Stathis Papaioannou wrote:
>
>
> Tom Caylor writes (quoting Bruno Marchal):
>
> [TC]
>> > > My whole argument is that without it our hope eventually runs out and
>> > > we are left with despair, unless we lie to ourselves against the
>> > > absence of hope.
>
> [BM]
>> > Here Stathis already give a genuine comment. You are just admitting
>> > your argument is "wishful thinking".
>
> [TC]
>> I was being too poetic ;) By "despair" I meant nihilism, the belief
>> that there ultimately is no meaning. I am arguing that the ultimate
>> source of meaning has to be personal. I'm just saything that my
>> argument is of the form, "If meaning is not ultimately based on the
>> personal God, then there is no true meaning, because..."
>
> I realised when I was about 12 or 13 years old that there could not be
> any ultimate meaning. I was very pleased and excited with this
> discovery, and ran around trying to explain it to people (mostly drawing
> blank looks, as I remember). It seemed to me just another interesting
> fact about the world, like scientific and historical facts. It inspired
> me to start reading philosophy, looking up words like "nihilism" in the
> local library. It also encouraged me to question rules, laws and moral
> edicts handed down with no justification other than tradition or
> authority, where these were in conflict with my own developing value
> system. Overall, I think the realisation that there was no ultimate
> meaning was one of the more positive experiences in my life. But even if
> it hadn't been, and threw me into a deep depression, does that have any
> bearing on whether or not it is true?
Right! Until you realize there is no ultimate or absolute values you worry that your values might be in conflict with those absolute values. I was nineteen when I realized it - I was old enough to realize that most other people were not going be pleased to hear about my discovery. :-)
Brent Meeker
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Received on Fri Dec 29 2006 - 16:07:18 PST