Date: Sat, 17 Aug 1996 22:50:09 -0600 From: Hans Ehrbar <ehrbar-AT-marx.econ.utah.edu> I don't think Derek's point can be reduced to the unfortunate double use of the word "law". This is not Derek's first posting on this, and my sense of his argument is: Derek conceds that the *natural mechanisms* are independent of human activity and would also be discovered by beings on another star. But what is being discovered is never the mechanism itself, but some approximation to that mechanism. And Derek wonders whether other beings would start out with the same approximation as we. My answer to this is: Derek's underlying ontology is not one of a stratified world with many layers, but one in which there is an empirical skin and an infinitely deep cellar underneath. Since we can never step down to the depths of this cellar, it will depend on the transitive dimension which aspect of the generative mechanisms sitting in this dark cellar will be discovered first. As I said, I would seek the answer to this in a better exploration of what it means that the world is "stratified" rather than based on an infinitely deep cellar. Does that what I am saying make any sense to you? Hans E.
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