Date: Tue, 10 Sep 2002 09:42:14 -0400
From: Richard Moodey <moodey001-AT-mail1.gannon.edu>
Subject: Re: BHA: Are we dialectical materialist realists or empiricist


Hi Jamie,

What you said at the very end of your response to Mervyn really rang a bell 
for me:

>We can eliminate forms of argument that cannot sustain their own possibility
>but we lack the tools to move beyond that postition.

Imo, the three positions that were established and debated in ancient 
Indian philosophy -- dualist, materialist monism, idealism monism -- 
persist today.  When a person changes his or her adherence from one of 
these positions to another, it is more like a religious conversion than it 
is being convinced by arguments.  Holding any one of these ontological 
positions does not necessarily imply adherence to any particular religion, 
properly speaking, but the ontological positions do seem to be held 
"religiously."  By this I mean that "believing in" materialism, idealism, 
or dualism is at least partially constituitive of one's concept of self.

Regards,

Dick



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