Dear Thomas Johnston,
<<<Now to what I want to say. We are what we do (cf. The Civilization
of Illiteracy, available on many sites,
>>>
In what sense?" Am I not also what I hope for, wish for, fear, avoid, love, respect, repudiate .....? So what's your point in picking out "what we do"?
We DO hope, we DO wish for, we DO fear…I am using upper cased DO for making my point: We are what we do. In the act of wishing, hoping, etc. we constitute ourselves and our identity. I was PICKING “what we do”, rather I was attempting to
ground the issue of human identity in human activity. The pragmatic perspective originates in this understanding. Yes, it is a constructive act.
Your next point begs some attention:
As Joni Mitchell said: "Something's lost and something's gained, in living every day". Something's lost in the mappings; but something's gained, too.
This is not enough to make it scientifically relevant. What is lost is expressive power, what is gained is precision. If mappings are a goal, we need to be aware of what is lost and what is gained.
One more point:
But if you wanted to introduce a topic, I'm not sure what it is.
The subject I defined says it all: some of the challenge(s) ontologists face.
If I missed to make this clear I apologize.
Mihai Nadin
www.nadin.ws
www.anteinstitute.org