>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>
>>>Yoshie Furuhashi wrote:
>>>
>>>>Surely a world must have existed long before the appearance of
>>>>human beings (or any other creatures capable of subjective
>>>>investigations of objects), and a world will continue to exist
>>>>after the disappearance of human beings (and other creatures
>>>>capable of subjective investigations of objects) as well.
>>>
>>>such a world might have existed and might exist in the future but it
>>>might still be unimaginable.
>>
>>Unimaginable to whom? Creationists?
>
>to us of course. something might very well exist out there, but
>the notion that it corresponds to our imagination of it is only
>a device of convenience, to be be used carefully under ockham's
>guidance. if we say that the universe as spoken about by us
>"exists" in our minds (our imaginations) then no such image
>exists before or after our (our = sentient beings) existence.
>if we start referring to the "thing-in-itself" even the
>existence of our mind and imagination cannot capture that, so
>why make statements about it unless when useful (in a pragmatic
>sense)?
Surely, anyone who studies evolution must be able to imagine the history of the world before the emergence of human beings and other creatures capable of subjective investigations of objects; likewise, anyone who studies astronomy, etc. must be able to imagine the extinction of human beings and other creatures capable of subjective investigations of objects: "In about two billion years Earth will become uninhabitable as a gradually warming Sun produces a runaway greenhouse effect. In five billion years the Sun will swell up and die, burning the Earth to a crisp in the process. At about the same time the Milky Way will collide with its twin the Andromeda galaxy, now about two million light-years away and closing fast, spewing stars, gas and planets across intergalactic space" (at <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/01/science/01END.html?pagewanted=all>). -- Yoshie
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