Sleepyhead wrote:
Oh sure - it's a terrible argument alright! I'd rather have Kant than
George when it comes to philosophy!

Kant doesn't talk about "God" but he does explain that space/time does not exist in our percepts but is, instead, necessary for them.

It's interesting that Kant & early-Wittgenstein both end up saying
something similar in relation to general concepts like "Space", "Time",
"Colour" and so on.

I'd forgotten all that stuff about "The manifold"! Ah! Quite takes me
back!



Actually, I see philosophers accurately describing what they see, but
it is a lot like blind men describing an elephant. Each philosopher
grabbed something a little different from the others.

Ludwig Wittgenstein looked at . . . words. Philosophers prior to him
were describing things, then they woke up and realized that the tool of
their analysis was getting in the way of their descriptions.

Words are essentially 'signs' of things. But the signs are themselves
'things', unique things that yet signify other things.

They are made of ink or sound and are called convention. But many
things are made by man, yet they are things nonetheless. Forks and
knifes, tables and chairs, are all 'manufactured' things.

Wittgenstein like to show how words blend with others, and never quite
mean precisely anything. This parallels how things are never perfect
and a bad ashtray might be a good pencil holder.

The world surrounds us with an incredible array of things, sights,
sounds, colors . . . even adventure. It is clearly a creation, for how
else could it happen? To have a creation implies a Creator.

We know the world. We experience it's tangible effects, i.e., we drink
orange juice and go swimming, and the like. The more we explore the
more we find. The Creator, however, is a little different.

We grab the elephant's tail and proclaim "it's a snake!" We touch the
foot and say "it's a rock." The elephant is none of those things. The
Creator eludes us.

Metaphysics, and ontology in particular, are attempts to find the
Creator by searching the things around us. To make something, however,
is to remove all that it is not.

The Creator, I suspect, is not like his creations at all. And, since
time/space are not 'out there' but, in truth, we exist in a single
place, the Creator is with us -- not separate as it seems.

Does an artist cherish his works? Does a painter protect his canvasses
from harm? I suspect our Creator does the same.

-------------

I have taken an interest in this, apparently, religious thread because
I take philosophy to be a confirmation of religious principles,
especially metaphysics and ontology. It even explains the Lord Jesus,
our Protector.


tomcat