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I have been discussing some philosophical issues with a friend through email, and I thought it might be useful to put some of it on this board, because I think we need some more philosophical content here than I have seen hereabouts, of late. PLUS I have had trouble communicating some philosophical ideas to some very smart LDS folks with good educations- but who have absolutely NO backgrounds in philosophy. Good for them! One can become a doctor or lawyer or CPA, or brilliant businessperson or any one of many other vocations that require heavy brainpower without ever thinking about philosophy,or what it can do for you! And you would be right!! You CAN! BUT I would argue that your life would be better and richer by far with an understanding of what some GREAT THINKERS have thought, and how what they taught just might change your life! But the problem is that philosophy is so full of jargon that most of what is written just becomes meaningless for those who do not know the jargon. You can't read philosophy without knowing the jargon, and you can't learn the jargon without reading it!! CATCH 22!- (also an example of jargon! ) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch-22_(logic) I have been pushing a quote from Richard Rorty- perhaps one of the most important philosophers of the 20th Century- who also fully represents the entire basis of Postmodernism and relativist thinking. Incidentally I strongly STRONGLY believe that if our LDS brothers and sisters truly understood these issues, they would have the ability to discuss religious principles in a general way- to secular "religionists" both pro and con. I see this as VERY important for the future of the church I would say those Rorty quotes are good - the whole thing is there in those quotes. And they are said very directly, I think for anyone to understand if you think about it. Maybe I can say it again, even more simply. Of course there is a world out there that we did not personally create. Things DO exist that are not in your head. Like duh! 😉 BUT ALL- 100% of all your EXPERIENCES and all you have learned in school or all you have learned, and spoken and heard and seen and smelled and felt ARE PRODUCTS OF YOUR MIND Say that again and again to yourself!! Now mentally try to argue against that point. What idea or thought or bit of knowledge you have is NOT "in you" in one way or another. If not you, who makes your words come out of your mouth? You are not sitting in a "chair", you are sitting in a device invented by human perception of what would be "comfortable" which humans, in English have called "A CHAIR" TRY TO ARGUE AGAINST THAT!! Your entire universe is "in your head"!!!!!! That's it! ALL OF WHAT YOU CALL REALITY IS IN YOUR HEAD. Brain damage will affect that and everything you "know". IN YOUR LIFE, what matters is not how the world is outside of your head. because you CANNOT get "outside" your head. "Now we see through a dark mirror"...of our own thoughts and perceptions! Things do not exist --FOR US-- until we create a NAME for them. "And they CALLED IT "the first day" and God saw that it was "good" This is the most perfect "pragmatic" description of all time!! They picked up some matter, and re-arranged it so it was USEFUL to mankind, which made it "GOOD". That's all of it right there. You cannot argue against it!! There can BE no argument against it. So is THAT a "truth claim"? What IS truth? No philosopher has come up with an indisputable definition in 2500 years of western philosophy. What do those words even mean without definitions, made by humans?? So let's start there! What's wrong with what Rorty says here? My personal goal here is to learn how to better communicate these ideas to our members, avoiding the jargon of typical philosophers