What is a Tenured Monkey Doing on First Base?

Yesterday we reviewed the preface of a book about Antonio Livi's philosophy of common sense, which comes down to explaining what every human being always and already believes, verbal chicanery and tenured word magic to the contrary notwithstanding. 

In other words, in many respects the history of philosophy is a history of the denial of Reality and How To Know It. But if it isn't reality you know, what is it you are knowing? And how do you know?

Today we move on to the Foreword.

How is that different from a preface?

I have no idea. The book is like that, though. A lot of repetition. It's 500+ pages, but could easily be half that if the author had wanted to communicate to anyone outside a small circle of fertile eggheads. Moreover, why should a book on Common Sense, of all things, be so meandering, convoluted, and tortuous, not to mention all the Latin terms and phrases?

Ironic, that is.

Agreed. One shouldn't have to be some kind of specialist in order to understand the most general principles in all of existence. 

For example, suppose a truck is bearing down on you: I say, just get out of the way. Alternatively, one could could provide an Executive Directive on Spatio-Temporal Reorientation and Proximity Management, on The Imperative of Non-Catastrophic Kinematic Interfacing:

The following protocol is hereby issued to mitigate the high-probability risk of a catastrophic, inelastic collision between the designated Human Subject (HS-1) and the approaching, macro-scale, multi-ton mass-in-motion unit, herein referred to as the Kinetic Transporter (KT-1). The objective is to achieve a stable state of Euclidean non-intersection before the estimated time of zero-displacement-separation (t0−sep​). This is not merely a suggestion, but a deterministic mandate for the preservation of the structural and metabolic integrity of HS-1. 

Initial State Vector Observation: HS-1 must immediately cease all current tertiary processes and dedicate 100% of cognitive resources to the perception and analysis of the KT-1's four-dimensional state vector, specifically its instantaneous position and velocity within the common frame of reference.  

The target vector must be physically realized by the instantaneous, coordinated, and high-torque activation of the quadriceps, gastrocnemius, and gluteal muscle groups. This motor response must be initiated via a gamma-motor neuron cascade, overriding all competing homeostatic reflexes. The resulting kinetic energy generation must be sufficient to radially accelerate the entire HS-1 biomass out of the current High-Risk Proximity Zone (HRPZ).

Failure to comply will result in a rapid, non-reversible transformation of the HS-1's personal reality.

Who are we trying to impress? And by the time one unpacks the directive, one will be dead. Reminds me of some old sayings:

Write concisely in order to finish before you become boring.

The idea that does not win over in twenty lines does not win over in two thousand pages.

Clarity is the virtue of a man who does not lack confidence in what he says.

Besides, no one should need to be talked into common sense, rather, only out of it. And being talked out of common sense is not our job, rather, the job of higher education.

These two are particularly relevant:

Common sense is the father's house to which philosophy returns, every so often, feeble and emaciated.

Four or five invulnerable philosophical propositions allow us to make fun of the rest.

Turns out there are exactly five. But we'll have plenty of time to make fun of the rest while explicating the fantastic five along the way.

Oh, and this post may end abruptly because I have an appointment later this morning.

Let us move forward to the Foreword. This is clear enough -- that "in the consciousness of every thinking subject"

there are some certainties about the "real world," certainties whose epistemic justification is founded on the immediate evidence of existing beings that necessarily and always are present in everyone's experience. 

Another way of saying it is that everyone, philosophers included, votes with their feet. Or in other words, don't listen to what they say, just watch what they do, especially when they're denying with words what they do with their feet -- and hands, eyes, and ears. 

In short, perception is pretty, pretty important, insofar as one perceives reality (as in Gibson's theory of ecological perception). If the senses don't perceive reality, then tedium and comedy ensue, i.e., all those philosophical propositions we shall be making fun of.

The common sense principles we will be discussing

can in no ay be subject to doubt. This means that their non-truth is absolutely unthinkable: no one can really doubt them, and one must understand that any affirmations to the contrary are merely verbal posturing... 

Hence the comedy, which arises in the space between convoluted pomposity and simple reality, as in the example of the truck bearing down on us.

such certainties are present to man's consciousness in every moment of his search for truth as the logical presupposition of all knowledge...

Indeed, much of this can be analogized to baseball, in which one must earn one's way to first base. One isn't just born there, nor does a degree from the most prestigious university grant one a base on balls, let alone a base hit. Rather, supposing one is on first base, one must justify how one got there.

One got there via knowledge of reality. If not, then there is no first base and you are not on it. 

We now move from the Preface to the Foreword to the Introduction. If it's short enough, we may have time to tuck it into today's post. The certainties we will be discussing are present "at the level of man's intuitive metaphysical experience, which are present and operative, immediately and universally, in the act of cognition." And these certainties "function as the ultimate presuppositions" that are "necessary for any knowledge to have truth-value."

Turns out that "every person possesses a body of certain knowledge that is prior to any rational investigation from his immediate contact with reality," certainties "that any and every man is capable of reaching simply because he is a man."

What if a man is not a man?

Good point: I happen to be reading a book by Nicholas Wade on the evolutionary origins of politics, and while it makes many important points, it undercuts its argument by defaulting too far to the natural side of man's being, leaving us with no rational explanation for what a monkey is doing on first base, and how he got there. What does a monkey know about baseball, let alone the theory of natural selection? This may not be a principle, but it is timelessly sound advice nonetheless:

Not even one with a degree in natural sciences from Cambridge University.