But then, I'm not a philosopher. Interesting stuff.
Perhaps its one of those instances where differences get highlighted in discussions of otherwise similar outlooks. I can see a gap between pragmatists and idealists on this point - "If we begin by assuming that experience is an undifferentiated whole" - and perhaps that's the source of the conerns. A whole, certainly. I don't know how undifferentiated experience is, though.
Have I commented much about American pragmatism? I don't recall doing so.
ReplyDelete"If we begin by assuming that experience is an undifferentiated whole"
ReplyDeleteApparently someone who has never dropped acid. ;)
I cannot tell if your wink implies that he has or that he has not dropped acid (i.e sarcasm). I don't know anything on the matter, but if I were to guess, I would guess that he probably has (don't ask why). But I would not expect him to admit it.
DeleteActually, the recognition that experience is not undifferentiated came to me through meditation. But for many meditation is about centering, about quieting, about a calm, unitary experience. OTOH, the psychedelic experience typically has episodes of fragmentary experience.
DeleteAs for the wink, it was about the human tendency to generalize from one's own experience. ;)
"But I would not expect him to admit it."
DeleteYou think I am a coward, Joe? That is how I first sensed the notion that experience is an undifferentiated whole!
Min: I am perplexed: what I am forwarding is totally in agreement with Buddhist metaphysics: Buddhists were the first idealists! Why do you think otherwise?
Why would you being by assuming that?
DeleteNo Gene, I don't think that you're a coward. I just didn't think that you would want people to know something like that, at least not publicly. As for how I knew, well let's just say that I have a certain sense about these things.
Delete