For myself I agree that the absence of cosmic meaning or inherited dogma is a gift. My assumption is that in the presence of mortality, impermanence and absent meaning we can choose to create meaning. Often through our actions. I think about a single mom, in poverty, putting her feet on the floor one more time.
It may be “This is what mother’s do”. Or, “Jesus suffered for me, I will suffer for my children. Many possibilities… for all of us.
Or how the Blues gave meaning and created the endurance of Black culture out of slavery.
And right now, like that single mom, we have 8 billion of us doing that every morning.
Some self creation works, for more than ourselves and some does not. Mother Theresa’s meaning, grounded in compassion, both a gift of service and example. Hitler’s meaning, grounded in power, destruction beyond what could be imagined.
I’m a pragmatist.
What I find missing is a bridge. How do we get from an almost infinite set of good and evil self created meanings to the “collective meaning” that is necessary for any of your possibilities to ever become a reality?
How do we get “us” to a “belief” that there even is a “common good” and a willingness to commit to it?
I had hopes that the photo of Earth from the moon might bring us together. It hasn’t. Nor has Covid or even the destruction of global warming that we witness daily. Our shared meaning remains separation.
This is not a criticism of you. What you have shared is amazing.
How does your or any philosophy travel the bridge from thought to a shared reality?
Thank you.
A lot to consider.
For myself I agree that the absence of cosmic meaning or inherited dogma is a gift. My assumption is that in the presence of mortality, impermanence and absent meaning we can choose to create meaning. Often through our actions. I think about a single mom, in poverty, putting her feet on the floor one more time.
It may be “This is what mother’s do”. Or, “Jesus suffered for me, I will suffer for my children. Many possibilities… for all of us.
Or how the Blues gave meaning and created the endurance of Black culture out of slavery.
And right now, like that single mom, we have 8 billion of us doing that every morning.
Some self creation works, for more than ourselves and some does not. Mother Theresa’s meaning, grounded in compassion, both a gift of service and example. Hitler’s meaning, grounded in power, destruction beyond what could be imagined.
I’m a pragmatist.
What I find missing is a bridge. How do we get from an almost infinite set of good and evil self created meanings to the “collective meaning” that is necessary for any of your possibilities to ever become a reality?
How do we get “us” to a “belief” that there even is a “common good” and a willingness to commit to it?
I had hopes that the photo of Earth from the moon might bring us together. It hasn’t. Nor has Covid or even the destruction of global warming that we witness daily. Our shared meaning remains separation.
This is not a criticism of you. What you have shared is amazing.
How does your or any philosophy travel the bridge from thought to a shared reality?
For me, that’s the acid test of philosophy.
Thank you.
For people who want to believe there's a God, all they have to do is substitute Universe with God in this article and a God finally makes sense