From: "Aaron Agassi" <agassi@erols.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>, <Critical-Cafe@mjmail.eeng.dcu.ie>
Date: Thu, 1 Jul 1999 19:44:11 -0400
Putting aside all the galling Relativist bullshit, there remains one
legitimate and unanswered question:
Let us begin with Phenomenology. Memory we know to be largely
reconstructive. But then, so is perception to begin with. The Phenomena
includes the ongoing simulation of reality, in which we live. But it also
includes everything that biases objectivity. It even includes fantasy
outright. When one hallucinates, reality (even as internally simulated)
becomes indistinguishable from fantasy, equally, if not more, vivid; and in
a deep Psychotic break, even sheer nonsense stands to reason.
But what of the rest of the time? How do we keep any grasp on reality, in as
much as we do? How do we, at all, distinguish experience from fantasy? Some
would say, by Reality Sense. But that only gives it a name, and explains
nothing.
We are left, then, with a choice:
We can continue, conjecturally, in the hopes of ever finding an explanation.
Or we can follow Chris Lofting's example and just give up, invalidating the
entire endeavor of Rational Inquiry and Reality Testing.
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