Class News
Spike Forbes ’64 has a new book, A Tree in the Woods: Plato and the Ematomic Dilemma
Spike Forbes '64 describes his new book as follows:
The eminent American philosopher Wilfrid Sellars once described the aim of philosophy as being to understand how things hang together (abbreviated paraphrase). In this short work (98 pp), Waldo "Spike" Forbes, '64, provides two independent premises to draw a line between what might someday be explained (following from premises) and what can currently (and likely) only be described, hence foundational. He suggests that both of his premises are self-evident albeit unconventional, with one which describes observers and the other, the observed.
The premises lead to a division of all of the "things" of Sellars' into two non-overlapping classes, which Forbes calls "objects" and "constructs." He then goes on to identify certain factual phenomena, which he calls "ematomic" gaps. Although Forbes does not focus on philosophy since his interests lie mainly in science and theology, these particular gaps provide the structural factors which have led philosophers into other modes of understanding. The dilemma lies just below the surface in varying ways, and can be readily seen all the way from ancients such as Plato and Aristotle through Descartes, Kant, and Hegel to more moderns such as Wittgenstein and Sellars. By not paying attention to the full implications of Sellars' precept, most have been diverted from a structural "how" for the nature of the world, into a purely functional "how," which is necessarily dependent on the functioning of the human mind.
Forbes also shows how the ematomic gaps influence the current academic and political chasm which separates the devotees of "natural selection" from those of "intelligent design." While the book challenges many notions of science and philosophy, even theology, it is not an easy read. Its intent is to provide an alternate modality for a lay reader rather than as an academic treatise to convince, contradict, or disprove skeptics.
The book, A Tree in the Woods: Plato and the Ematomic Dilemma, is available in hardcover, with a suggested donation of $25 to the Sheridan College Foundation, P.O. Box 6328, Sheridan, WY 82801. Any comments are welcome.