This place sure goes in "spurts"

[Cybe R. Wizard]

On Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:01:05 +1000
Peter Garrett <peter.garrett at optusnet.com.au> wrote:

> We just wouldn't know - but the fact that we would not know would not
> make them unreal, just beyond our limits. 
> 
> This is not provable of course. If our human limitations make
> something unknowable, on the other hand, that does not prove that
> $unknowable_thing does not exist, either.

I recognize the apparent completeness of that viewpoint, I merely don't
recognize human limitations.  We have been too successful at extending
our natural senses.  After all, we can't smell or taste xrays.  There
are undoubtedly many things we not only don't know, but don't even know
/about/.  Yet.  Give us time.
> 
> If you are of the school of thought that insists on proof of
> everything, then of course you will disagree, which is your
> prerogative.

That /is/ the basket in which I am going to hell.   ;-]
> 
> Imagination allows us to conceive of the existence of the unknowable.
> If you define existence purely in terms of 'that which can be known by
> scientific method and our senses'  then your definition would
> invalidate what I have said above.

I can't see how existence can be otherwise defined.  How can we
discuss that which we can't define? How can we define that which we
can't know?
> 
> This would be one of the splits between scientific philosophy and
> other branches of philosophy that allow for the imaginative element
> as above.
> 
> Peter

I'm as much a fan of good fiction as the next guy.  I recognize it as
fiction, though.

Cybe R. Wizard
-- 
We cast away priceless time in dreams, born of imagination, fed upon
illusion, and put to death by reality. 
	Judy Garland