tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post8435882305034701191..comments2024-03-28T17:44:11.289+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: Viewed close-up, life (of course!) has no meaningBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-72635234428659167802015-05-02T06:29:39.664+01:002015-05-02T06:29:39.664+01:00This is perhaps the point of the Greek aphorism &q...This is perhaps the point of the Greek aphorism "Count no man happy until he is dead." Happiness (<i>eudaimonia</i>) is a property of an entire life, not of any particular slice of it, and cannot be ascribed to a life which is not yet complete.Wm Jas Tychonievichhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07446790072877463982noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-7815386514304632782015-05-01T21:07:03.467+01:002015-05-01T21:07:03.467+01:00In literature, language, and philosophy, this murd...In literature, language, and philosophy, this murder is called deconstruction, and it is all the rage these days. We should recognize that, say for the institution of marriage, there is a whole human ecology that cannot be understood by just looking at one thread in the whole fabric of what it means to be a family. Leonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-26720205251533900792015-05-01T13:58:56.831+01:002015-05-01T13:58:56.831+01:00@NF "Not withstanding the above, if we know i...@NF "Not withstanding the above, if we know it is a tooth when we are looking at it, then our previous idea of what is part and parcel of being a tooth expands from looking at it this way."<br /><br />Yes - but the point here is that they don't know, indeed deny, that it is a tooth!Bruce Charltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-6477484530226673812015-05-01T13:50:00.517+01:002015-05-01T13:50:00.517+01:00I don't think that life only has meaning in th...I don't think that life only has meaning in the big picture. What I do think is that changing scale can change how we see something. It can invite projecting onto the thing we see, and it can also invoke our curiosity to resolve what this unfamiliar form actual is. Care has to be taken to stay in the "I don't know" state to investigate honestly, rather than trying to simply apply a familiar template to scratch the itch of our curiosity with an answer.<br /><br />There are visual examples in changing scales in both directions that make the familiar unrecognizable. If we took your tooth example and looked at it from 1/1600x magnification then it looks pretty unfamiliar - and lacks the meaning we attach to it also. <br /><br />Not withstanding the above, if we know it is a tooth when we are looking at it, then our previous idea of what is part and parcel of being a tooth expands from looking at it this way. We can see the tooth in a new light, adding knowledge to our familiar and limited view - perhaps even creating a sense of wonder which was not realized from the familiar view.Nicholas Fulfordhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15779171820370486921noreply@blogger.com