Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)

From: "Christopher Wright" <faceloran@...>
Subject: Re: OT More pens (was Re: Phoneme winnowing continues)


> A hypothesis is a guess based on observed evidence that can be objectively
> tested. How can you objectively test a historical possibility? Could I
> come up with an experiment to tell me whether Abraham Lincoln was the
> President of the US during the US Civil War? Could I gather objective data
> to prove that King Hammurabi created one of the first unified codes of
> law? Could I gather objective data to prove that the past is not a fiction
> created by my brain to account for a disparity between my mental state and
> my physical position?
>
> I have faith that my memories are correct, that what I observe is reality,
> that my teachers didn't lie to me as a matter of habit, that history is
> basically correct, and that my mind did not manufacture my personal
> experiences with God. I'm certain that all of you have faith that the
> subjective accounts of history are mostly accurate as to what really
> happened.
Thanks to everyone who came in to try and answer my question.  It looks like
I can sort everything I know into two categories: things backed up by
experimental evidence and things backed up by observed evidence.  (If those
names make sense, anyway.)  I would put most of the scientific knowledge in
the world in the first category, and knowledge of history, God, people, etc.
in the second.  Anyway, I'll be leaving on Monday for Kazakstan, so I won't
be able to continue this discussion much further.  Thanks for all the input!

> PS: Since CS Lewis was a friend of JRR Tolkien, might Lewis have been a
> conlanger? Is there any evidence to support it (esp. in the _Out of the
> Silent Planet_ trilogy)?
Yes.  I'd say that he was both a conlanger and a synaesthete.  If he was
bearded (as I seem to recall), then he'd be a perfect guy around here.  (If
he weren't dead, of course.)  Hressa-Hlab is spoken in a few places in the
trilogy.  Search the archives for this, and you'll get some information that
I and others have dug up.