Dear Dr Standish,
I reproduce your comment in part below:
I have to admit to never having heard of intension or extension, but
merely translated them as subjectivity and objectivity respectively to
make sense of your post.
To me subjective means observer dependent, and objective means observer
independent.
As to dualism, this is a notion that presupposes physicalism I
suppose, namely that there is a concrete physical reality within which
we find ourselves. I am very much sceptical of this point of view, which
doesn't seem necessary for understanding the world in which we live.
Without physicalism, objective simply applies to those properties that
observers must observe, simply by virtue of being conscious. I do not
think entropy is objective in this sense. However, if you sign up to a
particular description - eg thermodynamical language, then entropy can
only mean one thing. In this case, entropy is objective relative to
the notion of a thermodynamic state.
My comment is that on that definition of subjectivity:objectivity and my
own working definition of intension:extension, the two are the same. As I
understand observer dependency, the assertion," looking at a free standing
wall from directly side on it looks the same as a pole" is an objective
(non observer dependent) assertion of a observer dependent fact.
Thanks for your comment.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Professor of Psychology and Ethology
Clark University
[hidden email]
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/ [hidden email]
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