Re: "Shared" procedure division code



"Oliver Wong" <owong@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:7sQJe.192230$tt5.56640@xxxxxxxxxxx
>
>
> "Pete Dashwood" <dashwood@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:3lik42F12ra7rU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> if you accept that the moon is there and the earth is here, how can you
>> be sure that they don't just exist in your imagination? Because other
>> people share that reality with you. Agreement makes things real. The moon
>> doesn't disappear because it is part of a collective reality.
>
> What if I were imagining those "other people" as well?

There is some evidence to suggest that you are :-), but it is way beyond
this discussion...

>
> I don't remember who said it, but someone said something along the
> lines of "if two peopel agree to something, then it is real to them." As
> an open-ended and undirected question to ponder, what if person A
> pereceived (either via reality or imagination, person A cannot distinguish
> between the two) persons B and C. Person C only perceives person B. Person
> A claims that it is raining, and claims that person B agrees with him.
> Person C claims that it is not raining and person B doesn't exist. Does
> this means it's raining?
>
> Person A might believe it's raining, having agreement from person B,
> and simply assume person C is insane.
> Person C might believe it's not raining, and assume A is insane.
>
> To make things more interesting, perhaps we can throw in a person D who
> agrees with C that it is not rainning, but whom person A cannot perceive.
>

You might also ponder that any of the 4 of them who cannot perceive that he
is wet, would be unlikely to agree that it is raining... :-)

The arguments about perception and reality have persisted for centuries. All
of your points above are very good ones. Agreeing to share a reality is a
workable hypothesis for dealing with what is perceived.

I cannot 'know' that what you call 'red' is exactly what I call 'red'. But
we can agree that whatever it is that each of us perceives as 'red' can be
labelled as such, and that enables us to deal with it. If you then ask me to
pass you the can of red paint I will pass you something we both agree is
red. (please don't deluge the thread with examples of red-green colour
blindness and exceptions of that nature; I am painting with broad strokes
here... :-)

Thus words are symbols that allow us to share perception and 'create'
reality. The danger is that the "word authority" (Dictionaries) become an
end in themselves and become the dog instead of the tail (maybe that's where
'dogma' comes from :-)) The tail does not wag the dog. Dictionaries are
intended to help communication, not to restrict meaning to whatever their
definitions cover. That is why there is a wide diversity of such references.
But, if you look across all of them for a given word, you will derive a
'concept' that is agreed by all of them. Selecting any given one as "The
Authority" is risky at best.

Pete.




.

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