|
|
|
|
|
|
me were not in my memory half an hour ago. Thus you exist outside my memory. Besides, I have photocells that enable me to record data coming from the outside world, to process them and to translate them into images on my screen, or verbal expressions, or mathematical formulae. . . . |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smith: But you cannot feel sensations. I mean, you cannot say My nervous bundle C-34 quivers. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CSP: If you don't plug in the cable that connects me with my printer correctly, I realize that something is wrong. Frequently, I find it difficult to tell what. Something drives me crazy. Thus I say printer out of paperwhich, according to my masters, is not the case. But even my masters react by making improper assertions if you stimulate their C-fibers too much. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smith: Thus you can utter sentences about states of affairs. How can you be sure that what you say corresponds to what is the case? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CSP: I say something about a given state of external affairs, and my masters tell me that I am right. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smith: How do you proceed in making this sort of referential statement? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CSP: Take the case that my printer is out of paper. Well, I get an input x from outside, I have been taught to interpret it as a symptom (that is, as a sign) of the fact that the printer is out of paperobviously I can misunderstand the symptom, as I told youand I have been taught to interpret the cause of that symptom by the verbal expression printer out of paper. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Smith: How can your masters ascertain that what you said corresponds to what is the case? |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CSP: As far as I can interpret their behavior, let's say that they receive both my sentence and some other inputs from the outside, for instance, when they look at the printer. According to some rules they have in their nervous system, they interpret these inputs under the form of a perceptum, then they interpret their perceptum as the symptom of a given cause. They have been instructed to interpret that causal event by the sentence The printer is out of paper. They realize that their sentence corresponds to my sentence, and they say that I said what was indeed the case. Thus what I call intersubjectively True2 can be interpreted as follows: suppose that two subjects A and B are in a dark room with a TV set and that both see an image x on the screen. A interprets x by the utterance p, and B interprets x by the utterance q. If both A and B agree that p is a satisfactory interpretation of q, and vice versa, then both can say that they agree that x is the case. |
|
|
|
|
|