tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post3644200421188825290..comments2020-01-16T14:24:54.513+03:00Comments on Youthful Follies: Virtual Realityvacuus viatorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07511253135488142808noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-31610482979516053182010-11-01T22:53:40.478+02:002010-11-01T22:53:40.478+02:00Ruth, I am glad you like the background. As for m...Ruth, I am glad you like the background. As for me, I think I am still fundamentally the same as I ever was. The only thing that has changed is my access to information: today (by dint of experience in the school of hard knocks) I know more about problems with Mormonism specifically and religious fundamentalism generally than I did ten years ago. Ten years ago, I was largely uninformed about the history of Joseph Smith, the nature of homosexuality, or the nature of my own morality (including my sexuality, which I was very scared of). My life had some great moments back then, and some really bad moments.<br /><br />The process of investigating the bad moments led me to new information, which eventually resulted in a re-orientation of my outlook on life. Now I am much less afraid of some things (sexuality for instance) even as I am obliged to confront some new fears (like the fear of taking anyone in a business suit seriously). I don't repudiate who I was entirely: I see that I am still the same person, even as I realize that I was never as much defined by statements of belief as I used to think I was. I have traded my old bad moments for some new ones (worrying about paying the bills instead of having wet dreams) and have learned not to expect people to give me more than they are humanly capable of (no one can tell everyone how to escape from every problem out there; ten years ago, I was asking "prophets" for information about life that they did not, and could not, have).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-43549645569783826932010-10-30T19:07:13.396+03:002010-10-30T19:07:13.396+03:00Not that I don't like the young Joseph. My bad...Not that I don't like the young Joseph. My bad. Must have been me in the future typing that last one. Hopefully all the Josephs will forgive me.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08694256607801129290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-39993617910070207162010-10-30T18:56:07.441+03:002010-10-30T18:56:07.441+03:00I like the new background. And the old Joseph.I like the new background. And the old Joseph.Ruthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08694256607801129290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-40607969126312508782010-10-24T23:54:03.772+03:002010-10-24T23:54:03.772+03:00You (and Wittgenstein) are probably right about th...You (and Wittgenstein) are probably right about the silence, Sean. But I like crazy talk. Hence this blog, where I talk myself out of illusions (like the illusion of absolute knowledge).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-64886556060143665082010-10-24T07:16:33.990+03:002010-10-24T07:16:33.990+03:00What is an "absolute" knowledge? A tric...What is an "absolute" knowledge? A trick question, since if it doesn't exist one cannot know what it is. But, pain, surely, is as close to an absolute as we can get...what I mean is, when one is strapped to a rickety table, somewhere just barely south of the border, and when some scruffy drug-runner is sawing one's arm off so as to satisfy god knows what vendetta and/or hatred of tourists--well, in this case surely we can claim a kind of absolute, namely that any otherwise healthy human will come to know intolerable pain at this point. In any case, aren't these all word games, Joseph? It seems to me that most of these matters can easily be talked of but should probably, if with difficulty, be passed over in silence (I'm following, slavishly, Wittgenstein on this), at least in the end, anyway. We can debate and argue and wonder about knowledge, but the death-cold bite of that saw speaks a truth we will all instantly recognize.sean.northruphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01532351862618614709noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-1428185901439916642010-10-17T02:11:50.627+03:002010-10-17T02:11:50.627+03:00Kirsti, I think your metaphor is fine. What I am ...Kirsti, I think your metaphor is fine. What I am arguing for (practically) is a change in what it means to "know" -- from my perspective, there is no absolute knowledge (for human beings, anyway).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3486390395644579022.post-91628625624691687252010-10-16T20:42:56.840+03:002010-10-16T20:42:56.840+03:00The metaphor that comes to my mind by way of under...The metaphor that comes to my mind by way of understanding the above-described concept is one of religion & its relation to God. God (whatever a person perceives him/her/it/them to be) would be the "real world," and religion would be the ideology or meme-complex held by a person or group as a means of understanding the world (God). No religious doctrine is quite the same as another in its understanding, and none can really be totally right or complete.<br /><br />...Am I on the right track, or is my metaphor waaaay off? At any rate, I admit I have never thought about how something as mundane as the world I inhabit (or, at least, the small corner of it) could still be "unknowable": at least, I haven't ever thought about it quite this way. I find it fascinating, and shall have to roll it around in my head for a few days.Kirstihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11041588006785004212noreply@blogger.com