[MD] Know-how

[Steven Peterson]

Hi DMB,

> dmb says:
...
> How about this. Instead of concepts shaping what's "given" to the senses, concepts are "taken" from the stream of experience they way one would "take" a bucket of water from a river.
>
> The bucket of water does not get in the way of the river. It does not represent the river or correspond to the river. It's derived from the river. You captured something from the river and in some sense it's not something ontologically distinct from the river. But it sure ain't moving like a river and in some sense you can't even compare them. In this analogy, pure experience is the river and concepts are the buckets of water.


Steve:
To where are the buckets supposed to be "taken"? Out of experience? I
think this analogy punches up the notion that  concepts take one out
of reality, while I can't see how that could be.

I don't think this switch from give to take is what James was doing at
all. For James experience is a give-and-take as well as a creative
transcendence of what was previously given/taken in a bringing
something new into experience, and it's futile and pointless to sort
out where "given" begins and ends and where "created" begins and ends.
He said something like, the trail of the human serpent runs over
everything.

Best,
Steve