VLVL Prairie and DL

[Michael Joseph]

Terence, I've made one small modification. Now I agree completely with
what you've written.

On Fri, 17 Oct 2003, Terrance wrote:

>
> > Eliade reminds us that although the truth is subjective, when we are
> > struck with the truth it is of the nature of an objective reality, a
> > universal that is being perceived from a necessary, non-arbitrary
> > perspective. We think we are seeing an existential condition, something
> > real and not dependent upon the viewer. In analyzing truth in Vineland, we
> > should start from your position, with an awareness of its phenomenological
> > basis--the idea that truth is relativistic or aspectival or subjective, a
> > la William James:
> >
> > "What we say about reality then depends on the perspective into which we
> > throw it. The *that* of it is its own' but the *what* depends on the
> > *which;* and the which depends on *us*. Both the sensational and
> > relational parts of reality are dumb: They say nothing about themselves.
> > We it is who have to speak for them." (WJ/Pragmatism (Cambridge: Harvard
> > UP, 1975) 118.
>
> Not sure what it is you are saying about Eliade ... however, our seeing
> an existential condition (I'm  guessing that when  you say  "condition"
> you mean reality ?) or reality (as your quote from WJ demonstrates) is
> an interesting thing to think about in terms of the characters in VL all
> remembering and telling different stories.
>
> Anyway,  I've no idea why we need to,  or would want to,  read any book
> starting off with silly ideas about truth, but .... well  in William
> James we have a very fascinating and unique figure in American
> philosophy who asserts that the source of all ontological activity is to
> found in the "push and pull of our personal lives" here and now and he
> celebrates personal meanings of truth based on pure experiences
> including subjective varieties of religious experience.