Both RussS and GlennR responded to my question about the disparagement of "real" mainly by talking about phenomenology, ontology, and epistemology. I wasn't asking about any of those. I was asking whether you really don't believe there is such a thing as reality -- whether or not we can preceive it, conceptualize it, or know about it. I can't even imagine what it would mean to answer a question like "Is there reality?" in the negative.
-- RussA On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 4:14 PM, russell standish <[email protected]>wrote: > On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 03:29:20PM -0700, Russ Abbott wrote: > > I guess you too Glenn. > > > > It seems to have become fashionable to act disparagingly toward the > notion > > of "real." What do you intend to substitute for it? > > > > -- Russ > > > > > > I too, am in the camp that cannot fathom what "real" could possibly > mean. For me, science is about studying phenomenological consistency - > we cannot live in any old world, we cannot, for instance, live in a > world incompatible with our presence in that world, ie the Anthropic > Principle. > > But just because phenomenology is consistent, does not make it > real. There is no ontological commitment here. In fact, I tend to > believe that other phenomenologically consistent worlds that are > inconsistent with our own also exist "out there" in the same sense as > our own. The total sum of which adds up to nothing (in a resultant > sense), which requires little, if any ontological commitment. > > I have no problem studying our own patch of phenomenology. It means > something to us, even if the in global scheme of things (if there > could be such a viewpoint), it is fundamentally absurd. > > And if Glen can make a plug, then I can too. The above is discussed in > considerable more detail in my book "Theory of Nothing", which of > course is already known to the list. > > > Cheers > -- > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) > Mathematics > UNSW SYDNEY 2052 [email protected] > Australia http://www.hpcoders.com.au > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- >
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