All Philosophers Please Read

I post this as an entry so everyone reads it.  It is an addendum to my first comment under Sandra J. Polk III’s post, “A World of Color.”  Please read both her post and my comment; then either come back to read this or read the addendum below the first comment.  At times, I will need to clarify language so we’re basically on the same page.  Many times, posts or comments will raise the opportunity to address the whole class.

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

I wanted to add and clarify my first comment.  First, the issue of the question, "So what?"  When I ask this question (as I may do more), I do not mean to be flippant at all – even though the question by itself seems to have that connotation; I don’t think it has to by the way. 

Instead, I ask the question honestly to elicit more questions and responses.  In effect, it is shortcut for, "So what follows from the observation/proposition/

assertion?"  Since I am a student of mathematics, science, philosophy, theology, history, and culture, I am intensely interested in where and how these disciplines intersect, and how to resolve conflicting (or even contradictory) propositions among those disciplines.

Some questions or responses that I can think of in response to the “So What?” question are: “Does the fact (if it is one) that color does not exist, and is a mere human perception due to the sun’s light, call into question the basic reliability of our senses and should we change our behavior because of it?  If so, how?” or “Do scientists believe this is an objective (independent of human existence) scientific truth, and if so, then why do they think some truths are objective, but others are not?  Is it only a matter of the strength of evidence or are underlying philosophical assumptions also at work?” or “Some philosophers and language academicians in literature think meaning is constructed by the interpreter of the text and not in the text itself, but if that’s the case, then what are the implications for a proposition like, “There is no such thing as color?”

Lastly, everyone cite your sources (usually a URL I would suspect).  Everyone would probably like to read the original articles from which ideas for posts come.

~Reasons