jim clark wrote:
>
> Hi
>
> On Fri, 10 Nov 2000, Dewey Dykstra, Jr. wrote:
> > >Hmmm..but surely you miss the point that science is self-correcting. The
> > >theory proposed in 1987 is longer supported as science has moved on. This
> > >list appears to cater to those who would attack science for various
> > >reasons. Are we supposed to believe that it is some kind of miracle that
> > >the theory of general relativity has been vindicated by empirical studies
> > >of binary pulsars to within one part in ten to the power twelve?
> > >            Stanley Jeffers
> >
> > How do we KNOW "science is self-correcting"?  Theories change, sure.  The
> > changes usually result in our explanations encompassing more of our
> > experiences each time.  BUT, how do we know these are more "correct"?
[snip]

I would like respectfully to suggest that the ca. 16 pages which
comprise the Introduction to Hegel's _Phenomenology of Mind_ describe
this process of the self-correcting nature of experience, at least
in my assessment, very clearly.  One does not have to "buy" Hegel's "system",
or even to read any of it, to appreciate the message of these few
pages.

There are, of course, "problems".  Up until the coming of the
printing press, e.g., human finitude (i.e., that every person
eventually dies so that his
acquisitions of knowledge are entirely lost...) in the age of
manuscripts kept the *locally* self-correcting essence of
experience from functioning *universally*.  Elizabeth Eisenstein
deals with these issues in _The Printing Press as an Agent
of Change_.

Every perception is a universal interpretation and
judgment of the world.  A task for us is to bring this
implicit structure to thematic agency -- to transform --
to transfigure --
the cunning of reason which inevitably works behind men's backs into
self-accountable forward looking freely chosen personal initiative --
that is, should we find that [infinite] task appealing to
undertake, which we need not.

"Good morning, Mr. Phelps!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it....

"Yours in discourse..."

+\brad mccormick

--
  Let your light so shine before men,
              that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)

  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)

<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [log in to unmask]
  914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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