Tags
Cultural transmission, Evolution, God, Mathematics as discovery, Mathematics as invention, Nietzsche, Platonic Ideas, Radical contingency, Science, Self-consciousness, The 'ethical' nature of Nature
Norm’s note: Take a break. Indulge! Enjoy! Because to ‘wonder‘ is also to be human . . .
BTW and only because I’m biased in the direction of Stephen Jay Gould’s mindset, see this treasure trove: The Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive
The beginning of the discussion reminds me of an incident more than 30 years ago. One morning my son – being aged less than 8 years – greeted me with the question: “Daddy, what I ALWAYS wanted to ask you: why am I ME?”. I was in a hurry but being back from work I told him that that would be one of the deepest question of Philosophy and for the Moment it would be too difficult to answer. But it inspired me a lot. My son and me have talked about that many times since those days. It lead me to very abstract ideas about which I might write something pretty soon. Great Video!
Regards
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Yes, the questioning attitude, the puzzlement, the wonder at the “fact” and “facts” of existence begins with us all in childhood, doesn’t it?
That questioning attitude, that instance of knowing that one “does not know,” that one “exists” in midst of a “mystery” and “mysteries,” is in my opinion the height of “awareness,” of “self-consciousness” and “consciousness” of “Being.”
In itself, I find that we are able to rise to such a moment of cognition incredible, let alone that we arise to it even as children.
Life. Being alive. The “fact” of the universe, of the eternal present and infinite expanse of the universe. Knowing that there is an “all,” the concrete reality of which we are truly able to disclose to ourselves through the devices of “abstract” intellectual apprehension that permit us to step back, so to speak, in reflection from our practical and sensuous engagement in and with the “world,” and then to be able again to step back from “that” to apprehend it, too — where else but in a state of amazement can one be left?
In the end, existence is mystery. And that is a gift. I’m not intimating a sort of religious mysticism although I’m certain that for many, this is what mysticism “feels like.” I’m just saying that just being alive — in those moments when we are unencumbered by the business of having to struggle to live, when one is momentarily released from “having to care” in any way whatsoever — just being alive can and should open the ends of one’s nerves. In this respect, at least, despite all of what is truly horrible, life has that one wholly redeemable quality, that I can truly find myself now and again standing at the edge of all things, enraptured by the mystery of it all.
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You really hit the point. I myself wouldn´t have the energy to wage my political fight against the exploiters and warmongers without being “balanced” by Science and Philosopy, by Arts and Music!
Cordial regards
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