[Off-topic] Requests author discusses MentalHealthError exception

[Ian Kelly]

On Mar 2, 2016 9:01 PM, "Rustom Mody" <rustompmody at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thursday, March 3, 2016 at 7:59:13 AM UTC+5:30, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
> > On Thu, 3 Mar 2016 04:02 am, Rustom Mody wrote:
> >
> > > And how is [1]'s starting different from Kenneth's finding his weight
> > > to be the weight of the universe?
> >
> > Is that a trick question?
> >
> > "How is a raven like a writing desk?"
> >
> > "Neither of them are made of cheese cake."
> >
> > We can be absolutely certain that Kenneth weighs less than the entire
> > universe. We don't even need a set of scales.
>
> No trick
>
> William Blake starts Auguries of Innocence with:
>
> To see a world in a grain of sand,
> And a heaven in a wild flower,
> Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
> And eternity in an hour.
>
> Reading the whole at http://www.artofeurope.com/blake/bla3.htm
> would make this discussion less academic
>
> Kenneth (at some point) felt he had the mass of the universe.
>
> So you can choose (one/some of)
>
> 1. Kenneth is like Blake
> 2. Blake is a lunatic
> 3. Standards of lunacy differ from 17th century to now

Please don't refer to the mentally ill as "lunatics". That's very
insensitive.

To answer your proposition, either Blake was also mentally ill, which does
not preclude his poetry from being well regarded or important. Or, more
likely, he was being metaphorical and did not believe these words to be
literally true.

> What do physical objects have to do with Kenneth's experience?

There's no good reason to believe that there is anything other than the
physical. Believing otherwise for no better reason than the incoherent
experience of a demonstrably fallible human mind is indulging fantasy and
delusion.

> For you (Chris) you may (choose to) see Kenneth that way
> Kenneth (at least for a while) got out of that notion
> Forcing him back into that is what Larry calls
> "Forcing people into the status quo"
>
> Speaking for myself:
> I am certainly closer to the 'status quo" (most of the time at least) than
> Kenneth
> However I would not like to die
> How does one not die and still hold onto the belief that this 60 kg body
is me?

Much as one might wish otherwise, one simply doesn't. Going back in the
other direction, do you believe that you were never "born"? If not, how do
you conceive yourself existing infinitely in one temporal direction and not
the other?

> It may be instructive to take any religion of your choice (not
necessarily 'new age')
> Focus on their starting/ending points
> You would, if you neglect the doctrinal/mythological/cultural gook
inbetween,
> find something like this there invariably.
> You can reject this if you choose but then whats the talk of consensus
> when you reject the outlook of billions of people over millenia?

Most of whom did not have the luxury of being born after the enlightenment
and the advancement of science to denature them of superstition.