Re: virus: Consensus Reality

Dave Pape (davepape@dial.pipex.com)
Tue, 15 Apr 1997 19:44:58 +0100 (BST)


Lee Daniel Crocker says:
>> Consensus Reality! What a wonderful phrase. The truly amazing thing is
>> that nobody mentioned the idea of Consensus Reality a few months ago,
>> when the big Objective-Subjective War broke out.

[CLIP]

>I'm not sure why you should be so surprized. The idea is an ancient one
>well known to all philosophy students, has been fashionable at various
>points in history--but those who like the idea and support it, and those
>who repudiate the concept, are well-known to each other and are unlikely
>to ever convince each other.

And I think that loads of ideas which come under the tag, "consensus
reality", were voiced during the discussion... we just didn't have a crafty
label.

>It's one of the many possible metaphysical
>models, like solipsism, that can't really be disproved, so it isn't
>really anything interesting.

Don't see why that's a sequitur... Consensus reality meshes lovelily with a
memetic view of human beliefs, so I reckon it's a more interesting view of
reality than thinking about an objective reality that we'll never know...

Dave Pape
==========================================================================
Always bet on the guy with the spine.

Phonecalls: 0118 9583727 Phights: 20 Armadale Court
Westcote Road
Reading RG30 2DF