the problem with experience
are we to think of experience as an objective reality?
yes - we certainly refer to it as so
and are we to think of it as subjective?
of course
it's my experience
and are we to speak of it as knowledge?
what do you know if not what you experience?
on the other hand - is not experience always
in a state of flux?
how can we call such the basis for knowledge?
so
experience - subjective and objective - knowledge -
and at the same time just what we cannot regard as
knowledge -
so the problem with experience is that it is everything
and comes to nothing
a quick idea here -
the problem here comes with thinking of experience as
either substance - or process
and prime facie it seems to be both
the thing is it can't be - in any meaningful sense -
and yet if one - there must be a place for - the other
so perhaps
we should - drop these ways of thinking
that is - to not view experience as substance or process
alright
what then?
I want to float the idea of seeing experience as a relation
that is to say it is a relation - a relation between
and between?
between subject - and object
that is consciousness and the world -
experience - is - if you will - 'the middle term'
that which is - exists - is brought into being
if such a relation holds - exists
OK -
so what then do we say about this -
this middle term?
how do we characterize it?
to cut right to it
I say the middle term is undefined
undefined - that is beyond - the characterizations
we bring to it -
clearly - that which results from the relation (experience)
can be regarded in a number of ways
I do speak - and think of it - in substantive objective
terms
and again - in subjective - substantive
also - in terms of objective process and subjective process
as a foundation for knowledge
as the absence of foundation
so - I wish to suggest there is a way we can maintain our
common intuitions regarding experience
if we know - understand - that none of these characterizations
is a characterization of experience - per se - as such
rather they are ways of defining - giving definition to an
essentially open relationship between consciousness
and the world
our needs are connected but diverse - we require different
conceptual schemes - languages - to deal with the fundamental
state - of being - that is - consciousness in the world
it is this relationship that is the ground of need and its
possibilities
experience is this relationship
