the four basic truths [for most of us]

Birth
School
Work
Death

Yes,

Yes…

Retirement too, depending on how much school preceded work.

Birth
Old age
Sickness
Death

…seems a little more universal, I think.

So truths are just what we experience in common?

Good point.

But I am always searching for those things that seem to transcend dasein. Things that few of us escape—for better or for worse.

Uh, depending on your point of view, of course.

Birth is the beginning of life. Death is the end of life. School is a prerequisite for (well-paying) work. Work (or rather its natural result, money) is a prerequisite for a living.

What is living a prerequisite for? What is the meaning of life?

well, the common cliche is “Death and taxes” – there’s some room for doubt about death.

Well, here there are any number of conflicting and contradictory “basic truths” competing.

I suppose that [someday] death may well be just an option.

But not anytime soon, I suspect.

I suppose I should finally ask you this - could you explain how you’re using the word dasein?

When I observe how people tend to use the word truth, it seems to represent the (wrong) presumptions that there is something absolutely unquestionable and its common to everybody, everywhere, without exception.

In other words, people who are interested in truth want (consciously or not) something absolutely sure, reliable, dependable, no matter what. And it’s probably reflecting our subconscious fear of uncertainty.

The irony is out thought is the mechanism based on the presmption that we can obtain certainty, but to have certainty means there needs to be the potential for uncertainty at the same time.

In short, without uncertainty, we can’t be certain.
But to be absolutely certain, there shouldn’t be any potential for uncertainty.
So, the desire of our mind for truth, the desire to be absolutely certain, is self defeating endeavor from the beginning.

Any truth is a limited and conditional one, not absolute, so as other representation of certainty such as knowledge, moral, reality, gods, rights, and so on.

If we realize the conditional and limited nature of any certainty (due to the relative nature of any thought, evaluation, and even awareness), we would loose interests in things like truth, moral, etc.

However, as we have multi-layered awareness/mind, some would realize this only in the surface layer of the mind and subconscious and emotional layer may continue to presume/imagine the absolute certainty. People like this would be tormented by the conflicting views/desires and they would suffer, till the realization sink down (or bubble up) to all layers, or till the realization is repressed by delusion (like a nihilist becoming religious after suffering a bit or more).

Personally, I think the straight path is to have the realization in all layers, as repressing the understanding is like a lie and it take (and waste) lots of energy and such lie tends to need lots of maintenance and protection/defending. Such repression makes the person fearful, not very open, and stressful, naturally.

And having the natural and logical certainty (although it’s a conditional certainty because of the nature of the thought/mind/awareness) can be satisfying enough for the desire/craving of our mind to be certain, once we prefer the straight thinking over the dependency on the false and over boosted sense of naive certainty (a. k. a. presumption, delusion, illusion, etc).

So, the truth that can be shared by any awareness with enough evaluation capability is the presumption of the truth and subsequent search/thinking for the truth is doomed to fail and it may create suffering/confusion/conflict unless the desire for the truth is satisfied/lost in all layers of the awareness.

As the awareness itself is based on the (false) sense of certainty that the awareness itself is persisting, seeking truth (and/or certainty) may shaken the foundation of awareness and cause the perceived reality of the awareness to be less solid/persistent.
It means the awareness is less tied (to the given, or all, perception/detection of “reality”) and fluid and free, but it also means everything would be less sure and anything can happen, which can be fun and interesting, as well as pretty scary if there is any remaining hint of desire for the (delusional) absolute certainty.

Nah,

Please read this article, which may help you sort out some of your confusions; a few of which I’ll highlight below…
Nah’s article about improving your thinking

You’ve named 3 different components of stock conceptions of what truth is, (which I’ve highlighted with different colors), all of which are often mutually inconsistent—and yet you mash them together as if they weren’t, and as if a thinking person wouldn’t realize it. Hence why I cite the article above. I think it has something to do with being clear and precise.

Sometimes, it’s possible to be certain about something, and uncertain about something else—which is totally unrelated. There is tons of potential for uncertaintly about whether my car will start—that doesn’t take away from my certainty that 2+2=4. Does it for you?

I cannot count that high. Besides, of the seven environmental acquisition systems of the human body, only 4 of them are form based, the remaining 3 are material based.

So, that makes 4 truths and 3 lies, which puts me 6 more than I am.

I can’t believe how egotistical you guys are! :wink: Honestly–how about truths from a woman’s pov:

Birth
School (maybe)
Having children
Work
Raising children
First system breakdown
Retirement
Seeing the process start again with grandchildren
Staying healthy because of your continued responsibilities (to self, husband, children, and grandchildren)
Death due to final breakdown of other systems.

and, of course, there are taxes! :smiley:

I tried for some time to get an answer to this. Glad to see I’m not the only one who wonders. :slight_smile:

Yeah, I know it’s Heidegger’s terminology and I could just look that up for myself, but I can’t be sure that iam means the same thing.

I think he does. What transcends dasein is then what transcends the individual’s freedom—what he cannot escape.

You are a hero.

Lol, I stand corrected.

Then why doesn’t he just say so and have done with it?

I think even Heidegger had problems with the word he’d coined, didn’t he? I think Fuse’s question is perfectly legitimate.