From: hampday@earthlink.net
Date: Tue Sep 06 2005 - 21:44:28 BST
Hello Platt --
> Well, you use words that I'm not sure what they mean, like
"existentialists."
> And, if I manage to disappoint you, it's probably because I've never
really
> understood "Essentialism." I'm not as versed in philosophy as I probably
> should be if we're to converse on the same level.
It's time you had your own philosophy instead of simply admiring a certain
novelist's prose ;-].
If you truly don't know what Existentialism means (and I doubt very much
that a person as well-read as yourself could have escaped it), get
acquainted with Heidegger, Hegel, Kierkegaard (a theist), or Albert Camus (a
playwright), all of whose works are available in English translations. I
can recommend a small paperback titled "An Introduction to Metaphysics"
published as an Anchor Book by Doubleday. Although I don't recommend wading
through the 600 pages of Sartre's "Being and Nothingness", this was the book
that got me seriously interested in metaphysics.
Sartre was a member of the French resistance movement who considered himself
a Marxist and became the leading exponent of Existentialism in the post-war
era. As an atheist, he claimed that since there is no "cosmic designer",
there are no "essences". But because the human being, unlike other animals,
is self-conscious, he is condemned to "create his own essence." The
metaphysical platform for his philosophy is that "Existence precedes
Essence", which I can assure you is the prevailing belief system in
Qualityland, as well as in all fields of scientific investigation.
There is much good analysis in the existentialists' ramblings -- Hegel in
particular. They recognized freedom as a unique attribute of man, while at
the same time characterizing it as "a dreadful burden". And, although the
metaphysics is Being-based, they came up with some profound insights
concerning the relationship of "beingness" and "nothingness", not the least
of which was the concept of the self as a "negate" (nothingness), much as
Eckhart and the Neo-platonists had taught in the early Christian era. On
the whole, however, it is nihilistic in the Nietzschean sense, pessimistic,
and totally devoid of human purpose or meaning.
Ham (previously):
> Self-awareness is not an offshoot of biological evolution. It is a unique
> and special creation -- a primary negation of Essence which transcends
time,
> space and differentiation. Were your awareness not linked to Essence by
> value, you would have no self, let alone awareness.
Platt:
> See? That's all mumbo-jumbo to me, although you've certainly bent over
> backwards in the past to clarify your ideas. As for why I entertain the
> idea of the brain being something, I'll repeat what I wrote to David Z:
>
> [Quoting David Darling]:
> "If we accept that everything in the universe has a subjective aspect,
> then the brain appears in a new light. The brain begins to look more like
> a regulator or editor of consciousness-a reducing valve. Most, if not all
> the major organs are regulators. The lungs don't manufacture the air we
> our bodies need; the stomach and intestines are not food producers. So if
> we manufacture neither the air we breath nor the food we eat, why assume
> that we make, rather than regulate, what we think?"
> "So if we manufacture neither the air we breath nor the food we eat,
> why assume that we make, rather than regulate, what we think?"
I have no problem with the brain being a regulator, although I understand
its data-gathering function more as a "filter"; but the regulation or
filtering isn't awareness. These functions are analogous to the
semi-conductor circuits in your TV in that they select and process the
signals that make possible your reception of the Myrtle Beach Beauty Parade
without participating in it.
Besides, if consciousness only regulates what we think, pray tell me where
are the thoughts it regulates?? Thank you, Platt and David, but I'll stick
with my original "assumption".
Essentially,
Ham
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