At 12:50 pm +0200 30/5/97, Lubna Nadvi wrote:
* The point I was
* trying to make was that we need to make a distinction ...
* between certain, absolute truths and constructed truths. How do I
know that
* the world is round ...? Well I've seen enough pictures from outer space
to
* convince me, but there are other things about science I can still
question.
* I do not hold Science in any high esteem, but it is hard to dispute
that
* things like gravity do exist ...
Using the above by way of example of much of the discussion in this
thread, it seems truly schizoid that this goes on through email,
presupposing a belief that the little characters one types on one screen
will magically disappear down a line and reappear intact on somebody
else's screen. Go agonize about the truth of that, for surely the very act
of typing those messages speaks of holding science in the highest esteem
and constitutes an act of faith for all those who wish to agonize over
scientific truths.
Even more remarkable is the confession that the belief in the roundness of
the earth derives from seeing pictures from outer space -- empiricism? or
another act of faith in science, for the pictures which serve to convince
Lubna are the product of a sequence of scientific links.... Truly
inter-textual, but with consequences quite different from the
inter-textuality of this list.
Have a good day, and trust that, in common parlance, the sun will rise
tomorrow.
K Jin
* The point I was
* trying to make was that we need to make a distinction ...
* between certain, absolute truths and constructed truths. How do I
know that
* the world is round ...? Well I've seen enough pictures from outer space
to
* convince me, but there are other things about science I can still
question.
* I do not hold Science in any high esteem, but it is hard to dispute
that
* things like gravity do exist ...
Using the above by way of example of much of the discussion in this
thread, it seems truly schizoid that this goes on through email,
presupposing a belief that the little characters one types on one screen
will magically disappear down a line and reappear intact on somebody
else's screen. Go agonize about the truth of that, for surely the very act
of typing those messages speaks of holding science in the highest esteem
and constitutes an act of faith for all those who wish to agonize over
scientific truths.
Even more remarkable is the confession that the belief in the roundness of
the earth derives from seeing pictures from outer space -- empiricism? or
another act of faith in science, for the pictures which serve to convince
Lubna are the product of a sequence of scientific links.... Truly
inter-textual, but with consequences quite different from the
inter-textuality of this list.
Have a good day, and trust that, in common parlance, the sun will rise
tomorrow.
K Jin