Re: Value of Objective vs. Value of Subjective

From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@rawbw.com)
Date: Mon Mar 10 2008 - 22:31:23 MDT


John Clark writes

> [Lee said]
>
>> [Your own subjectivity] is the most important thing
>> in the world to you.
>
> Thank you.
>
>> Actually, for me, mine is not. I can imagine
>> sacrificing the quality of my subjective
>> experience for a number of things.
>
> I can too, ah imagination, yet another wonderful
> SUBJECTIVE experience.

Now stop that :-) Listen to a bit more than one
sentence of the spiel at a time, and do try to go
after the *meaning* therein. If I had written
instead "In some situations Lee would sacrifice
the quality of his subjective experience for a
number of other things", you couldn't have fired
off that distracting and irrelevant cheap shot,
and yet I would have clearly meant exactly the
same thing.

>> Objectivity---the process of trying to be
>> objective---is important for many, many reasons.
>> It's our road to the truth.
>
> Yes, unless the truth concerns something I know from
> direct experience, like subjectivity.

Yes, like, for example, you know you are looking at a
computer display this very minute (or maybe a printout).

> If you had an objective proof that I was not conscious
> I can't see any reason I should waste valuable brain cells
> reading the dumb thing.

Totally agree.

> I don't even have an objective proof that what my eyes
> are telling me is what you actually wrote; and besides,
> I have something far more important than a trivial little
> objective proof that outranks everything else even logic,
> direct experience.

And you haven't laid a single finger on all the reasons I
mentioned for why objectivity is so important, and why
---for the purposes of discussion---subjectivity isn't.
I will now reply to Norman Wilson, who at least addresses
all that. See his post of 7:42 am today.

Lee



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