(Original Review, 2004-04-02)
Yes, dinosaurs did exist before the name was
created by Richard Owen; they were probably known as dragons before in pretty
much all myths around the globe. But the dinosaurs themselves only existed in
the imagination of people once they were discovered and named by paleontologists.
So yes, things do exist outside of our consciousness
although they only exist to us once we were conscious of it.
Either way, your statement proves that whether
truth exists outside of our consciousness, you can only grasp what you (or a
trusted authority of paleontologists) are conscious of. The idea of dinosaurs
didn't exist before it was discovered, although dragons were quite omnipresent
in many mythologies around the globe...they are not quite the same but remember
that the first dinosaurs reconstructed were not exactly accurate either as the
facts were slightly misinterpreted ( due to their mythologically-loaded
background probably as starting point ); because thankfully dinosaurs are not
alive so we can only rationally speculate on how they looked like and how they
lived from a few fossils.
Even though, we're still unable to tell which
color they were; they might have been pink and purple like Barney, we wouldn't
know... at best we can imagine they are green/brown like the other reptiles
alive these days.
So I agree with you that language and what it
is supposed to represent are two different things but we're not able to
understand what is outside language therefore for this very simple reason, our
conscious representation depends on language.
Dinosaurs certainly did exist before we
discovered about them, but this fact was of no importance to anyone, since
no-one knew about them. They became part of the consciousness when the word
dinosaur was created, even if it relates to a creature that existed
independently of language; it needed to be named in order to exist in our
representational minds.
I guess there is a subtle distinction between
what exists (existed) and what is represented by our consciousness; all sorts
of stuff might exist that has not yet be discovered, represented or understood
properly but since we have no word for it - it might as well not exist, it
would be the same to us so arguably something exists (in our consciousness)
once we find a meaningful word to label it. That said, yes things do exist outside language
but they are meaningless and unconscious, a bit like how you would argue that
Dasein is a sort of meaningless zombie... It's easy to argue that what exists
outside our consciousness is therefore pretty much a zombie to... it's totally
irrelevant; it does not even make the grade for a myth which at least is a
product of language, has a meaning and exist in our consciousness.
But, I, you, other people and animals exist
outside language and none of these beings are zombies. So, at best, material
objects like stars and mountains are meaningless until they are perceived and
described but that seems like a red herring in this debate. Secondly,
consciousness does not require language and hence the claim about meaning (no
language = no meaning) you are making seems false: pre-linguistic animals and
very small children have no language but they are conscious and enjoy
representing the world via representations that have non- conceptual contents (Elizabeth
Spelke; Michael Tye).
Finally let me emphasize that the debate
between me and the pomo crowd is between realism (Plato, modern science,
philosophy) and anti-realism/constructivism (Heidegger, Derrida, Latour, Rorty,
Kuhn, Putnam). The latter denies that truth is independent of language --in the
sense I explained --and that view has been shown to be first of all badly
motivated ( arguments for it are bad ) and secondly to be false / incoherent.
You seem to have changed your mind now and shifted camps with these latest
concessions of yours which is nice.
