On Sunday, September 03, 2000 10:39 AM J. R. Molloy jr@shasta.com wrote:
> > I know you want to brush this one under the carpet, but I hope you'll
agree
> > that the most obvious and most common assumptions are the ones most
> > resistant to change. In the interests of constant improvement, even the
> > most fundamental pillars of belief, too, must be challenged.
>
> I think I know how you feel, Jason.
> At five years old, I wanted to know *why* 2 + 2 = 4.
> Bertrand Russell wrote a huge book about it (_Principia Mathematica).
> Rather than write a book to prove that the set of all that exists equals
one
> set, I'll simply present it as axiomatic (like, 2 + 2 = 4).
I don't like to use the word "axiom" too loosely. I like instead, to borrow
from the Aristotelean and Objectivist usage of the term, to define it as a
_universal truth_ -- i.e., something that underlies all other truths. (This
does not make it any more real. The distinction between axioms and other
truths (particular truths) is epistemological not ontological.) Classic
examples are the Law of Identity.
In particular, I believe one should avoid just taking what one knows to be
true and reclassifying it as axiomatic. For instance, my eye color, which I
see every time I look in the mirror is not, for me, an axiom. Surely, I
know it. I know it's true -- in the context of my knowledge. But it is not
an axiom. It doesn't underly all of my knowledge.
> There is only one reality because reality means the (unitary) set of all
that
> exists.
> (You won't be tested on this,
> but you'll need to know it to accurately solve more complex problems.)
I think Jason Joel Thompson meant something more than that. Though I agree
with you that reality is unitary, I think he meant that the unification
might only take place in the mind. In other words, that collecting all real
things into "reality" is no more than a mental shorthand and that
metaphysically reality -- all the real things -- might be separate and
unrelated. I would take this to include stuff not perceived or known and
therefore not unified by any mind.
Correct me if I'm wrong Jason.
Anyway, I was worried about reality until I met William Shatner and we
logged on to Priceline.com, but that's a song for another time.
Until then,
Daniel Ust
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
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