I’m guessing that where you’re going with this is that the reason it’s so instrumentally convergent is because there is in fact something “out there” that deserves to be labeled as X, irrespective of the minds looking at it? Like, the fact that we all agree that oranges are things is because oranges basically are things, e.g., they contain the molecules we need for energy, have rinds, and so on, and these are facts about the territory; denying that would be bad for a wide variety of goals becauseyou’d be missing out on something instrumentally useful for many goals, where, importantly, “usefulness” is at least in part a territory property, e.g., whether or not the orange contains molecules that we can metabolize. If this is what you mean, then we don’t disagree.
Yup, exactly. And good explanations, this is a great comment all around.
Yup, exactly. And good explanations, this is a great comment all around.