Here is a true fact:
Lakehaven Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located about 10 km northeast of Wyong.
Here is a relevant lie:
I will kill you in your sleep, with DVD's.
The difference? While the second statement is not true, it alludes to a running joke between the two of us, and allows for better communication, and allows me to opt out of a situtation in which I have nothing to say by making a humorous theat.
Now, Socrates & Company had a little word they liked to throw around, 'Truth.' They argued that what is true is the most important regardless of anything else. The problem was that their definition of Truth had nothing to do with anything testable, but was rather just a series of weird assumptions made by philosophers that, they claimed, would instantly present itself as true to any human being.
Okay, so. They claim that something unobservable and totally irrelevant to daily life is more important to the nuances of a situation? One word, sir: zomg.
The Socratic idea of Truth is frankly one of the more dangerous and yucky ideas to have grown out of proportion and inserted itself virally into all the world's cultures and religion. The idea that something totally irrelevant to our lives is good enough cause to be angry at, or even kill another person. That way lies war. That way lies death, disease, famine. That way lies fascism, that way lies genocide, that way lies frenzy and evil. Am I now using a phraseology of moral absolutes? Yep. To make a point--that to hold so firmly to 'Truth' regardless of how much it actually affects us always, in the end, a bad idea.
So, what if, in reality, our entire existence has been the delirium of some bacteria festering away in a multi-dimensional bar? If we can't do anything to stop the Bar Rag of Eternity from eventually wiping us all out of existence, why bother? A character in a novel can't kill the person reading.
Look at it this way. If the 'Truth' is that we're characters in a story, there exists no mechanism for us to observe or prove this, and even if we simply assume this to be the case, all we have enabled ourselves to do is get mad at people who disagree with us.
Therefore, the best Truth we have is the testable. If it's not testable, why bother?
This little stick man is pondering whether his entire existence is merely a figment of someone else's perception, while simultaneously trying to come out of the screen to learn the Truth: That he isn't real, that he's just a stick figure. Think this is the best course of action for him? Hm? He's pondering the Truth real hard. You and I know the truth: That he's a little stick man about to be hit by a train.
Lakehaven Shopping Centre is a shopping centre in the Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, located about 10 km northeast of Wyong.
Here is a relevant lie:
I will kill you in your sleep, with DVD's.
The difference? While the second statement is not true, it alludes to a running joke between the two of us, and allows for better communication, and allows me to opt out of a situtation in which I have nothing to say by making a humorous theat.
Now, Socrates & Company had a little word they liked to throw around, 'Truth.' They argued that what is true is the most important regardless of anything else. The problem was that their definition of Truth had nothing to do with anything testable, but was rather just a series of weird assumptions made by philosophers that, they claimed, would instantly present itself as true to any human being.
Okay, so. They claim that something unobservable and totally irrelevant to daily life is more important to the nuances of a situation? One word, sir: zomg.
The Socratic idea of Truth is frankly one of the more dangerous and yucky ideas to have grown out of proportion and inserted itself virally into all the world's cultures and religion. The idea that something totally irrelevant to our lives is good enough cause to be angry at, or even kill another person. That way lies war. That way lies death, disease, famine. That way lies fascism, that way lies genocide, that way lies frenzy and evil. Am I now using a phraseology of moral absolutes? Yep. To make a point--that to hold so firmly to 'Truth' regardless of how much it actually affects us always, in the end, a bad idea.
So, what if, in reality, our entire existence has been the delirium of some bacteria festering away in a multi-dimensional bar? If we can't do anything to stop the Bar Rag of Eternity from eventually wiping us all out of existence, why bother? A character in a novel can't kill the person reading.
Look at it this way. If the 'Truth' is that we're characters in a story, there exists no mechanism for us to observe or prove this, and even if we simply assume this to be the case, all we have enabled ourselves to do is get mad at people who disagree with us.
Therefore, the best Truth we have is the testable. If it's not testable, why bother?
This little stick man is pondering whether his entire existence is merely a figment of someone else's perception, while simultaneously trying to come out of the screen to learn the Truth: That he isn't real, that he's just a stick figure. Think this is the best course of action for him? Hm? He's pondering the Truth real hard. You and I know the truth: That he's a little stick man about to be hit by a train.
EDIT: 'Truthiness' was named word of the year. Ah, Truthiness: That which Socrates, Politicians, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, & buddies all say is more relevant to your life than something that you can observe and measure. Close your eyes, inhale deeply, and feel the Truthiness. Isn't it so much better than anything you could read, see, measure, remember, sense, or make happen? Something that not everyone agrees on? Something you can get killed for, something you can kill people for? Luscious, lovely Truthiness.
Posts
