Wonder
meaningness.com
Wonder
1–10 of 26 posts
Re: Wonder
#2I've always weary regarding this site because of all the specific technical terms the author seems to have created. But I see it posted a lot here.
Is "meaningness" as a philosophy worth checking out? Can anybody summarize it for me?
Re: Wonder
#3...
The sky would only wait
Till all my breath was gone
And then reiterate
As if I wasn't there
That singular command
I do not understand,
Bless what there is for being,
Which has to be obeyed, for
What else am I made for,
Agreeing or disagreeing?
Auden, "precious five"
Re: Wonder
#4I've always weary regarding this site because of all the specific technical terms the author seems to have created. But I see it posted a lot here. Is "meaningness" as a philosophy worth checking out? Can anybody summarize it for me?
Right now I’d classify it as both “a fairly good read” and “an earnest attempt at good old fashioned philosophy”.
It’s clearly trying to recapture a more positive philosophical mood as a bit of an antidote to the current trend of deconstruction. But whether it is a true and useful return to the pursuit of the “good life” or a naive attempt to cast aside the perils of grand narratives to return uselessly to a simpler time is, of course, a subjective opinion.
I’m rather sentimental myself and I believe a lot has been lost with today’s cynical postmodern-inspired philosophical trends, but I imagine those who think the work of deconstructing colonializing narratives that only soothe the already mostly comfortable is not yet complete are experiencing profound eye rolling whenever this stuff shows up on HN.
Re: Wonder
#5I've always weary regarding this site because of all the specific technical terms the author seems to have created. But I see it posted a lot here. Is "meaningness" as a philosophy worth checking out? Can anybody summarize it for me?
Right now I’d classify it as both “a fairly good read” and “an earnest attempt at good old fashioned philosophy”. It’s clearly trying to recapture a more positive philosophical mood as a bit of an antidote to the current trend of deconstruction. But whether it is a true and useful return to the pursuit of the “good life” or a naive attempt to cast aside the perils of grand narratives to return uselessly to a simpler…
I feel the same.
Do you know of anyone else doing anything similar in the space?
Re: Wonder
#6I've always weary regarding this site because of all the specific technical terms the author seems to have created. But I see it posted a lot here. Is "meaningness" as a philosophy worth checking out? Can anybody summarize it for me?
Don't a lot of philosophers invent new terms, tho?
They want to avoid all the baggage that old expressions accumulate over the centuries and start fresh.
Re: Wonder
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
Right now I’d classify it as both “a fairly good read” and “an earnest attempt at good old fashioned philosophy”. It’s clearly trying to recapture a more positive philosophical mood as a bit of an antidote to the current trend of deconstruction. But whether it is a true and useful return to the pursuit of the “good life” or a naive attempt to cast aside the perils of grand narratives to return uselessly to a simpler…
I feel the same. Do you know of anyone else doing anything similar in the space?
Some other folks who are adjacent to this effort, roughly:
You could also put folks like Jordan Peterson in this bucket, but IMO he seems more interested in resurrecting (pun intended) Christianity in modern form rather than exploring entirely new frames.
Re: Wonder
#8If you find this interesting, I would recommend checking out the book Objectivism by Leonard Piekoff. It takes a more systematic approach to come to similar conclusions.
Re: Wonder
#9I've always weary regarding this site because of all the specific technical terms the author seems to have created. But I see it posted a lot here. Is "meaningness" as a philosophy worth checking out? Can anybody summarize it for me?
Meaningness draws out the essence from Dzog Chen and Ati Yoga to point to the attributes which an enlightened tantric society would create in individuals.
Enlightenment brings aesthetic changes, "mountains and rivers without end", not only moral ones, and these new aesthetics answer many of the critical questions left by post-structuralism about the implosion of meaning in relativism: while reality may be relative, the beauty which emerges from the open, curious, aware mind of the tantric practitioner rebuilds meaning-ness as an aesthetic value.
(David Chapman thinks this is an acceptable description)
Re: Wonder
#10I've always weary regarding this site because of all the specific technical terms the author seems to have created. But I see it posted a lot here. Is "meaningness" as a philosophy worth checking out? Can anybody summarize it for me?
I bounced a bunch of times too for similar reasons.
Is it worth checking out? emphatic yes
Summarize? I will try, and probably not do a great job; I'm still digesting it.
The world is both "nebulous" [1] and patterned; observed patterns aren't really out there so much as a combination of "there" and in our mind. Some of these patterns are incredibly useful. One pattern is "the rational / modern world view", which lets science work. It is very good, but not complete.
Post-modernism noticed that no pattern is a perfect fit on the partially-nebulous world, and went nowhere with that, and ended up in a nihilistic, bad place. That isn't good.
The goal is to see patterns as useful, conventional truths, not ultimate truths. Then you can pick the right pattern / conceptual framework with which to approach a given situation.