"Cogito ergo sum" said Descartes and thus began the struggle between mind and matter. The rationalist believes that all is in their heads, the empiricist believe that all is factual and represented by what is presented externally.
I was reminded of this today when my grandson called to say he saw a pickup truck in West Virginia with a bumper sticker stating, "I identify as a Prius". This allegedly allowed parking in select Prius spots. I do not know if he was ticked.
But the argument is simple. If person A identifies as X, and society approves of such rational self identification, then is it permissible for person B to identify person A as Y? If we accept such rational self identification, does it not then apply to all? For if the empiricist does not use their external facts, then the rationalist can use their own reason to do wherever the like?
Just a thought. I wonder if the bumper sticker is enough to get a good parking space?
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A blog containing opinion and analysis in a wide array of areas including the economy, health care, broadband and international relations.
About Me
- Florham Park, NJ, United States
- Terry has spent most of his career in industry, half in corporate executive positions, and half involved in his start ups. He started on the Faculty and Staff at MIT in 1967 and was there until 1975, and he had returned to MIT from 2005 to 2012 to assist groups of doctoral and post doc students. Terry has focused on a broad set of industries from cable, to satellite, wireless, and even health care software and medical imaging. Terry has published extensively in a broad set of areas as well as having written several books. Terry has returned to Medicine on Boards at Columbia University Medical Center. Copyright 2008-2024 Terrence P McGarty all rights reserved. NOTE: This blog contains personal opinions of the author and is not meant in any manner to provide professional advice, medical advice, legal advice, financial advice. Reliance on any of the opinions contained herein is done at the risk of the user. For publications see: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Terrence_Mcgarty
Key Connections
Blog Archive
-
▼
2019
(177)
-
▼
July
(25)
- Seeing is Believing
- W10 Again
- The Antitrust Challenge
- An Antitrust Paradigm for Social Media
- Andrea Doria
- An Interesting Site
- More Daylilies
- What is Cancer?
- Jupiter
- Apollo 11
- Daylily Dynamics
- Union Labor?
- Is New York City Sinking?
- College and Food
- Fault Tree Analysis
- Justice, Rights and Constitutionalism
- LPCAT1 An Interesting Target
- Old Technology and Lack of Competence
- Ask your Mechanic About that Melanoma
- Obesity and its Sequellae
- The Academy, Openness, and "Competition"
- Canadian Revisionism
- Regulating the Internet
- Trees
- Rationalism versus Empiricism
-
▼
July
(25)
Labels
- Academy (247)
- Advice (1)
- AI (24)
- Amazon (26)
- AMTRAK (1)
- Antitrust (5)
- Antnee (1)
- Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Baseline Portfolio (29)
- Bats (1)
- Bears (1)
- Bees (2)
- Biodiversity (2)
- Biofilms (1)
- Books (81)
- Botany (3)
- Bridges (1)
- Broadband (84)
- Business (5)
- Cancer (286)
- Cap and Trade (26)
- CAR-T Cells (5)
- CATV (34)
- Chemistry (1)
- China (81)
- Church (11)
- Climate Issues (19)
- Commentary (772)
- Commentary. (2)
- Common Carriage (1)
- Companies (1)
- Computers (1)
- Congress (3)
- Constitution (4)
- COVID (18)
- CRISPR (31)
- Culture (1)
- Cyber Warfare (5)
- Daylilies (9)
- Dell (1)
- Dentists (3)
- Diabetes (13)
- Disinformation (1)
- Drugs (1)
- Economics (175)
- Economy (515)
- Education (50)
- Electronic Medical Records (14)
- Electronic Shopping (1)
- Employment (2)
- Energy (8)
- Environment (2)
- Epigenetics (4)
- EU (1)
- Europe (1)
- FCC (45)
- Finance (3)
- Fox (1)
- French (1)
- G20 (5)
- Gene Drive (1)
- Genetics (22)
- Ginkgo (1)
- Global Warming (43)
- Google (34)
- Government (165)
- Guest Blogger (1)
- Health Care (593)
- Healthcare (8)
- History (5)
- Hollywood (1)
- Immunization (1)
- Individualism (4)
- Information (3)
- Infrastructure (1)
- Innovation (3)
- Intellectual Property (1)
- Intellectuals (1)
- Internet (30)
- Internet Neutrality (13)
- Japan (2)
- Law (25)
- Libraries (4)
- Marx (4)
- Mathematics (1)
- Media (13)
- Medicare (2)
- Medicare for All (1)
- Medicine (10)
- Microsoft (41)
- Middle East (3)
- Military (10)
- Millennial (2)
- MIT (27)
- Models (1)
- MOOCs (13)
- Multimedia Communications (3)
- NASA (23)
- Nationalism (1)
- Natural Rights (3)
- New York City (2)
- News (2)
- NJTransit (3)
- Nuclear Weapons (15)
- Obesity (14)
- Observation (1)
- Paine (1)
- Pandemic (514)
- Pandemics (4)
- Papacy (7)
- Patents (1)
- Peer Review (2)
- Personal (1)
- Political Analysis (47)
- Political Correctness (3)
- Politics (162)
- Power (1)
- Press (8)
- Privacy (5)
- Quality (1)
- Rare Earths (2)
- Recession Statistics (3)
- Regulation (2)
- Religion (5)
- Revolution (2)
- Rome (1)
- Russia (43)
- Science (12)
- Security (5)
- Shakespeare (1)
- Social Media (2)
- Socialism (4)
- Software (2)
- Space (2)
- Squirrels (15)
- Taxation (4)
- Technology (15)
- Teeth (1)
- Telecom (37)
- Terchnology (1)
- Test (2)
- Testing (1)
- The English (2)
- Turkeys (1)
- Twitter (1)
- UK (1)
- UPS (2)
- USPS (6)
- Vaccine (4)
- Vaccines (3)
- Vatican (3)
- Verizon (8)
- Virus (20)
- Voting (11)
- War (3)
- Weather (1)
- Wireless (8)
- Yield Curve (14)
Publications
Posts
Important Documents
Total Pageviews
Telmarc White Papers
Cookies EU
Notice: This site is written by me and operated by or under the aegis of Google via Blogspot and May Contain Cookies. This notice should suffice as a warning which may be required by EU regulations. Then again, it is the EU after-all and this may not reflect the regulated reality but at least you have been advised. Copyright 2008-2021 Terrence P McGarty All Rights Reserved, also quotes are from referenced materials and are used under a Fair Use principle as they are commented upon and linked back to.
NOTICE
All documents and materials on this web site are the copyrighted property of Terrence P McGarty, the "Author", and can be used solely for individual purposes. The Author also does not represent in any manner or fashion that the documents and information contained herein can be used other than for expressing the opinions of the Author. Any use made and actions resulting directly or otherwise from any of the documents, information, strategies, or data or otherwise is the sole responsibility of the user and The Author expressly takes no liability for any direct or indirect losses resulting from the use or reliance upon any of the Author's opinions as herein expressed. There is no representation by The Author, express or otherwise, that the materials contained herein are investment advice, business advice, legal advice, medical advice or in any way should be relied upon by anyone for any purpose. The Author does not provide any financial, investment, medical, legal or similar advice on this website or in its publications or related sites. Also the author may, from time to time, include items from other publications on the reliance of "Fair Use" principles in Copyright Law and such items are used in the opinions stated, they are also referred to by source and delineated as coming from such third party sources. This Blog is not implemented in any manner to generate revenue or any other benefits and is solely for opinion and expression thereof. Any who have concerns about referred to comments should contact the Author for prompt remediation.