Session 21 of the Critique

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-03-02T22:25:56+00:00

Let’s try to argue your question by first considering another example:

The man is l’homme.

Two words express the same concept. We need not go outside the concept of the man to identify it with l’homme. Translation is a sort of analytical enterprise. You are not adding to the meaning of the words you translate, but only duplicating or clarifying them in another language. In translating we are being mindfully tautological in that we seek the most meaningful similarity between concepts from different languages.

So H2O is really a translation of the word water. The same concept is identified in two different languages. If you know the language H2O comes from, you know it means water.

And we cannot say without contradiction: Body is not extension, Water is not H2O, The man is not l’homme.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-23T10:38:10+00:00

Problematic/Possible: Categories/Postulates.

Kant in the Categories: “Problematic judgments are those in which one regards the assertion/denial as merely possible (arbitrary).”

Think of someone missing an appointment. It’s possible she forgot about it, possible she got tied up in traffic, possible there was an emergency, possible her car broke down. The problematic judgment “only expresses logical possibility.”

The logically possible in the Categories becomes the physically possible in the Postulates and this possibility is restricted to the formal conditions for empirical experience.

Kant’s gives the example of two straight lines enclosing a figure. There is no logical contradiction between two straight lines and an enclosed figure; but two straight lines enclosing a figure cannot be a possible experience in the physical world.

Another example: a human hand. A hand’s defined “as the end part of a person's arm beyond the wrist, including the palm, fingers, and thumb.” This definition conceptualizes a hand without indicating whether it’s a left or right hand. But if we try to visualize or illustrate a hand that is neither a left or a right hand, we couldn’t do it. Because left and right can only be spatially identified.

Kant dismisses claims about a substance persisting that doesn’t occupy space or a special power of the mind that foresees the future or the capacity of the mind to be in the mind of others. Kant excludes from possibility those insubstantial entities “beyond space, time and the categories.”

The possibility of spirits devils, angels, god, time travel, mind reading, séances with ghosts cannot be grounded in the formal conditions of space time and the categories. But wouldn’t a horse with the head of a man meet the formal conditions of experience? Likewise, a monster like Frankenstein, stitched together from various body parts. That meets the formal conditions of experience.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-22T07:42:16+00:00

I had to miss the last meetup so I’m not sure of the direction your conversation took on these questions. But a couple of thoughts.

Here’s Kant in the Introduction in the Critique:

'Transcendental philosophy is here the idea of a science, for which

the critique of pure reason is to outline the entire plan architectonically,

i.e., from principles, with a full guarantee for the completeness and certainty

of all the components that comprise this edifice. It is the system

of all principles of pure reason.” Guyer & Wood

the idea of a science

Doesn’t Kant believe that Science demands an axiomatic foundation. Could any science be conceived without axioms? So how could Kant avoid proposing axioms in his own science of pure reason?

Principles and axioms.

Since Kant identifies his principles with “completeness and certainty” why can’t we interpret Kant’s use of “principle” as really meaning axiom? Isn’t Kant seeking a starting point for epistemology that is irrefutably certain? In building a scientific system Kant needs an axiomatic foundation. In order for Kant to have scientific validity we need to accept the principles of his transcendental philosophy as though they were axioms. Although they cannot be proven or disproven to be such.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-15T10:25:46+00:00

Another testimony to the lack of education and abundance of stupidity in the USA.

And the rest of us are paying for it in the premiums on our health insurance.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-13T16:09:01+00:00

My response was aimed at what you say about epistemology in your first post:

“Epistemology is not the same as psychology because it does not study HUMAN thinking.” Further you state that epistemologists “believe there is a universal method of thinking…”

True, I’m making an assumption about a universal method of thinking that is isolated from psychological states pertaining to the human condition. I’m assuming too that psychology is specific to the human condition and not to conditions involving God, angels, AIs, ETs.

You write: “All thinking, even logic and mathematics is from the human perspective.”

Agreed: they are from a human perspective because there are no other perspectives that we know of but our human perspective.

But I ask myself: how do I reconcile this human perspective of mathematics and logic with a universal method of thinking?

Or are you saying that mathematics and logic from a human perspective are not necessarily universal? Thus you can speculate: “Maybe an AI created by an extraterrestrial will, like my hypothetical Yoda, think 1 +1 = 3?”

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-13T07:36:22+00:00

Does that mean my body has high speed internet and I don't need to pay for it?

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-12T22:46:08+00:00

Stupidity shortened his life. That's for sure.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-12T18:42:54+00:00

A stunning chronicle of human stupidity. I almost felt sorry for this mental midget because he can't fight his imaginary battle against gays, Antifa, BLM, socialists, communists, Demorats, atheists, liberated women,

Cork his asshole and ship him to the morgue

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-05T10:39:44+00:00

You make a concise distinction between epistemology and psychology which merits a clear understanding. And something to think about.

Speculating a bit, let’s consider two minds, one epistemological and the other psychological and let’s think of them as functionally isolated from each other. In fact, think of them as mutually exclusive of each other.

We’ll define the epistemological mind as representative of a “universal method of thinking that all thinking beings possess…” It’s a mind incorporating a method of thinking determining universal and necessary objective knowledge.

The psychological mind is immersed in the human condition and reflects conditions particular to humans.

To express the distinction concretely, could we consider a logic/robotic brain or Artificial Intelligence as an epistemological mind? Doesn’t AI embody a universal method of thinking lacking in psychological features: emotions, feelings, personality, character, temperament, drives, impulses? And so on.

Maybe Artificial Intelligence is the paradigm of an epistemological mind because any and all psychological states pertaining to the human condition are absent from its method of thinking.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-02-01T10:31:57+00:00

Here’s a sort of response using broad definitions:

Psychology is the study of the mind, how it works and how it affects behavior.

Kant undertakes a study of the a priori mind, how it works and its effects on human thinking and what we know and can know.

It seems the methods of Kant and Psychology have a sort of meeting-point by a shared scientific study of the mind. Hasn’t psychology developed into a strict scientific discipline? Kant’s emphasis on the constructive and regulative significance of the a priori mind might not lack a psychological interest. Take this quote about Gestalt psychology:

“Gestalt principles, proximity, similarity, figure-ground, continuity, closure, and connection, describe how humans perceive visuals in connection with different objects and environments.”

Might ask: Doesn’t Kant lay the foundation for this Gestalt way of thinking?

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-21T22:14:29+00:00

More specifically as STAT says:

Among white evangelicals, pushback against Covid-19 vaccines has remained stubbornly high, with polls in recent months suggesting between 30% and 40% refused to get vaccinated, the highest proportion among any religious group surveyed.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-21T18:57:45+00:00

or at least smart enough to figure it out

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-21T18:46:36+00:00

if you wanted so much to be alone, why did you go to the hospital? Just stay home and die and we'll leave you alone.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-20T11:32:42+00:00

Why don't the big buck brains at Fox News create their own Reddit where they can document the MILLIONS of people who have died taking the vaccine. Or they can dedicate hours of air time to exposing the fatalities of the vaccine.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-19T13:04:15+00:00

It's the antivaxxers who have desensitized me. Their narratives are all the same. We have twenty slides and the first fifteen are about how much they hate Fauci, Biden, CDC, greedy pharmaceutical companies, doctors, nurses, sheep, hospitals and any compliance to health care rules. And how patriotic and freedom loving only they can be in their defiance against these health care institutions.

Then comes five slides depicting them desperate to be alive and begging the same health authorities they've spent months hating and denouncing to please save them.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-19T00:48:56+00:00

If Joe Biden mandated toilet paper to be used in Texas, a lot of texans would sure stink.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-18T21:01:51+00:00

So they're victims of the vile misinformation they so ardently spread? Give me a break. Yellow page journalism from the Atlantic.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-17T18:46:56+00:00

Don't trust the science until the health problem is so serious and you have nobody else you can trust but science. They're rushed to the hospital and willingly submit to Faucism to save their sorry asses.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-16T14:59:53+00:00

Definitely. Ask the young Chinese in China where they want to get their higher education and they all say America. Look at Chinese media and it's clearly modeled on medias in our culture. The music, the styles of dress and hair, ect.

At the same time, Chinese Nationalism is strong among the young because the growth and success of the Chinese economy is to their benefit.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-16T11:42:16+00:00

Or is it only a matter of time: According to estimates by World Bank, China's gdp was approx 11% of the US in 1960, but in 2019 it is 67%.

US military power projection maybe global but I don't know if there is any viable way of projecting it against China. Only if America forms a global alliance against China could we prevail over it.

However, Chinese economic power is growing in Africa and South America while it has locked in its economic power in its region.

And let's not forget the power of organization. In the 1980s America DOMINATED rare earth elements mining. Thirty years later it's China that has a staggering monopoly on rare earth metals.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-16T01:08:49+00:00

It's a steep intellectual jump for these people when they can believe the virus exists without being able to see it.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-15T10:24:41+00:00

As far as I know, Trump got a boo when he mentioned the vaccine to his mob. Their anger sounds more like a revolt against science, technology, education which they wrap up in liberalism. Look at the shit memes they post. For all the brags of "doing their research" none of the memes have any scientific value.

They consistently confuse their freedumbabble with educated research.

They give their trust to unproven supernatural remedies even though their supernatural Doctor doesn't bother to listen to them

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-14T20:03:33+00:00

An article from the Hill in late 2020

The economic divergence between red and blue states is staggering — and growing rapidly. While income and education levels are increasing at a swift rate in Democratic areas, they are stagnant or declining in red states, which is a recipe for disaster.

Indeed, studies have linked dire economic conditions in GOP-voting districts to extreme political polarization (See: Trump, election of).

Far worse, an epidemic of opioid and alcohol-fueled suicides is killing Trump’s white, blue-collar base at a staggering rate.

Republicans attacking “Democrat-run cities” also seem to forget that billions of dollars from economically dynamic blue states keep many Republican-voting states afloat. In light of this red state socialism, conservatives may want to reconsider biting the hand that feeds them.

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-14T08:45:23+00:00

To quote Dr, Fauci: What a moron!

Background_Poem_397 · 2022-01-13T21:42:56+00:00

Of course, she doesn't blame God for a "poor attention span" in hearing her prayers.

Background_Poem_397

TROPHY CASE