Re: virus: Fundamentals

Mitchell Porter (qix@desire.apana.org.au)
Fri, 29 Mar 1996 12:08:51 +1000 (EST)


[Marek Jedlinski]
> I'm sorry, this has gone beyond all polite length. Just a question
> to anyone who has cared to read me so far: is there anything you
> are absolutely positively sure you KNOW (as opposed to: believe),
> except maybe "cogito ergo sum"? I mean, seriously. Is there any
> knowledge, based on logic or empiricism, that you hold to be
> absolutely unquestionable? Myself - I looked and looked, and
> didn't find a thing, at least not one that would pertain to the
> reality-at-hand.

Unfortunately no. For the moment I'm just trying to assemble a model
which is at least consistent with everything that seems to be there.

Concerning the cogito: I'm sympathetic to the Objectivist version
of this, which actually infers _three_ things: that consciousness
exists ("I am"), that existence exists ("I _am_"), and that identity
exists ("I am something-in-particular"). I find it inconceivable that
none of these is so.

For more on the "principle of total uncertainty" (the principle that
anything can be doubted), see the philosophical writings of Celia
Green (for example, _The Decline and Fall of Science_).

-- 
-mitch
http://desire.apana.org.au/~qix