[FRIAM] Peirce & Postmordernism

[Steve Smith]

On 5/23/20 9:15 AM, Gary Schiltz wrote:
> The observer problem. Does it require a human to do the observation?
> What about a parrot? A chimpanzee? An amoeba? A Turing machine?
God, Gawdess, Gaia, Collective Intelligence?
>
> On Sat, May 23, 2020 at 9:47 AM Prof David West <profwest at fastmail.fm
> <mailto:profwest at fastmail.fm>> wrote:
>
>     Peirce:
>
>     "To satisfy our doubts, therefore, it is necessary that a method
>     should be found by which our beliefs may be determined by nothing
>     human, but by some external permanency—by something upon which our
>     thinking has no effect. ... Such is  the method of science. Its
>     fundamental hypothesis, restated in more familiar language, is
>     this: There are Real things, whose characters are entirely
>     independent of our opinions about them; those Reals affect our
>     senses according to regular laws, and, though our sensations are
>     as different as our relations to the objects, yet, by taking
>     advantage of the laws of perception, we can ascertain by reasoning
>     how things really and truly are; and any man, if he have
>     sufficient experience and he reason enough about it, will be led
>     to the one True conclusion."
>
>     The above quote is a context from which I am about to take words
>     and ask questions. Those more familiar with the Peirce corpus in
>     toto must admonish me if I am being unfair, i.e. this quote is an
>     outlier or an exception to Peirce in general.
>
>     1- If "There are Real things, upon which our thinking has no
>     effect," and there are"beliefs"" and "doubts" and "reasoning" that
>     are, arguably, affected by our thoughts:
>       a. Is Peirce a dualist? A Cartesian dualist that distinguishes
>     between an external permanency and internal thought?
>       b. Are beliefs, doubts, reasoning 'Real things'?
>
>     2- Quantum physics has an "observer problem" that seems to imply
>     that the the "characters of Real things" are, in fact, affected by
>     human thinking, or, at least, human attention."
>       a. Are there 'Real things'?
>
>     3- Weak postmodern objection: all beliefs and all methods are
>     determined by the human, technically the social, and there is no
>     objective criteria by which to give privilege over one human
>     determined method/belief over another..
>       a. Does Peirce have grounds to privilege Reason over other
>     methods/beliefs, e.g.  'meditation', 'faith'?
>
>     4- Stronger postmodern objection: "the laws of perception," [the
>     rules of] reasoning," "sufficient experience," and "reason
>     enough," taken together, constrain the possible 'solution space'
>     too severely; the 'one [provisionally] True conclusion" is
>     foregone — a product of the process, not congruence with any
>     "external permanency."
>       a. What are the "laws" that govern how the Real affects our senses?
>       b. What are the "laws of perception?"
>       c. Does "sufficient experience" and "reason enough" mandate a
>     narrow, and intolerant, orthodoxy?
>
>     davew
>
>
>
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