Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science
Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science
Christian Thomas Kohl The Metaphysical Foundations of Buddhism and Modern Science
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
occasions, can be validly used to suggest categories applying to the<br />
connectedness <strong>of</strong> all occasions in nature. A great deal <strong>of</strong> confused<br />
philosophical thought has its origin in obliviousness to the fact that the<br />
relevance <strong>of</strong> evidence is dictated by theory. For you cannot prove a<br />
theory by evidence which that theory dismisses as irrelevant. This is also<br />
the reason that in any science which has failed to produce any theory<br />
with a sufficient scope <strong>of</strong> application, progress is necessarily very slow.<br />
It is impossible to know what to look for, <strong>and</strong> how to connect the<br />
sporadic observations. Philosophical discussion in the absence <strong>of</strong> a theory<br />
has no criterion <strong>of</strong> the validity <strong>of</strong> evidence. For example, Hume assumes<br />
that his doctrine <strong>of</strong> association holds for all types <strong>of</strong> impressions <strong>of</strong><br />
sensation <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> ideas <strong>of</strong> them indiscriminately. This assumption is part<br />
<strong>of</strong> his theory. In divorce from the theory, a separate appeal to<br />
experience is required for each type <strong>of</strong> impression, for example, tastes,<br />
sounds, sights, etc., <strong>and</strong> likewise, not only for the association <strong>of</strong> tastes<br />
inter se <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> sounds inter se, but for the associations <strong>of</strong> tastes with<br />
sounds, <strong>and</strong> so on for every possible type, <strong>and</strong> for every possible<br />
conjunction <strong>of</strong> types.<br />
To sum up this preface, every method is a happy simplification. But only<br />
truths <strong>of</strong> a congenial type can be investigated by any one method, or<br />
stated in the terms dictated by the method. For every simplification is<br />
85