Date: Mon, 16 Aug 1999 11:07:24 -0400
Subject: Re: BHA: Notes for a reading group



>>> Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au> 08/16/99 03:53AM >>
It is important I think to understand that the distinction between the
three domains allows one to argue that events will take place whether they
are observed or not.  The tree will grow whether we observe it or not. The
argument of course goes back to Bishop Berkeley (1695-1753).  He reduced
the domains of the real and the actual to the empirical when he said that
nothing in the world existed if it was not perceived.  When there were no
humans around to do the perceiving, the gap was filled in, according to
Berkeley, by God. This gave rise to the famous limericks by Ronald Knox:

There was a young man who said, "God
Must think it exceedingly odd
If he finds that this tree
Continues to be
When there's no-one about in the Quad."

And the reply

Dear Sir, Your astonishment's odd
I am always about in the quad.
And that's why this tree
Will continue to be,
Since observed by
Yours faithfully,
God. (cited in Lewis, 1968: 54)

((((((((((((((((

Charles: Wasn't this issue addressed by Lenin before Bhaskar in _Materialism and Empirio-Criticism_ , as when he gives the example of dinosaurs existing before there were humans to experience them ? His terminology is that the material world is an objective reality.

Charles Brown









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