On 2/12/2013 10:51 AM, Ronald Stamper wrote:
> I prefer a form of actualism, which recognizes as existing only those
> things that a responsible agent perceives. An individual human agent can
> perceive very little compared with the scope of reality that we take for
> granted. For that broad knowledge of what exists we depend on individual
> members of society sharing their experiences. (01)
That's a useful strategy. It emphasizes epistemology (how we know
or can discover what exists) in contrast to an ontology that makes
assertions about what exists while ignoring the source of evidence
for any particular assertion. (02)
But it's also important to emphasize that there is a reality out there
that is independent of our minds or of the collective minds of all
humanity. Even for things we can't observe today, we have no idea
whether they might be observed in the future. (03)
Peirce mentioned scientists had who talked about subjects that were
in principle "unknowable" -- for example, the chemical composition
of distant stars. But he noted that just a few years later, chemists
discovered lines in the spectrum of light for each chemical element.
With that discovery, that unknowable subject became very knowable. (04)
Peirce maintained that anything in the universe that has a causal
influence of any kind is potentially knowable. Ernst Mach fought
a long battle against the atomic hypothesis because he thought that
their existence was undetectable. Not so long ago, many physicists
thought that neutrinos and black holes were undetectable. They were
all proved wrong. (05)
Peirce would have been delighted by the discovery of DNA and its
ability to solve murder mysteries and answer questions about ancient
migrations and interactions of plants, animals, and people. (06)
John (07)
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