Re: Macguffin

From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Sun Aug 05 2001 - 08:25:55 BST

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    Subject: Re: Macguffin
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    On 5 Aug 2001, at 0:07, Bill Spight wrote:

    > Dear Joe,
    >
    > > > > > > But illusions of self do arise with thoughts such as "I
    > > > > > > might have been a giraffe." The "I" in that sentence is just
    > > > > > > a pronoun, not a self. ;-)
    > > > > > >
    > > > > That's right, but the word "I" does have a referent, that is, it
    > > > > stands for something other than itself, which is what words do,
    > > > > and guess what that referent is? (Clue: "I" is the
    > > > > self-referential pronoun).
    > > > > >
    > > >
    > > > That's from me, not Ted. :-)
    > > >
    > > > I stated it clumsily, I guess, but what I meant was that the "I"
    > > > in that sentence only appears to have a referent, it does not
    > > > actually have one.
    > > >
    > > Oh, it has one, all right, as Heidegger stated, "Dasein is in each
    > > case MINE." BTW, if there were no referential self for the pronoun
    > > "I", then just exactly who would it be that it would APPEAR to have
    > > a referent TO/FOR?
    >
    > Well, the Dasein of the giraffe and my Dasein are *not* the same. I,
    > with MY Dasein, could not have been a giraffe.
    >
    > OTOH, that kind of statement is not meaningless, though contrafactual.
    > But to say what its meaning is is not trivial, and that meaning is
    > lost if the "I" refers to me.
    >
    If a giraffe were self-consciously aware, it would say that it's dasein
    (it's being-there-ness) belonged to it, just as you say that yours
    belongs to you amd I say that mine belongs to me, and in each
    case we are correct, for the truth of our statements is apodictic
    (self-evident to the observing consciousness).

    > Ciao,
    >
    > Bill
    >
    > ===============================================================
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    This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the
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    see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit



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