Walter O. wrote: "Lots of things can be two things at once. But they can't be two contradictory things, clearly."
Phil: Put differently, if Eric did not accept Walter's claim, he most likely would deny that there was any such thing as 'reason' or 'logic'. Instead, by trying
to better define the two, he reinforces Walter's point.Eric: Put yet another way, if I speak Spanish to argue against the position that Spanish is the only language, I am not reinforcing the contention that only Spanish exists. Rather I am attempting, however clumsily, to communicate with someone on their own terms.
Donal: This is tied in with the W123 distinction: emotions and thoughts are W2 and lie in the realm of human psychology. Logic only comes in with W3. Nothing in W2 can refute or 'contradict' logic and it is a confusion of categories to suggest otherwise.
Eric: First one must accept the three-worlds distinction. Donal has explained this to me in the past, and it is a useful notion for pigeonholing different kinds of experience. But so were the four humours and astrology and alchemical symbolism. Provisional conveniences maybe?
Then one must grapple with the view that "emotions and thoughts ... lie in the realm of human psychology." That's like saying "everything it means to be an elephant lies within the realm of zoology," which we all recognize to be nonsense.
I would object (in order to be relieved of some of my ignorance) that W123 exist only in the subjectivity of humans, cannot exist apart from human subjectivity, and that any claim for their independent existence is a desire to create imaginary life to symbols, much as a fiction write does, only with less direct intention.
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