Sunday, February 3, 2013

When Gene posts things like this I get confused about why he has a problem with American pragmatism

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.


  1. Have I commented much about American pragmatism? I don't recall doing so.

  2. "If we begin by assuming that experience is an undifferentiated whole"

    Apparently someone who has never dropped acid. ;)

    1. 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.

    2. Actually, 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.

      As for the wink, it was about the human tendency to generalize from one's own experience. ;)

    3. "But I would not expect him to admit it."

      You 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?

    4. No 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.


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