Sunday, October 16, 2011
Facticity
I am not an expert in Sartre but I have read af few things about his work and I like his use of "facticity." I blogged several essays on why I feel that we do not have access to "the truth" and so in court we cannot "swear an oath" to tell the truth. We CAN know when we are lying or omitting something with the intention to deceive and we can be subject to the penalties of perjury. But I cannot KNOW that 2 + 2 = 4, that is HEARSAY from 1st grade. Only a Bertrand Russell or an Alfred North Whitehead could PROVE that 2 + 2 = 4 and I am told that proof would have 150 steps. I will try to dig up some links to those blogs. I submitted one to a judge and he excused me from jury duty because believing what I believe I am really not suitable for jury duty. It is said that when Sigmund Freud first traveled to Greece and saw with his own eyes things like The Parthenon, he marveled to see what he had only read about. We do not doubt that there is a Russia and a China and that there was a Russian revolution and a Boxer Rebellion, but we only know these things through hearsay, reading. Internet.
