Monday 17 January 2011

This statement is false. Signpost or statement?

This statement is false.

Which statement?

Should we suppose that statements can reach out from their page and point to their own position on it? in preference to the positions of other statements on the page, or missing statements?
And what is being pointed at? All we see at first is a collection of marks. But then the marks suggest the idea of a signpost - "this.." And "this" appears to be a signpost that points to a physical position on the page -"here"; "this statement.." does not allude to a meaningful statement - it simply flags up "here". But then we were there, looking at the marks before we recognised them as a signpost.

["This statement..." is physical (because positional) reductionism. There is no epistemological exchange across elements in a reduction. There is only one thing that can show or flag up "here", and it is not "this statement...", it is a life-form. That is why I have said that self-reference is animism.]

No comments:

Post a Comment