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Re: The "TRUTH" for Anthropology
Deus Ex Machina (X8H1@MUSIC.STLAWU.EDU)
Sun, 28 Apr 1996 15:05:12 EST
You know at last we have the truth, Mr. Pastore is a "Sophist."
E.g. One who believes in the idea that we can never "know" the truth.
Also known as the the folks who DO NOT subscribe to Aristotle or
Plato. The people that Socrates embarrased, etc. etc.
Mr. Pastore wrote (among other things) on 4/26/96:
"Well, there is more than one 'empirc' veiw and measure of reality,
just as there are more than one realty and even as there are
Non-Ordinary Realities, even as those with such limited perceptions
have never even begun to consider, much less look for."
The whole point of the thing about truth, relativism, and subjectivism
is that if you subscribe to this view as your whole basis of thinking
than you end up contradicting yourself when you disagree with anything.
Further, as evidenced by the above quote, Mr. Pastore obviously believes
in the truth of his claims and and belives that others views are
"limited."
With regards to Mr. Pastore's lamentation that there is disagreement and
polarization over issues and that people think their view is superior
over another, I respond by stating that this is how science and
philosophy work. This "mess" is how the "good" stuff is seperated from
the bad. In other words feedback helps weed out the "wrong" ideas from
the "right." If Mr. Pastore can't stand the heat, then he should get
out of the kitchen.
The example that Mr. Pastore brings up about the computer parts. Is a
prime example that sophistry brings us. He claims there is that
"something" that we can never know that makes the parts when brought
together a computer. I say ask a computer specialist!(Further more
the concept that something is greater than the sum of its parts is
known as "GESTALT" and its a term from psychotherapy.)The sophist
may be able to operate in the field of law, but in science as I said
before this "doesn't fly." The claim has been made that the universe
is always "expanding." I say, so what, does this change the past? NO.
Does this change the general behavior of humans or other animals?
Probably not. This idea doesn't tell us anything and just confuses the
issue.
Mr. Pastore wrote 4/26/96
There is no TRUTH in the sense of how the categorizers look for it.
It cannot be percieved, and detected to conform to even the 'empiric'
methodologies of any science, or train of thought, no matter how
arithmatically, or even geometrically attempted, because the TRUTH is
not a thing, it is even more than the function of a whole, full
complement of well organized components.
This attitude is totally unsupported by reasoning or logic. A prime
example of Metaphysics. IT IS an example of things like faith which
cannot ever be agree upon. As Holly Swyers pointed out the field
of anthropology might as well be "a leisure activity" if we subscribe
to the thinking of Mr. Pastore. We must acknowledge the existence of
truth and that it is knowable in order to be scientists. This is
something we inherit from Aristotle, not the sophists.
Matthew Joanis
SLU
Anthropology
"Those who desire to give up Freedom in order to gain Security,
will not have, nor do they deserve, either one."
-- Thomas Jefferson
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