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Originally Posted by Steve Hanson Nicely put volantis. Sorry I missed the other posts.
I guess my point then would be that as 'philosophers' express it, 'absolute' truth is completely meaningless and refers to nothing. |
That statement needs to be further qualified. Absolute truth is simply not the same thing as empirical truth. Empirical truth is concerned with the objectivity of things, absolute truth is concerned with the essence of things.
"The essence of things" refers to concepts such as love. I doubt seriously you would tell your wife or children there is no such thing as love. There is obviously something there that has meaning, but it is an essence, rather than an object. And that should even further clarify why we need to call "absolute truth" and "empirical truth" by different names.
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Originally Posted by Steve Hanson If we are just observers and not creators of existence, then perhaps the highest value that a philosopher might provide would be to define the relationship between us and existence. Us being the observer and existence being that which is observed.
In fact, shouldn't that define what it means to be a philosopher? Shouldn't philosophy provide a framework for science? If that is true, then a philospher should describe the rules of empirical truth. |
I agree with your view, but I must extend it a little further. There is nothing that says existence cannot also be observing us observers. As much as we would like to remove ourselves from what is being observed, it remains a fact that we, too, are objects of observation.
The philosopher develops the view of being both the observer and the observed. The scientist only develops the view of being the observer.
Both philosopher and scientist have their strength and weaknesses, each having the power to watch over the other. Philosophy is not above science, as the surviving ancient Greek literature demonstrates. But science is not above philosophy as modern physics clearly illustrates. Common sense must temper the scientific method, and the scientific method must temper common sense. Both are important in order to achieve balance.