Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/26/83; site ihuxv.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!wivax!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!houti!hogpc!houxm!ihnp4!ihuxv!portegys From: portegys@ihuxv.UUCP Newsgroups: net.philosophy Subject: Re: problems with materialistic view Message-ID: <474@ihuxv.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Jun-83 03:21:54 EDT Article-I.D.: ihuxv.474 Posted: Fri Jun 10 03:21:54 1983 Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jun-83 06:56:03 EDT Organization: BTL Naperville, Il. Lines: 27 This is a follow-up to fairly recent articles by D. Radin and Saumya Debray. Anti-materialists say that it is intolerable to them to classify people as entirely existing in the world of material "things". To them this is unacceptable, for it implies that the special properties of people, such as emotional and subjective experiences, are being dragged down literally into the dirt. It also has a bearing on the free will question. If we are clockwork mechanisms, then what is the point of living? My point is: why are material things so far below us? Why not accept things as simply different, not lesser? I think this ties into the human addiction for mysteries, which I commented on in an earlier article. If something can't be touched or understood, it somehow acquires an aura of awe. It's too bad, really. I wish I could strip away at will the wrappings of experience and see things as a child. As I dimly recall, (sometimes triggered by scent, such as the smell of my old grade school, or oranges conjuring up Christmases memories), there were times when "I" and the outside of me were not on such formal terms. If there is anything to despair about, I think it is this loss. As to the notion that materialism somehow implies determinism, well, that is a separate question. I personally think that the answer to this cannot be discovered (yeah, OK, I guess it's a mystery). Tom Portegys, BTL IH, ...ihuxv!portegys