Ethical foundations of the left

Justin Schwartz jkschw at hotmail.com
Fri Jul 27 07:05:14 PDT 2001


. I have a memory of going to the circus, I asked my parents
>about it
>and they mentioned that I was two when I had gone to the circus. I have
>privileged access to that memory, I have relative freedom of interpretation
>because nothing can contradict that memory. The empirical stuff can be
>contradicted, but not my memory experience. There is a site of privileged
>access, we're not connected by empathy wires, nor are we transparent to
>others.

Nah, thsi is exactly the old myth that Rorty effective puts paid to. I may think I re,ember something, but be wrong about it. I don't sit inside my shell in my little glassy essence, certain in my beautiful contemplation of my incorrigible internal experience, and in doubt about the rest of the world. I have an experience of life _in_ the world, which involves beliefs about the past, including memories, more or less unarticulated experiences of the present, and expectations about the future, all of which are bound uyp together.

If I say, ouch, that hurts, normally you will not contradict it. But if (as often happens with my daughter), she complains about various pains I don't think she has because I think she wants attention or is upset, I might contradict it, Likewise, I often think I remember something, but it turns out that it's something I heard or read rather than experienced. You may say, but I can be certain about what I think I remember, but this isn't true, since "certainty" is a temporal experience, and I may be wrong about having had that memory even a moment ago. As you get older, these "senior moments" happen more often. Really, do reread the relevant parts of Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature. --jks

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