Interpretation

Rick Knight (rknight@platinum.com)
Fri, 06 Jun 97 13:29:04 CST


Ken Wilber, in his book "A Brief History of Everything" has some
interesting notions. Two of which I ran across last night that,
perhaps not so inadvertently, tie in with my posts on absolutes,
rationalism and new age folly from 6/5.

"We can see the surface, but depth requires interpretation."

This is a suitable overlay for how we perceive reality. There are
things we test and prove. We cinch it and move on, having scaled
another "unknown" in our universe. But it is the unknown that we must
struggle to apply meaning...and compelling meaning at that.
Adjunctively to yesterday's observation to a flat earth, the horizon
was horizontal and ostensibly flat, so based on as much information as
was available, the world was flat. (Cinched, now let's move on).

"There is alas, a type of simple mind that believes only those things with
simple location actually exist, even though that belief itself does not
itself have simple location."

I particularly like this quote because it identifies the paradox for those
who are sticklers for associating "valid" with "proven" and
"reality-based".

Enjoyable book by the way.


Rick