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From: jim@ism780b.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Now and Then - (nf)
Message-ID: <57@ism780b.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Aug-84 00:16:42 EDT
Article-I.D.: ism780b.57
Posted: Fri Aug 17 00:16:42 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Aug-84 01:11:08 EDT
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#R:decwrl:-311300:ism780b:27500036:000:1545
ism780b!jim    Aug  9 19:45:00 1984

> How do you know that your recollections of the past are more accurate
> than your predictions of the future?

That is an epistemological question.  Why is this any different than any
other "how do you know" question?  Provided that induction based upon
perception is valid, then certainly the statement is true.  If perception
is not valid, than no statement about the real world is valid.
Are you questioning his certainty in his belief?

> There seems to be no way other
> than concensus to make that assertion (photographs and written things
> may also count, but like other people's memories, they could be faked
> or wrong).

No, he made the assertion by typing on his keyboard.  Oh, but that's not
what you meant.  Then what did you mean?  Are you saying that consensus
is the only source of information by which one can validate the nature
of the past?  Why should you say so?  We could all be in a dream, but that
doesn not affect the validity of our statements based upon our observations
*within* the dream.  I don't understand why so many people ignore the
multiplicity of levels of discourse.  It is perfectly reasonable to discuss
phenomena within the assumption that our gross interpretations of our
perceptions are reasonable.  We only should discuss the flaws in trusting our
perceptions when that is in fact the philosophical issue at hand.  Otherwise,
it is like checking that the microcode is properly interpreting the
instruction set as the first step in find the bug in your high-level C
program.

-- Jim Balter (ima!jim)