Identity (Identity)

by dhw, Friday, August 28, 2009, 08:53 (5353 days ago) @ xeno6696

I wrote that I was "absolutely not prepared to dismiss people's personal experiences as possible evidence". Matt replied: "A person's experiences are inviolable. Your experiences are not open to study by me, because there is no way to recreate the event except in words." And also: "The act of recounting an event from memory is itself always worth casting doubt on. [...] This means that the level of subjectivity is simply too high for my analytical taste." - In your response to David (26 August at 01.43) you also wrote "To me, any acceptable explanation must be studyable." - All things are "studyable", but I suspect that what you mean by that is scientifically testable. It comes down to the usual question of whether you do or don't believe that science holds all the answers ... and that in turn comes down to whether you are or are not a materialist. (I'm aware that you are not, but when asked to lean, you tend to go in that direction.) "Subjectivity" is a dirty word in scientific contexts, but I would say that subjective experiences provide us with most of the realities that make life worth living. I hope you didn't insist on a scientific study of the cerebral cortices of your wife and yourself before you told her you loved her. - Subjective does not mean unreal or untrue ... and I know you're not saying it does ... but I recall in one of your earlier posts that you dismissed all "paranormal" experiences as fake. (Forgive me if that was not the precise word ... I'm too lazy to go hunting for it ... but it was certainly something like that.). You're right to avoid personal conflict in individual cases, and in general it seems to me quite fair to suspend judgement. But without knowing the facts, it's unfair to pass judgement, let alone impose prejudgement. I wrote that I was absolutely not prepared to dismiss people's personal experiences as possible evidence. Your reply suggests, in the nicest possible way, that you are.
 
I would add, though, that we're ALL subject to personal experiences we don't understand and can't analyse objectively, but because we're so used to them, we're largely unaware of them. That's the subject I'm trying to grapple with under this thread, but it's very difficult to articulate. I shall have another go at it in due course. Your inability and my own to answer the questions I posed on 25 August at 07.55 lie at the heart of it.