Also, the mere fact that there is a possibility that I can be incorrect in
the first two statements doesn't mean that I am. I'm simply recognizing
that there is a possibility-- and that these are not absolute reality
states.
And this sword cuts both ways: Having absolute certainty regarding a mental
state does not always translate into something useful in the external
environment.
--::jason.joel.thompson:: ::founder::
www.wildghost.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Oct 02 2000 - 17:37:05 MDT