William said: >> I suppose an ontology dependent in that way on epistemology is >> quite interesting though. > > It is :)
Things are even weirder than they might seem at first sight though. For example, consider the planet (or Kuiper belt object) Pluto. Suppose that there's an isolated valley in New Guinea whose population have never heard of it. Does that mean that for them, Pluto doesn't exist but for the rest of us it does? How about for people who believe that there's empirical evidence for Pluto but who've never seen such evidence? Are you suggesting that the stuff out there in the world is as ghostly and insubstantial that its very existence depends on what we think about it? That seems like a strange position for someone who's trying to be a realist. What constitutes empirical evidence? Why are people's feelings about God not such evidence? Rich, who is now getting weird "Lathe of Heaven"/Egan hybrid story ideas... GCU Adrift On A Ghostly Sea Of Nothingness _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
