[MD] subject / object logic

[david buchanan]

dmb said:
The MOQ says that experience brings "things" into existence.  Instead of the 
usual view, it says that "things" are given reality by virtue of the 
distinctions we discover in experience.

Craig replied:
Let's look at a specific example:  when did the earth come into existence?
1) 4.5 billion years ago (according to scientists)
2) 1 million years ago (according to early man)
3) 6,000 years ago (according to the Bible)

If 1) is correct, then the earth existed prior to our experience of it.

dmb says:
Actually, all three of these options would mean the earth existed prior to 
experience. All three assert a pre-existing objective reality. All three 
express the myth of the given, the representationalist paradigm, the notion 
of subjective mirroring of objective reality. In other words, all three 
options are based on the assumptions of SOM. If we were interested in 
picking the best option WITHIN that metaphysical framework then #1 is the 
choice that conforms to current scientific understanding but that's not the 
task. In terms of the MOQ, all three are false insofar as they confuse the 
conditions of possibility for experience with concepts that follow from 
experience. Like Dewey, the MOQ says that experience is an event, a 
transaction and not the result of the subject's encounter with objects, not 
even objects as big as a planet. In fact, the idea of the earth as a planet 
is only a few hundred years old.

Gotta go. It's time to saddle up my dinosaur and head off to church.

Thanks.

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