Martin, my goal was to illustrate how a considering different definition of
"ontological" could result in von Glasersfeld's statements using the term
being more coherent logically. I agree that the words or their
definintions are not the essence of someone's meaning. While von
Glasersfeld's position with respect to the "knowability" of an "independent
reality" may be the same as that of Kant, whether one should then conclude
that von G's philosophy is the same as that of Kant in all respects is
obviously a matter of further investigation.
>Thanks for working with me to clarify all this.
>
You're welcome. It was helpful for me to wrestle with how to express the
ideas. Thank you for the opportunity.
Dewey
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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad who-is-at bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper
"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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