[MD] Oneness, Dualism & Intellect

[ARLO J BENSINGER JR]

[Platt]
Isn't there something in critical thinking about the dangers of inference? I
don't know. I'm asking. 

[Arlo]
I'm not sure how we can reason without inference. Peirce called it "hypothetical
induction" and later "abduction". We can't _know_ the sun will rise tomorrow.
But given its track record, its a safe inference (and, of course, pragmatically
we can say "we know the sun will rise tomorrow").

Here, with evolution, we see a singular process (the movement of patterns
towards "betterness") occurring throughout nature and history. I think its a
safe inference to say this process will continue. Indeed, I think evolution is
simply the visible manifestation of Quality. 

[Platt]
Is it possible we will not evolve at all, but like the Neanderthals, become
extinct?

[Arlo]
Its possible, sure, that we will become extinct. Some days I'm sure of it. I
once asked a class to write an essay answering "where will humanity be in two
thousand years?". The overwhelming majority of essays began, "although I don't
think mankind will be around in two thousand years, if we were...". Whether
this is the result of media bombardment with horrific events or a dialogue
centered on Armageddon mythology, I can't say, but I find it illuminating that
so many can't project a future for man past the next few hundred years. 

[Platt]
I don't know who the "we" are you're referring to. Muslims perhaps? In any case
you can exclude me. But, like Pirsig, I do believe in a higher power that
"creates this world in which we live." (Lila, 9)

[Arlo]
The "we", those that exclude "man" from the natural world around them in an
elevation of man to a preeminent "outside and above" role, is typical of many
fundamentalist readings of religion, including most definitely the Occidental
religions. (Here again I hear Pirsig, "a part of the world and not an enemy of
it").