On 2/27/2003 3:52:55 AM, Julianne Harris
wrote:
but there is not
>a 'standard reality' for
>everyone. Not even the air we
>chose to breathe. You may
>choose to breath air full of
>smoke and take very short
>breaths. That would not be my
>reality. So they are different
>even in the fact that we all
>breath!

It is objectively true that smoke is present
in certain locations and in certain
measurable concentrations. Individual
people may have different tollerance for
smoke because of their physical or
psychological makeup, but that doesn't
mean there isn't an objective truth about
whether the smoke is there or not.

Furthermore, if you're in an area of
smoke, you really can't choose not to
breathe it, though you might choose not to
breathe. But even then, you can only do
that for so long until you pass out, at
which time you begin breathing again.

To take a clearer example, it doesn't
matter how much I beleive I can fly like
Peter Pan when I jump off the Empire
State Building; I will plummet to my death.
That's not "my reality" that's just "reality."

Prof. Borrowdale
borrowdalej@lanecc.edu