On Medium: Is Self-Deception the Bedrock of All Knowledge?
Read on about how the inhuman cosmos negates childlike pretenses, exposing our treasured plain facts as a smorgasbord of distractions, vain conceits, and lies of omission.
''All values and ideals are lies. They’re signs that we mean to humanize the facts of the wilderness which are perfectly inhuman and indifferent to our preferences.''
From a universe perspective, I would call them illusions and not necessarily lies.
But from our own perspectives, it tends to express who we are or how we think.Either way, there are values or possibilities to build them on the basis of truths.
For example, the value of equality is not based on a lie, but on the truth that we are all equal in essence. This, by the way, even communicates with the very nature of the universe, which would, in itself, be an illusion of grandeur, if everything that exists will cease to exist.
The most absolute truth would therefore be the equality of essence and not the illusion of the dimensions of time.
I'm speaking more loosely in this new series of shorter, rant-like articles I'm writing. But I'd say the simplifications in question could count as lies of omission. It's a question of having a myopic, self-centered, vainglorious perspective.
Are you saying the universe is lying to itself by being a spatiotemporal multiplicity? Inanimate matter couldn't really be said to lie or to tell the truth. However, perhaps the universe is lying to itself through us. That's sort of a Hindu perspective, and the illusions of Maya--which I bring up in the article--would be nature's or Brahman's impish self-deceptions.
"Thus speaks the universe through me. The gloves are off, the mind is opened and self-slain, and out will pour catastrophic prose poetry to drown every profane trivialization of where we constantly stand".
Is the universe being humanized, as it has found a human mind and a human language in which to instantiate and express itself, or are you being dehumanized by delivering such a speech?
Thanks. This article is the beginning of a new series of shorter, unfiltered, rant-like, prose-poetic articles.
In my view, there's both humanization and dehumanization going on. The unreflective, egoistic strategy is the Faustian, Promethean, "Satanic" one of replacing the wilderness with an artificial refuge that reflects our mentality back at us. That's the "progressive" humanization of nature.
The enlightened strategy is perhaps a proto-transhuman one of seeing through the ego and the delusions that prop up mass culture, and of adopting a grim outlook that monstrifies us and reflects nature's alienness and inhumanity. The point is that prophets, philosophers, and artists can seem alien to mainstream society because they're influenced by the cosmic reality which is indifferent to our welfare and our interests.
What are the enlightened human interests, then, and where exactly do they come from? I've considered that question in several earlier writings, including my long dialogue with Sender Spike (the fourth link below). Mind you, I've hardly settled the matter.
''All values and ideals are lies. They’re signs that we mean to humanize the facts of the wilderness which are perfectly inhuman and indifferent to our preferences.''
ReplyDeleteFrom a universe perspective, I would call them illusions and not necessarily lies.
But from our own perspectives, it tends to express who we are or how we think.Either way, there are values or possibilities to build them on the basis of truths.
For example, the value of equality is not based on a lie, but on the truth that we are all equal in essence. This, by the way, even communicates with the very nature of the universe, which would, in itself, be an illusion of grandeur, if everything that exists will cease to exist.
The most absolute truth would therefore be the equality of essence and not the illusion of the dimensions of time.
I'm speaking more loosely in this new series of shorter, rant-like articles I'm writing. But I'd say the simplifications in question could count as lies of omission. It's a question of having a myopic, self-centered, vainglorious perspective.
DeleteAre you saying the universe is lying to itself by being a spatiotemporal multiplicity? Inanimate matter couldn't really be said to lie or to tell the truth. However, perhaps the universe is lying to itself through us. That's sort of a Hindu perspective, and the illusions of Maya--which I bring up in the article--would be nature's or Brahman's impish self-deceptions.
Universe is lying to itself by being an illusion of physical permanence.
DeleteGreat article! In the final paragraph you say:
ReplyDelete"Thus speaks the universe through me. The gloves are off, the mind is opened and self-slain, and out will pour catastrophic prose poetry to drown every profane trivialization of where we constantly stand".
Is the universe being humanized, as it has found a human mind and a human language in which to instantiate and express itself, or are you being dehumanized by delivering such a speech?
Food for thought.
Thanks. This article is the beginning of a new series of shorter, unfiltered, rant-like, prose-poetic articles.
DeleteIn my view, there's both humanization and dehumanization going on. The unreflective, egoistic strategy is the Faustian, Promethean, "Satanic" one of replacing the wilderness with an artificial refuge that reflects our mentality back at us. That's the "progressive" humanization of nature.
The enlightened strategy is perhaps a proto-transhuman one of seeing through the ego and the delusions that prop up mass culture, and of adopting a grim outlook that monstrifies us and reflects nature's alienness and inhumanity. The point is that prophets, philosophers, and artists can seem alien to mainstream society because they're influenced by the cosmic reality which is indifferent to our welfare and our interests.
What are the enlightened human interests, then, and where exactly do they come from? I've considered that question in several earlier writings, including my long dialogue with Sender Spike (the fourth link below). Mind you, I've hardly settled the matter.
https://medium.com/the-philosophers-stone/transhuman-epistemology-knowledge-in-the-greater-scheme-78d68bdc6704?sk=e47050735c56aeda7ec12647bbc090b3
https://medium.com/the-philosophers-stone/enlightenment-and-cosmic-horror-f5a071a1870c?sk=7875e2f70bc69c5f179f6eadf97c574b
https://medium.com/interfaith-now/the-dread-of-pantheistic-enlightenment-7c87c60e85bb?sk=158f8bc9a1463ac78475169ba7eb1454
https://medium.com/@benjamincain8/secular-versus-religious-enlightenment-4ab6a9d17b89?source=friends_link&sk=d857270ab185bfeb2b4fd13ce265287b