[FRIAM] Abduction

[Nick Thompson]

Hi, Everybody, 

 

Yes.  St. Johns Coffee Shop WILL be open this Friday.  And then, not again
until the 3rd of January.  I am hoping Frank will have some ideas for what
we do on the Friday between the two holidays.  

 

Attached please find the copy of an article you helped me write.  Thanks to
all of you who listened patiently and probed insistently as I worked though
the issues of this piece. 

 

I need help with another article I am working with.  Last week I found
myself making, and defending against your uproarious laughter, the
proposition that all real things are abstract.  Some of you were prepared to
declare the opposite, No real things are abstract.  However, it was late in
the morning and the argument never developed.  

 

I would argue the point in the following way:  Let us say that we go along
with your objections and agree that "you can never step in the same river
twice."  This is to say, that what we call "The River" changes every time we
step in it.  Wouldn't it follow that any conversation we might have about
The River is precluded?  We could not argue, for instance, about whether the
river is so deep that we cannot cross o'er because there is no abstract
fact, "The River" that connects my crossing with yours.  

 

Let's say, then, that you agree with me that implicit in our discussions of
the river is the abstract conception of The River.  But, you object, that we
assume it, does not make it true.  Fair enough.  But why then, do we engage
in the measurement of anything?  

 

I realize this is not everybody's cup of tea for a conversation, but I
wanted to put it on the table. 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

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