[Arisbe] Re: Signs & Inquiry & Stuff

[Jon Awbrey]

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤

| Actors, taught not to let any embarrassment show
| on their faces, put on a mask.  I will do the same.
| So far, I have been a spectator in this theatre which
| is the world, but I am now about to mount the stage,
| and I come forward masked.
|
| René Descartes, 'Praeambula'

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤

Robert Meersman wrote:
> 
> At 06-02-01 12:24 -0500, Jon Awbrey wrote:
> >
> > Well, I survived my endodontological (root-canal) procedure this morning
> > and so I am feeling emboldened enough to tackle this ontological abcess --
> > or is that just the novocaine talking?
> 
> ### No Jon, you're making a lot of sense all of a sudden  :-)
> 
> --Robert
> 
> ----------
> Prof Dr Robert A Meersman       VUB (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
> Department of Computer Science  STARlab   --Building F-G/10
> Pleinlaan 2                     B-1050 Brussels Belgium
> phn (+32)(0)2 629 3308          fax (+32)(0)2 629 3525

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤

Thanks, Robert, with that kind & early review
I will consider myself encouraged to continue.

This is a story about logic and time, and so I could, as I have in the past,
take it all the way back to the days of a philosophical divergence between
Parmenides and Heraclitus over the "nature of things", whether the cosmos
be one, eternal, and immutable or else it be many, secular, and transient.
But I have long since had a vision that the One and the Other now concur
in some Platonic Heaven, where their discourse now goes a bit like this:

| Parmenides:  But you and I were always eternally of one mind.
| 
| Heraclitus:  And you are constantly changing yours into mine.

So let us leave these Antic Attics to their hard-won peace of mind,
and fast forward to modern times, were the scene is more thrilling!

I take the stage of our current problematic to be set
by the work of Descartes and Kant.  More specifically,
I have in mind the following two loci:

1.  The place in the 'Regulae ad Directionem Ingenii',
    or the 'Rules for the Direction of the Mind',
    by René Descartes, where he says:

    | But if we are to select those dimensions
    | which will be of the greatest assistance
    | to our imagination, we should never attend
    | to more than one or two of them as depicted
    | in our imagination, even though we are well
    | aware that there is an indefinite number
    | involved in the problem at issue.  It is
    | part of the method to distinguish as many
    | dimensions as possible, so that, while
    | attending to as few as possible at the
    | same time, we nevertheless proceed to
    | take in all of them one by one.
    | (CSM, 63).

2.  The early tractate of Kant that is known in English as
    'On the False Subtlety of the Four Syllogistic Figures',
    where he supposedly shows that all of our inferences
    reduce to syllogisms in the First Figure, which is
    tantamount to saying that all of our reasoning is
    deductive in character.  My memory is a little bit
    hazy here as to whether this is how Kant intended
    it to be taken, but I believe that this was what
    most people took the thrust of his tract to be.

Gotta Break For Now,

Jon Awbrey

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤