This is pretty self-explanantory, I guess.  I'd like to know what you 
make of them, and I think we might be on the same level with regard 
to them-  my philosophy training has never equipped me to deal with 
stuff this good.....



------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
Date:          Thu, 15 Aug 1996 09:04:39 -0500 (CDT)
From:          "DR. RANDY AUXIER" <auxier@lec.okcu.edu>
To:            Process Philosophy List <process-philosophy@mailbase.ac.uk>
Cc:            "Charles I. Richey" <Charles_I._Richey@capmac.org>
Subject:       Twenty Opinions Text (fwd)
Reply-to:      process-philosophy@mailbase.ac.uk


Dear Process Listers:

I have a treat for y'all (as we say down south).  Charles Hartshorne was 
writing some epigrams a couple of days ago, and while sitting around 
pondering whether he ought to try to publish them, Chuck Richey suggested 
that he post them to this list instead --immediate feedback, and a wider 
reading audience than a journal will get.  Chuck typed the piece into his 
e-mail system and sent it to me to be posted to this list (Chuck is 
unable to subscribe to the list due to policies and circumstances of his 
employment).  I will forward all relevant discussion back to Chuck to be 
printed out and taken to Hartshorne for reply.  For the purposes of 
your own work, you may consider this a published piece.  Enjoy.  I did.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
|  Abandon all hope ye who enter here. | Randy Auxier                      |
|                                      | Oklahoma City University          |
|                     Dante            |                                   |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 96 22:05:25 -0600
From: Charles I. Richey <Charles_I._Richey@capmac.org>
To: Auxier@lec.okcu.edu
Subject: Twenty Opinions Text

Twenty opinions from Five Times Twenty Years.

by Charles Hartshorne.

1. No single experience has itself as a datum.

2.  There are sequences of unit experiences, some call them societies of
actual entities.

3.  Time is objective modality -- as Buddhists say, dependent origination.

4.  Actuality is atomic, possibility is continuous.

5.  Causality is crystallized freedom, nowhere strictly deterministic.

6.  The past is infinite, no alpha, in spite of the Big Bang (and no omega
either).  There are successive cosmic epochs.

7.  So-called "sufficient conditions" for events cannot be known.  They make
what happens possible, not necessary.

8.  Spatial relations are inexactly symmetrical.

9.  A body of an animal is a society dominated by some feeling of its cellular
feeling by the animal when awake or dreaming.  Inanimate bodies are merely
collections of, for all we could know, slightly animate molecules, atoms,
particles.  Animism is in principle correct, prescientific details are being
removed.

10.  Perception and memory are closely associated, the past is what is actual
(Peirce), the absolute present is becoming actual.

11.  Animals are the only individuals obviously and definitely experienced by
us (against Descartes).

12.  Feeling is inherent in sensations; hence "mind only" (some Buddhists).

13.  Experiencing X implies including X, however vaguely (except by God).

14.  God has unsurpassable passivity (as well as unsurpassable activity), 
hence unsurpassable inclusiveness of experiencing.

15.  Existence and actuality are logically different, but belong together.

16.  In basic contrasts or polarities both poles must be asserted if either
is.  Thus dependent-independent, (relatively)simple-complex, etc.

17.  God, as actual, is finite spatially, as is all actuality; but God is not,
as we and animals generally are, only fragments of actuality. 
Fragmentariness, not finitude, is our limitation.

18.  God is both, in some senses, cause of all and effect of all.  This is
true only of God.

19.  The law of excluded middle defines the actual not the possible; the
necessary is what is common to all positive possibilities, hence very
abstract.  Only God fully knows anything concrete.

20.  Aesthetic values are pervasive in wild nature; the most dismal
uglinesses are produced by our species as in wars, or other forms of
violent human actions, including mistreatment of very young children, as
in spanking.  A fetus should not be called a child; it is still part of
its mother's body, and she is generally far superior in intelligence and
various capabilities compared to any fetus.  Our planet earth is badly
overcrowded, and polluted by this crowding, with outright starvation in
many regions.  The thing we least need is an increase in birth rates.  I
wish to express my agreement with Ashley Montagu's The Natural Superiority
of Women.  His book is a long list of statistical facts.  I add a final
thought; fortunately there are numerous exceptionally fine men!(1.)


(1.) For the witty title of this fragment I am indebted to my knowledgeable
        and helpful friend, Charles Richey.  Among our common traits is that 
        we both like a good joke.


--

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