Re: Thoughts and Perceptions

From: Wade T.Smith (wade_smith@harvard.edu)
Date: Thu Apr 18 2002 - 05:34:29 BST

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    Subject: Re: Thoughts and Perceptions
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    From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu>
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    On Wednesday, April 17, 2002, at 11:53 , Ned Wolpert wrote:

    > For me, personally as opposed to generally, facts are quite relative.

    The facts are not relative, you are.

    > This is, in fact, the 'fact' I was looking for.

    Your search is over, then.

    A condition of objective reality is indeed a fact. However, the
    requirements to determine objectivity are, alas, in contention.

    People cannot be objective. This is sad, but true.

    Thus, no astrology believer will ever deny the 'objectivity' of their
    belief system. And, feel free to replace 'astrology' with anything you
    like from any cult.

    Science is not a system of memes, but a system of removing the
    subjectivity of the human observer from the measurement. It is objective
    as objective can get with human agents as part of the mix.

    Science finds nothing objective about astrology.

    Therefore, astrology is a subjective declaration about the universe, and
    not factual.

    > We are blinded by
    > the facts of the universe by our presentation of this objective reality
    > contained within the universe.

    It is not blindness so much as single perspective. And isolated and
    religious cultures are the most dedicated to prolonging this singularly
    narrow viewpoint, when the universe is all around.

    If the universe backs up your story, it's a fact, yup.

    If it don't, it ain't.

    And that means it has to be true over there as well as over here.

    And that often means _you_ (me, us) don't have a thing to do with it.

    - Wade

    PS- "Is it a fact that the Earth is round?" Last I heard, it was an
    oblate spheroid. And we've seen it from out there a ways.

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