A PHILOSOPHICAL CRUNCH THAT CAN LEAD TO A DIALOGIC IMPASSE THAT CAN DESTROY A MARRIAGE. THE BASEBALL BAT METAPHOR written by Dr John Small -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first area to talk about has to do with the dialogue that is part of the philosophical culture of Western Civiliation. In 312 AD Constantine, the Holy Roman Emperor made Christianity the state religion. That put political power on a level with religion. After Christianity became the state religion, when the father died, the first (oldest) son inherited the land. The second son became the bishop. The women were not considered. In about 1200, Thomas of Acquin wrote the Summa Theologica. It was the last word about god and Theology. Aristiotles philosophy was the philosophy that was used to explain Christiantity by Thomas. Three of its parts were metaphics, epistemology and absolute truth. A short way of explaining these three ideas was 1. There could not have been contradictions in the text to statements about the same thing and both be correct . 2. Truth was absolute and that meant that what we know was seen was what was true. and we see what we see and nothing else. What that means is that we see what we see, and it is no more or less. I we take our eyes and see something like a bat. Each person sees a bat and they see the same bat. Husserl and physics later changed that. He said that the light shined from the bat, it went to the retina of each person and was transduced from the optic nerve, to an electric nerve pattern in the brain. . It traveled to the visual memory and got compared to a persons history, experience and values. If a person played T ball, little league and high school baseball, they would love the bat. If the other person was beaten by their father with a bat, she would see something different.Very different.Two bats were seen quite different.. You can see how different each of those percepts were.If we think we see the same bat, there is going to be disagreement. Percepts are what are real to a person - different from any other person The way this translates into the dialogue between two people discussing is that each makes a statement about something that they see, or hear or taste or smell - a statement that is a percept but each person sees it as truth and, if different from the other person sees the other person as wrong.This is seen as saying that the other person is wrong and is seen as an accusation. Married people go on fighting, each thinking that they are correct and the other is wrong. It goes on and on. Also, the meaning of a statement is in the hearer - that is the person reacting to the speaker. It takes hours and hours of role playing to help persons change their opinion from being correct to being their percept or opinion.It is a very difficult process. I tell them that I am not blaming them because this is what they learn from their culture and they must change and not blame if they are to resolve their problems. We have to go back again and again to help them that they see their are no absolutes and nothing besides percepts about what is seen or heard or whatever. This is one of outcomes of the study of epistemology and the denial in a postmodern world of absolutes. This has to be explained to the people who are arguing and blaming and do not know what is the current philosophy and epistemology,
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 11:51:26 +0000
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