On Monday, April 22, 2019 at 4:39:34 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: > > > > On 4/22/2019 2:17 PM, Philip Thrift wrote: > > > > On Monday, April 22, 2019 at 4:08:12 PM UTC-5, Brent wrote: >> >> >> >> On 4/22/2019 1:56 PM, Philip Thrift wrote: >> >> >> The Kantian view is that *reality* is actually really real. It is there >> whether there are any of us (or anyone else) thinking beings around to >> agree about or argue about anything. >> >> >> Really? >> >> >> What people agree (or disagree) about, "intersubjective" or otherwise >> (and it is questionable these days in 2019 what agreement there really is) >> are *theories of reality*. >> >> >> Most theories (and all the useful ones) are not theories of reality, they >> are theories of a part of reality, i.e. a domain in which the theory makes >> accurate and reliable predictions. >> >> Brent >> “All human progress has been made by studying the shadows on the cave >> wall.” >> --- Sean Carroll >> > > > Sean is a Platonist. Just like Vic said. > > > Have you read the parable of the cave?? > > Brent >
It's the very definition of Platonism: Platonic Forms. [Wikipedia: The Allegory of the Cave] The allegory is probably related to Plato's theory of *Forms*, according to which the "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the *Forms* constitutes real knowledge or what Socrates considers "the good". https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of* Forms*. The allegory of the cave is supposed to explain this. In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the *Theory of Forms* to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. - pt -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
