Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 19:47:55 -0400
From: Stirling Newberry <allegro-AT-thecia.net>
Subject: Re: PLC: "Deconstruction"


>> Do you mean:
>>
>> 1. There is a platonic form that the ruby adheres to?
>
>Don't be silly. Do I look like a Platonic Bull
>that you can get a rise out of merely by waving a
>red Form?
>
Why not? Edward Rothstien of the New York Times would.


>
>> 2. There if the ruby were looked at then the characteristics which are
>> labeled as "worth" would then be present - hence we can say they are there
>> even when not observed?
>
>Fuzzy syntax. Can't make any sense of it.
>

Put another way - we can say that something has intrinsic worth if the
attributes which create value do not go away when there is no observer, and
we can posit a hypothetical observer who *would* see that worth or value
*if* they were to look at it. The observer does not create value - he
merely perceives it.

To take an example: someone who subscribes to this sense of worth would say
that while no one "hears" the famous tree falling in the forest, that the
physical facts that make up sound are all present, and *if* someone *had
been* present - the greek optative would be useful here - then they *would
have* heard a sound. Hence a person who held this position would say that a
sound *had been made* even though *no one heard it*.

Similarly this position on meaning would say that a book has intrinsic
meaning because *if* someone were to read it then they *would* derrive
meaning, and since all of the physical aspects that make up meanin are
present - then the book can be said to have *intrinsic* meaning since it
relies not on *the* reader - but merely *a* reader.

>
>> 3. That there is a worth in structure itself qua structure separate from
>> any human judgement. The structure of the ruby is an aspect of "the good"
>> as Aristotle would put it?
>
>As A. would put it, "It looks good on your
>finger there, Lady."
>
>If the structure contains beauty of form (not
>Form), then it is worthy.

And from whence comes this beauty if not from some one to behold it, and
not from some metaphysical realm of forms?



Stirling Newberry
business: openmarket.com
personal: allegro-AT-thecia.net
War and Romance: http://www.thecia.net/users/allegro/public_html




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