Re: virus: materialism and other worldviews

David McFadzean (dmcfadzean@earthlink.net)
Thu, 18 Feb 1999 08:15:18 -0700

-----Original Message-----
From: Robin Faichney <robin@faichney.demon.co.uk> Date: Wednesday, February 17, 1999 2:31 AM

>Seems to me like most if not all "one worldview" people are
>materialists. To be a materialist, however, and to operate

Most "one worldview" people are probably supernaturalists.

>as a social animal, involve different worldviews. In one
>there is nothing but matter, or objects. In the other,
>there are also subjects, entities that are aware of objects.

Another way to slice it up (borrowing from Dennett) is there are 3 kinds of objects: those that are best dealt with by taking the physical stance, those that are best understood with the design stance, and those that are are predictable only by taking the intentional stance. The stances form a hierarchy, where the latter "levels" encompass the former, i.e. a person is a physical object, and an evolved lifeform, and an intentional agent, so you have to adopt different stances depending on what you are trying to understand.

All 3 stances are part of the same worldview though, so I'm curious about how you see this relating to your ideas.

David