JohnV
Puritan Board Post-Graduate
Originally posted by MurrayA
"That thing outside Matt's window. That's all you need to know."
Is there a "thing" there at all? Perhaps the Cartesian demon is deceiving me?
Honestly, these philosophical games transport me back to the philosophy tutorials of my undergraduate days. I find them frustrating, tiresome, and fruitless. Of course there's a tree out there, just as the philosophy tutor went off to enjoy his "imaginary" lunch after the tutorial was over! This is because we all have the same sensory organs to perceive the same things in much the same way. If you like:
All things bright and beautiful;
All creatures great and small;
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all.
And then:
He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell
How great is God Almighty
Who hath made all things well.
Get real!! (I suppose that comment makes me a McCosh "Common sense realist". Oh well...)
Dr. Murray:
Have you ever seen the movie "Finding Forrester"? In that movie the major character, Jamal, asks the leading support character, Forrester, about the soup, why it is getting a skim on the top. Jamal's mother's soup doesn't do that. Forrester answers him that Jamal's mother couldn't afford to put milk in the soup, so this was outside Jamal's experience. Then Jamal asks Forrester a personal question, a question whose answer will not provide any significant information helpful to Jamal. Forrester responds that that question is not a soup question. From then on, in the movie, there is references to "soup questions".
The question about the tree is not a "soup question". The answer to the question lies in the question itself, not in some outside information. What could possibly be added to the what is already in the question that could provide information, if the reference is that thing outside the window, which the questioner identifies as a tree? This is not a soup question, and so is a question of the category of which the answer lies in the question itself.
I agree, a fruitless pursuit. Give me a soup question any day.
[Edited on 3-21-2006 by JohnV]