Posted by
Nick Thompson on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-comm-was-Re-FW-Re-Emergence-Seminar-BritishEmergence-tp3654051p3667544.html
All, I have stayed out of this so far because it just seems so NUTTY.
(Look who's talking! When Thompson think's you're nutty you have a real
problem.).
But it seems to me that every attack on realism I ever read presumes a
reality, including those I have been reading here.
As Holt points out, you have to start somewhere and the simplest least
contorted beginning is to assume realism.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University (
[hidden email])
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> [Original Message]
> From: russell standish <
[hidden email]>
> To: <
[hidden email]>; The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee
Group <
[hidden email]>
> Date: 9/17/2009 9:14:29 PM
> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Faith and Science (was comm.)
>
> You tell me. Just what is the notion? Reality could mean:
>
> 1) What kicks back. Johnson's stone, or Doug's hammered thumb
> 2) Elementary particles
> 3) Force Fields
> 4) A universal dovetailer (Schmidhuber's Great Programmer)
> 5) Platonia of mathematical forms
> 6) Kant's noumenon
> 7) Standish's Nothing (aka Library of Babel)
> 8) Real in the sense I am real (RITSIAR)
> ...
>
>
> and that's just what I pulled out of my head in a brief moment. The
> ... indicates that there are many, many, more subtle variants. Most of
> these versions of reality are incompatible with each other.
>
> The truth is that the word reality has been debased so much it is
> virtually meaningless, unless very carefully qualified.
>
> On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 09:55:10PM -0700, Russ Abbott wrote:
> > Just because someone uses a word nonsensically, does that make the word
> > nonsense?
> >
> > I still don't get it. Why are so many people so anxious to dismiss the
word
> > *reality *-- and with it the corresponding notion?
> >
> > -- Russ_A
> >
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 9:38 PM, russell standish
<
[hidden email]>wrote:
> >
> > > On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 06:36:18PM -0700, Russ Abbott wrote:
> > > >
> > > > And it has nothing to do with whether there is a God. I don't
understand
> > > the
> > > > connection. Reality is. (That's the end of the previous sentence.)
God,
> > > if
> > > > there is any such thing, is by definition outside the realm of what
is.
> > > And
> > > > I say that because those who believe in God -- at least those who
are
> > > > sophisticated about it -- are very careful to keep God away from
any sort
> > > of
> > > > empirical investigation or verification.
> > > >
> > > > -- RussA
> > > >
> > >
> > > The only connection is analogical. There's probably almost as many
> > > conceptions of god as there are people on the planet. Similarly, there
> > > seems to be about as many conceptions of reality. Consequently, both
> > > terms are really superfluous to doing science.
> > >
> > > --
> > >
> > >
> > >
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
> > > Mathematics
> > > UNSW SYDNEY 2052
[hidden email]
> > > Australia
http://www.hpcoders.com.au> > >
> > >
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> > >
>
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> > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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> --
>
>
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> Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile)
> Mathematics
> UNSW SYDNEY 2052
[hidden email]
> Australia
http://www.hpcoders.com.au>
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>
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> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
> lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at
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FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
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