Either that, cornelis, or maybe he is just looking for an excuse to absolve himself of his duty to be human. Who is to say?
Still, he seems to subject ontology to epistemology here. Oftentimes that proves useful.
How to get traction on these problems?
Reminds me of a passage in the Timaeus:
For this ordered world is of mixed birth: it is the offspring of a union of Necessity and Intellect. Intellect prevailed over Necessity by persuading it to direct most of the things that come to be toward what is best, and the result of this subjugation of Necessity to wise persuasion was the initial formation of this universe.Have you ever read the opening chapter in Tolkien's Silmarillion? Tolkien recognizes how the contest of intellect is the effort toward formation and creation, but that this effort is complicated with the contest for recognition as opposed to greater harmony.
And we wish to be served, rather than to serve. Sam calls Frodo Master. The observer problem is tangled up with the contest for power. And on top of all this Jesus says, "I call you my friends" and adopts us as sons of God.