Does everyone need to?____________________________________________
Not if you are a Canadian Liberal.
Being Intellectual
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Does everyone need to?____________________________________________
Not if you are a Canadian Liberal.
That's a non sequiter... but no. Technically an electron isn't even a localized particle, so to talk about the "position" or "path" of an electron doesn't make sense. But making sense and having meaning are two different things, would we say that an electron has meaning? Would we say it makes sense? Certainly, it follows some fairly well defined laws and is highly predictable to the limit that reality can be predicted.
Rather than meaning, maybe it can be said an electron has its function to exist in this world.
Well our body certainly contains some electrons, no? I certainly feel it whenever I'm electricuted a little by metal objects near me during winter!
But once you talk about functionality you see the uselessness of the question: what is the meaning of life. For as an electron just does what it does, we just do what we do. Certainly there is no reason for the electron to exist, I can dream up a lot of different physical universes without it. A better question is: What will you do with your life?
Of course this thread was about intelligence, certainly it is an actual trait, our words have descriptive power after all. Consider this example:
At some point in a game of chess against a more proficient opponent, you will realize that loss is inevitable. Intelligence is choosing to end it there. A robot does not forfeit, a human will. Even a heuristic robot that learns from previous mistakes will never truly forfeit. Intelligence is the ability to recognize proficiency, in yourself and in other people.
Yes, the meaning of life makes sense. But if it is not the meaning you hoped for, does it become moot on a personal level?
The meaning of an electron is to act as a building block within the rules that govern it's existance.
Does everyone need to?____________________________________________
Not if you are a Canadian Liberal.
does anyone else see only lil red x's in squares?
is this a zen lesson?
Ah, the pragmatic approach. You can conflate function with meaning, but most people would be confused if you asked them what the meaning of a machine in a factory was.
Of course, I pose the question, "What is the meaning of an electron?" for humanist reasons. If you come to the conclusion that you did, then you conclude our meaning is to act as we do within this world. So, life is the meaning of life, then live you life as you see fit. On the other hand if you choose to conclude that the question is meaningless, you are left where you began: just live your life as you choose.
In any case, I seek to affirm human free will over any theological or mystical meaning.
If you insert the word purpose it gives meaning to the sentence.
The purpose of an electron is to act as a building block within the rules that govern it's existance.
The meaning of life only serves purpose to humans trying to find one.
Where as the purpose of life does not need any meaning for each moment poses a possible action.
I'm not all that sure there is any meaning to life.
We just are.
We're pirates because we A-R-R-R-R-R-R-R !
And having found ourself in this predicament, we gotta figure out how to fill up our time.
That's one of the topics that came up in this thread.
The one topic that started this thread was China's assertion we are not creators, we're just welchers of previous knowlegdge and this is used only as a prop for our solipsistic stage play entitled ARROGANCE: LOOK AT ME !!!
I'm sure that has described some of us or even all of us during various stages of maturity and immaturity.
China's point about not being a creator or creative provokes me to be more so, but I don't want to waste my time re-inventing something already done much better or do I ? Maybe the process is educational for later ideas.
We just are.
We're pirates because we A-R-R-R-R-R-R-R !
And having found ourself in this predicament, we gotta figure out how to fill up our time.
That's one of the topics that came up in this thread.
The one topic that started this thread was China's assertion we are not creators, we're just welchers of previous knowlegdge and this is used only as a prop for our solipsistic stage play entitled ARROGANCE: LOOK AT ME !!!
I'm sure that has described some of us or even all of us during various stages of maturity and immaturity.
China's point about not being a creator or creative provokes me to be more so, but I don't want to waste my time re-inventing something already done much better or do I ? Maybe the process is educational for later ideas.
jimmoyer ,
I'm not all that sure there is any meaning to life.
We just are._____________________________________________________
You are right jimmoyer ,life, as such, has no purpose, no aim; but individual existence has a purpose, which is to realise this being in which there is no
“you” and “I”, in which there is no separation of subject and object, in which
there is absolute unity of being. Now you can call that intuition, happiness or
liberation. I use the word happiness because, when there is the state of equal
happiness and unhappiness, it is merely negative, whereas this state of bliss is
positive. One has, unfortunately, to use words to convey the meaning of
something which cannot be described in its totality, however much one may try
to do so.How can you describe to a blind man the beauty of sunrise or sunset? You may attempt it. You may say: It is warmth, it is light, it is this or that; but the real
beauty, to be fully realised, must be seen. Words, therefore, can only be a bridge.
I use ordinary words with a very definite intention, giving to them a new
meaning. To me, this state of equal happiness and unhappiness, which is
analogous to the rise and ebb of the sea, is but a state of negation, a negative
condition. Whereas the positive state is Being—that bliss which is the essence of
all happiness and unhappiness—which you need not call “happiness” if you do
not wish to do so. It is liberation from all limitation of emotion, of reason; and
yet it is the goal of all reason and all emotion and all thought. To me, this
happiness is a condition in which all states of happiness exist, and it is not
dependent on changes of pleasure and pain. To realise this highest reality you go
through doubt, faith, certainty, recollectedness, in which is involved happiness
and unhappiness, sorrow, pain, joy, envy, greed—all these, however, being but
the steps of a ladder. When once you have reached the highest step, you are no
longer dependent on the lower steps. The highest is the positive, to which you
can give any name you like. That is why I am willing to yield to a different
name. The name does not matter; what matters is that it is positive. This
supreme positiveness is the essence of positive and negative, it is the quintessence
of all things in their variety of expressions, in their changes, in their moods; and
therefore it is Life itself.
I'm not all that sure there is any meaning to life.
We just are._____________________________________________________
You are right jimmoyer ,life, as such, has no purpose, no aim; but individual existence has a purpose, which is to realise this being in which there is no
“you” and “I”, in which there is no separation of subject and object, in which
there is absolute unity of being. Now you can call that intuition, happiness or
liberation. I use the word happiness because, when there is the state of equal
happiness and unhappiness, it is merely negative, whereas this state of bliss is
positive. One has, unfortunately, to use words to convey the meaning of
something which cannot be described in its totality, however much one may try
to do so.How can you describe to a blind man the beauty of sunrise or sunset? You may attempt it. You may say: It is warmth, it is light, it is this or that; but the real
beauty, to be fully realised, must be seen. Words, therefore, can only be a bridge.
I use ordinary words with a very definite intention, giving to them a new
meaning. To me, this state of equal happiness and unhappiness, which is
analogous to the rise and ebb of the sea, is but a state of negation, a negative
condition. Whereas the positive state is Being—that bliss which is the essence of
all happiness and unhappiness—which you need not call “happiness” if you do
not wish to do so. It is liberation from all limitation of emotion, of reason; and
yet it is the goal of all reason and all emotion and all thought. To me, this
happiness is a condition in which all states of happiness exist, and it is not
dependent on changes of pleasure and pain. To realise this highest reality you go
through doubt, faith, certainty, recollectedness, in which is involved happiness
and unhappiness, sorrow, pain, joy, envy, greed—all these, however, being but
the steps of a ladder. When once you have reached the highest step, you are no
longer dependent on the lower steps. The highest is the positive, to which you
can give any name you like. That is why I am willing to yield to a different
name. The name does not matter; what matters is that it is positive. This
supreme positiveness is the essence of positive and negative, it is the quintessence
of all things in their variety of expressions, in their changes, in their moods; and
therefore it is Life itself.
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China, your last post about happiness made me think of the ghetto of spirit, a situation where a lonely person suffers an alienation to all others, toils at an unrewarding job and during it all has little curiosity or knowlege of the world --- a ghetto of the mind.
One practical use of a lot of allegedly useless knowlege is how it entertains you when nothing else does ?
One practical use of a lot of allegedly useless knowlege is how it entertains you when nothing else does ?