Language, Obfuscation LO21491

Steve Eskow (dreskow@durand.com)
Tue, 4 May 1999 15:53:42 -0600

Replying to LO21479 --

Leo,

I'll pass for the moment on your summary of how we imagine reality.

You may want to look at such books as Richard Rorty's "Philosophy and the
Mirror of Nature," which is "antifoundational" and "antiepistemological":
It demonstrates that all of western philosophy since the Enlightenment and
Descartes has been dominated by the notion that there is "objective"
reality out there and that there is something called "truth" which is an
accurate "representation," or "mirror" of that prexistent relaity.

Be that as it may, even if your account of how we experience the stuff out
there some call "reality" is accurate, you may still may be making that
"jump" or "leap" to justify the belief that "entropy" explains something
about thinking, or "thoughts" have "temperature."

Perhaps more importantly for our purposes, one value of a "pragmatic" use
of language is that it helps us in day to experiences with what we face.

That is: one value of a good piece of language is that it helps us
navigate in the world, helps us predict, helps us solve problems.

This was William James' insight when he used the term "pragmatism." He
said a crucial question for the pragmatist is, what difference does it
make?

I have to decide how to work, how to make decisions for company, where to
live, what to say to my grandchildren. Nothing I do seems to be affected
one way or another by the "temperature" of "thoughts." And I cannot seem
to improve my decisions by thinking about "entropy" and the possibility
that my organization will 'self organize."

That is: if "entropy," is at work in my learning organization, how can I
use that to improve the work of that organization?

I'll think about the strangeness of reality, as you suggest, if you'll
think about the emptiness of certain words and concepts!

Steve Eskow

-- 

Steve Eskow <dreskow@durand.com>

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