How very western of you terry ;)
How do we test our OWN philosophy or world view?
by Terry 23 Replies latest jw friends
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Quentin
Frist it is to understand that all thinking is abstract. That which exst in the mind rather than what exist in the external world. From this comes subjective reason and objective reason. The two can co-exist in harmony until one form attempts to overpower the other, becoming an age old conflict.
How do we test our world view, our philosophy of life? Be open minded, recognize the other's world view, do not become ridged to the point of snapping into. Think outside the box, be prepared to SEE all sides of an opinion. You cannot test your world view with ridged, unbending subjective, or objective reason. No matter how much you extort objective reason it continues to be subjective to what you experince and the knowledge you have, same applies to mystic thinking. Expand your knowledge base, do not lean on one form of thinking. Science is as much enslaved to the abstract as is the mystic.
As you expand your knowledge base you will find solid views from both forms, subjective and objective. Testing is continuous, don't fall asleep at the wheel.....
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slimboyfat
Okay. Then why do addition, subtaction, multiplication and division work?
Sure mathematics is one of the things we can talk about as having objective reality in some sense. Although even in that case the universe does not apply names to numbers and relations between them in our absence. It just is. But the things in our lives that have real meaning are not like that: family, marriage, money, our job, property, style of clothing, genres of literature and music, legal and illegal actions, love, rivalry, festivals, sacred observances. Everything in our lives that has meaning is socially constructed by language. Our world is constructed not ever found "as it really is".
If I get a bang on the head it still hurts whether I call it a "bang on the head" or not. But whether I go to the doctor as a result, whether my wife comforts me, if I search for medical explanations of when a "bang on the head" is serious, if I become disabled and receive help from the state to survive: all these things are contingent upon the social reality that we collectively create, not the world as we find it, as it "really is" as such. Doctor, wife, comfort, medical discourse, disability, help, the state: all these things are socially constructed. Strip it all away and all you are left with is the sensation of a pain in your head, which is real enough for sure, but in isolation pretty meaningless.
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journey-on
The "meaning" of life is what we choose for it to mean. The end result will test the means we used.
Out of all that "stuff" you wrote, this sentence is the most profound and reasonable.Life----the mechanics of it, the mystery of it, the source of it, and the first cause of it--- is so phenomenal that we truly cannot wrap our minds around it. Science can explain the how of lots of things pertaining to Life, but it has never been able to explain the why of it.
So, we are each and every one of us subject to our own unique experiences. We are individually working out the why of our life. Those experiences are what we use as our measurement and evaluation tools. They're subjective, based in individual mind, spirit, and soul.
We ALL use our five senses as tools to evaluate our physical world and we rely on science to explain that world to us. That is the objective world we all live in. But, something works with us individually and we work with that something to create our own unique world/universal philosophy and view.
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Terry
Hear! Hear!
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Star tiger
A is A!
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Terry
A=A is the key.
A thing is what it IS.
None of us will last very long on this planet if we are denied our grasp of reality.
Jehovah's Witnesses steal reality and replace it with a changeling with the nametag: TRUTH.
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Star tiger
Hi all.
That 's why I love reading Ayn Rand's books the philosophy beginning with Aristotle, such logical stuff, lol!
Star Tiger
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alias
This topic is about the difference between how we see the world and how it really is.
YOU ASSERT something which others cannot test.
How might someone test the love I have for my best friend or fondness I have for my cat?
Just wonderin'
alias
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Terry
This topic is about the difference between how we see the world and how it really is.
YOU ASSERT something which others cannot test.
How might someone test the love I have for my best friend or fondness I have for my cat?
Just wonderin'
alias
Our VALUES precede and trigger our EMOTIONS.
Values can be quantifed by what we are willing to exchange for them.
Our greatest values produce our greatest involuntary responses.
LOVE is triggered by by our greatest values and is measured by our exchanges.
How are you willing to spend your TIME on the beloved? How do you spend your money, your thoughts and your deeds?
This is the RATE of exchange.
If I say to my cat, "I love you, Sylvester" but I don't feed it, change its litter box or pay for the Veternarian to keep his shots current---the rate of exchange IN REALITY nullifies my claims.
We test everything by the actuality...the reality...of what HAPPENS.
Anything can "sound" real, sound true and seem correct. But, DOES IT MATCH WHAT REALLY HAPPENS?
That is the test.