In a message dated 11/14/08 12:11:02 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> are there terms which would involve hard phrases which you > would recommend to us, to pursue the discussion which Chris initiated? > It's a good assignment you put to me, Geoff, but it's comparable in length and bulk to Carnap's attempt to save logical positivism. And it would probably complexify rather than simplify. For example, my easy phrase 'sense data' would have to be modified. I wrote: "I'll call >"soft" as opposed to "hard" -- i.e. it doesn't come attached to current or >potential sense data." For example, 'boring' is a soft term. My effort to reduce it to current or potential 'sense data' would end with a feeling -- the feeling of ennui, boredom. Well, boredom and excitement and fear and yearning are "feelings" as vividly conscious as smells, tastes, sounds. Some such feelings I like, some I loathe. The reduction of "value" would take many steps, and would ultimately end with feelings I like. I can imagine listers saying, "Oh? And which of the five senses is the one that delivers fear or boredom?" The truth seems to be that the "feeling" of fear is a compound of what's delivered by, say, the sight of a car speeding towards me, plus the delivery of the mind/brain as it processes the unpleasant implications. Boredom is more complicated, and as one thinks about it, it becomes clear 'sense data' is not enough. If someone points at a gem and says to me, "It's very valuable," I'll assume he means it could be sold for lots of money. But money's value consists not in itself, but in its utilty to buy things that ultimately occasion desirable feelings -- nice tastes, warmth, good tickets to the concert and thus the pleasure-feeling I get from music, etc. Consider Chris's line: "Some artifacts serve as better scientific evidence than others." The word with "value" built into it is 'better'. What makes "evidence" more valuable to a scientist? Sometimes it's the "satisfaction" -- a feeling! -- it occasions. For example, suppose a given scientist doubts the validity of a thesis, a universal that's commonly accepted. If he finds an instance that's incontrovertibly pertinent and contrary to the universal, he has "proven" his point, and it gives him satisfaction. He may also get a "good feeling" from realizing he has saved scientists from a fruitless avenue of search. Of course, a scientist may be bent on finding evidence that corroborates a theory -- as Pasteur was in pursuing the germ theory of disease. The value-feeling for him was not confined to satisfaction from being proven right, but in its subsequent use to prevent infection -- i.e. he (and Semmelweis before him) gained satisfaction from hard evidence that they had reduced human suffering by preventing infection. Much earlier, Anton van Leeuwenhoek claimed that there were single-celled organisms in this world. The British Royal Society was skeptical -- until they went to Holland and looked through a microscope van Leeuwenhoek had built -- and they saw microorganisms for the first time. Very satisfying for van Leeuwenhoek. And it wasn't all mere ego. To contribute to "human knowledge" can be very satisfying. Consider pure mathematicians who work on problems, looking for solutions with no perceivable practical use. The "value" to them in "hard" terms is the peculiarly satisfying feeling a pure mathematician can get from simply solving the thing. But why does it satisfy? Well, interesting though it is, that's not the question here. We "value" certain feelings without ever pondering why. Notice: this means nothing has absolute value. What ultimately brings a cherishable feeling to one person may not do it for the next. We may preach that reducing human suffering is an absolute good, but I see no way to prove it so without accepting a premise that assumes the point at issue. The man who tortures and kills would value that suffering -- or at least be indifferent about it -- if he believes it defends or advances his religion. ************** Get the Moviefone Toolbar. Showtimes, theaters, movie news & more!(http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100000075x1212774565x1200812037/aol?redir =htt p://toolbar.aol.com/moviefone/download.html?ncid=emlcntusdown00000001)
