From: Chris Vlaar (C.C.Vlaar@gmail.com)
Date: Sun Oct 24 2004 - 01:37:59 BST
Hi Platt,
On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 18:18:59 -0400, Platt Holden <pholden@sc.rr.com> wrote:
> This must be my day to be especially dense because I don't see any "point
> of contrast" in the Gardner sentence, " . . .heroic power of mind against
> the brute intransigence of lifeless matter." Looks to me like a simple
> acknowledgment of the mind/matter duality. So I think I must be missing
> something.
Chris:
It is indeed an acknowledgment of the mind/matter duality, so that is
a contrast, is it not? Or is this a wrong expression, shall I say
dichotomy? Well. This little sentence shows - though I am totally
ignorant of his work - Mr. Gardner resides in the 'unsafe haven' of
the Cartesian created substances of res cogitans and res extensa: a
paradigm, as one could call it, casting its shadows over centuries
protecting people against the face of the ghost that haunted Descartes
in his famous dream. The face of his deduction of the world in terms
of mechanical processes which Descartes so eloquently describes in his
'Discours de la methode' , in one word - which expresses so well the
unendless void surrounding us - nihilism. I would not buy the book,
but who am I to say where to spend your money on, who am I to steal
your dream?
Regards,
Chris
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