Davidson again (barely)
knowledge is not experience
if you forget for a moment - western science -
what would your experience be?
well this is to ask a theoretical question -
a reflective - question - it is to seek
explanation -
outside of explanation - or in the absence of it -
we can say quite - logically - we don't know
physical events -
are public - observable objective
mental 'events' (if we can still really use this term)
are not public or observable
there is a gulf here
the gulf is between the conscious and the non-conscious
now the thing is the conscious exists in the non-conscious
and I mean 'in' - inside
we could say here that consciousness only knows itself -
as the solipsist does -
but this cannot be maintained - for consciousness -
recognizes itself - and itself in the non-conscious
without this recognition there is no consciousness
even so consciousness divides - this is no theoretical
reflection - it is - a recognition of ontology - its
experience - into objective and subjective
objective - that which happens outside of consciousness
subjective that which happens in consciousness
the facility of consciousness to see its own categories
and functions -
i.e. regard its subjective and objective dimensions
is to say - to speak of its capacity for endless
reflection
consciousness in this sense - exists in a logical space
of which the subjective and objective are but possibilities
and as long as consciousness exists - real
consciousness recognizes physical events - as outside
itself (as existing independently of consciousness)
and mental events as inside itself - as subjective events
(although I'm not sure about the term 'events' - serious
young physicalists need events - 'figments' too suggestive
of a career on the stage - perhaps that's what happened to
Feyerabend - lost his bearings and found his boogie)
for consciousness (if I can be so bold as to speak on its
behalf)
the 'mental' and 'physical' are theoretical descriptions
of the inside and the outside
a mental event may precipitate a physical event
in that - the internal expresses itself externally -
the mental event expresses itself
the fact that its expression is a different form i.e.
physical - is that it is expressed in
another domain
the external -
(external to consciousness)
and if you wish to get metaphysical
and ask - well what is real?
the inside or the outside?
the answer clearly is neither -
a dimension is just that -
it is not that - of which it is a dimension
so the totality -
(formerly known as 'substance' - formerly known as
'essence')
will not be exhausted by its dimensions - or any
number of -
it can be defined in terms thereof -
but finally only in these terms -
we - recognize it - as a thing in itself - finally
on purely logical grounds - i.e. - it has to
be
however there can be no complete description
in terms of a total description -
the best we can get is the view from the inside
it may be a room with a view but there is no door out
