Claim 2
March 8th, 2008, search relatedRelated posts :: Do You Claim the Power? :: Does Heidegger Deny the Reality of the Physical Universe? :: The Status of Subjectivity :: Do You Claim the Power?
Joseph Polanik wrote:
> your claim is that asking ‘what am I?’ prioritizes being-inside over
> being-alongside; and, that this is bad because doing so leads
> *inevitably* to a quagmire of skepticism, solipsism and idealism; but,
> if the examples of Descartes and Husserl are the only evidence you have,
> you haven’t proven the *inevitability* of sinking into that quagmire.
>
> furthermore, pointing to Descartes’ doesn’t even support your case. it
> is true that he attempts to prove that the experience of seeming to have
> a physical body is due to actually having such a body; and, that this
> proof fails because he failed to prove that there is a God; but, as you
> have not demonstrating the logical necessity of making such an attempt,
> you have not shown anything more than the limits of human reasoning.
>
> one can simply accept that there is a physical world; and, … move on
> to the next question.
>
> it is true that by doing this philosophers do not removed the problem;
> but, over the centuries since Descartes, the problem has been removed
> from philosophers. defining the ultimate character of the physical
> universe is no longer a task assigned to philosophers. it is now under
> the jurisdiction of physicists and mathematicians.
That’s a different problem altogether. The problem of whether “there is
a physical world” is not the same as “defining the ultimate character of
the physical universe”. The latter presupposes that there is a physical
world in the first place.
> so it is enough for me to accept that I experience having a body that
> exists as a physical object; meaning, made of the same ’stuff’ as the
> rest of the physical universe. I don’t have to know the ultimate
> character of the physical universe; and, if I perchance want to know, I
> would ask a physicist not a philosopher.
Again, that’s a different problem. The problem raised by Descartes and
Husserl isn’t about the ultimate character of the physical universe, but
about the very assumption of a physical universe in the first place. So
the appeal to physicists doesn’t work for that problem.
