Forgive me if I'm repeating myself, but I feel inclined to reply to the one part of what Jim quoted that I understand -- a quote from an earlier post by Andy: << Back on March 25, Andy Latto wrote:
My view is that philosphers often worry too much about ontology (which things "exist" and which don't), when it really isn't a very interesting or important question, and it's just the nature of our language that misleads us into thinking it is.
Personally, I find existence (of certain things discussed in philosophy, anyway) to be of the utmost interest to me, much as is the case in mathematics. For example, does determinism exist? Or does perhaps the randomness that seems inherent to quantum mechanics preclude it? Do there exist other universes that are unable to interact with our own in any way? Is the apparent flow of time a real phenomenon -- something about time itself -- or it is only an artifact of our consciousness? Besides mathematical truth, there seems to exist a physical reality and an experiential reality (at least for each part of the universe, like a living person, capable of having experiences). Do these both truly exist? Are they merely two facets of the same thing? --Dan _____________________________________________________________________ "It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that certain je ne sais quoi." --Peter Schickele