“We are not born into this world, but grow out of it; for in the same way an apple tree apples, the Earth peoples.”
This statement is patently false in many ways and there is no way to justify saying that “the basic idea is indisputably correct”. The basic idea that the OP imputed was not derivable from this statement in any way that I can see. Am I missing some crucial bit of context?
Some non-trivial holes: We ARE born into this world; we do not grow out of it in any sense, even metaphorical (though I think many here hope to accomplish the feat in the future); the Earth is not an agent and does not verb-people.
The more interesting materialsm discussion is already vigorous. I choose to focus on a minor point not to detract from it.
The claim “we do not grow out of it in any sense, even metaphorical” is overly strong.
Consider: The process of evolution is just as natural as (on the one hand) the process of birth and (on the other hand) the process of hydrogen fusing into helium. Considering “the earth” as an agent in the process of evolution is no more peculiar than considering the earth as an agent in the statement “The earth moves around the sun.”
The claim “we are not born into this world” is literally false, but if we assume (from context) a philosophical notion of “we are born, tabula rasa, into this world and philosophy is us wondering what to make of it”, it is rejecting the notion that humans (or viewpoints, or consciousnesses) are somehow special and atomic, made out of a substance fundamentally incompatible to, say, mud.
“We are not born into this world, but grow out of it; for in the same way an apple tree apples, the Earth peoples.”
This statement is patently false in many ways and there is no way to justify saying that “the basic idea is indisputably correct”. The basic idea that the OP imputed was not derivable from this statement in any way that I can see. Am I missing some crucial bit of context?
Some non-trivial holes: We ARE born into this world; we do not grow out of it in any sense, even metaphorical (though I think many here hope to accomplish the feat in the future); the Earth is not an agent and does not verb-people.
The more interesting materialsm discussion is already vigorous. I choose to focus on a minor point not to detract from it.
The claim “we do not grow out of it in any sense, even metaphorical” is overly strong.
Consider: The process of evolution is just as natural as (on the one hand) the process of birth and (on the other hand) the process of hydrogen fusing into helium. Considering “the earth” as an agent in the process of evolution is no more peculiar than considering the earth as an agent in the statement “The earth moves around the sun.”
The claim “we are not born into this world” is literally false, but if we assume (from context) a philosophical notion of “we are born, tabula rasa, into this world and philosophy is us wondering what to make of it”, it is rejecting the notion that humans (or viewpoints, or consciousnesses) are somehow special and atomic, made out of a substance fundamentally incompatible to, say, mud.