Moderator: Only_Humean


Life is the journey, not the destination.In other words, remind yourself of the passionaite quest Carl Sagan brought to cosmogony. And then try to imagine him on his death bed. He was an atheist and he presumed that death would thrust him forevermore into oblivion. He wanted so badly to to understand these things. And he knew he never, ever would.
Ann Druyan talking about her husband, Carl SaganCarl faced his death with unflagging courage & never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief & precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive & we were together was miraculous — not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… That pure chance could be so generous & so kind… That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space & the immensity of time… That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me & it’s much more meaningful…
The way he treated me & the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other & our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.
ZenKitty wrote:If you accept that all empirical statements are contingent, and science is based on empirical statements, then science is contingent. But contingent matters don't say why things are the way they are. That's just the way that they work. But that doesn't really tell you much. In other words, it's just brute facts all around. You support one brute fact with another brute fact, and find it's brute facts all the way down!
Carl faced his death with unflagging courage & never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief & precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive & we were together was miraculous — not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… That pure chance could be so generous & so kind… That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space & the immensity of time… That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me & it’s much more meaningful…
iambiguous wrote:ZenKitty wrote:If you accept that all empirical statements are contingent, and science is based on empirical statements, then science is contingent. But contingent matters don't say why things are the way they are. That's just the way that they work. But that doesn't really tell you much. In other words, it's just brute facts all around. You support one brute fact with another brute fact, and find it's brute facts all the way down!
All science -- it would seem -- is contingent upon whatever it is that can be grasped about existence ontologically and teleologically.
But what does that mean? Don't we invent words like this because we don't know?
We don't even know if the "mind of man" -- scientist or not -- is able to grasp this. Surely, that is what Hume was hinting at.
For some, it is infuriating they will go to the grave forever ignorant of why the hell they were even here in the first place. For others, it couldn't possibly be less important.
For example, those who struggle -- and barely succeed -- in subsisting from day to day to day. They invent Gods for that.


ZenKitty wrote:Is there an actual point here, because you've just seemed to jump around here with quantum metaphysics. And what I love about your last sentence is that if you really do accept the contingent thesis, then you haven't really shown much that there is a deity or not, which just means that you've invented another excuse to subsist from day to day to day.
iambiguous wrote:What are we to make of this? Does it mean that on a microscopic level the universe operates in ways so obscure and unfamiliar that the human mind, evolved over eons to cope with phenomona on familiar everyday scales, is unable to fully grasp 'what really goes on'?"
This isn't rational. Some things will always be beyond a person's ability. It's on the same level as looking up at a bus and being upset that you can't jump on top of it. Pessimistic and self-destructive thinking.Life is for living it of course. But some have the wherewithal to go way beyond that. But it brings them grief when they find out they can't go anywhere near as far as they want to.
They are born with the capacity to ask questions they can't answer. And the brutality of that particular facticity just drives them up the fucking wall.
lizbethrose wrote:Iam, you seem again to be asking yourself questions to which you have no answers. Other people may have their answers, but you need your own answers..
iambiguous wrote:From Brian Green's, The Elegant Universe:
In 1965 Richard Feynman, one of the greatest practitioners of quantum mechanics, wrote:
'There was a time when the newspapers said that only 12 men understood the theory of relativity. I do not believe there was ever such a time. There might have been a time when only one man did because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper. But after people read the paper a lot of people understood the theory of relativity in one way or the other....On the other hand, I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.'
Although Feynman expressed this view more than 3 decades ago, it applies equally well today....Quantum mechanics is different....In a real sense those who use quantum mechanics [today] find themselves following rules and formulas laid down by the 'founding fathers' of the theory....without really understanding WHY the procedures work or WHAT they really mean.
What are we to make of this? Does it mean that on a microscopic level the universe operates in ways so obscure and unfamiliar that the human mind, evolved over eons to cope with phenomona on familiar everyday scales, is unable to fully grasp 'what really goes on'? Or might it be that through historical accident physicists have constructed an extremely awkward formulation of quantum mechanics that, although quantitatively sucessful, obfustcates the true nature of reality? No one knows. Maybe some time in the future some clever person will see clear to a new formulation that will fully reveal the 'whys' and the 'whats' of quantum mechanics. And then again, maybe not. The only thing we know with certainty is that quamtum mechanics absolutely and unequivocally shows us that a number of basic concepts essential to our understanding of the familiar everyday world FAIL TO HAVE ANY MEANING when our focus narrows down to the microscopic realm. As a result, we must significantly modify both our language and our reasoning when attemting to understand and explain the universe on atomic and subatomic scales.
So, I'm guessing this has something to do with philosophy. Or something to do with the world we live in?
Also, exploring the quantum world seems less mysterious to me than attempts to understand how and why time and space itself came into existence. After all, it is within these astrophysical parameters that quantum interactions take place. And why one set of laws and not another?
When one thinks of existence in terms of infinite time and space the mind is boggled. But no more so than trying grasp how time and space came into existence in the first place.
And the odds I suspect are overwhelming that we will all be long dead and gone before it is found out.
In other words, remind yourself of the passionaite quest Carl Sagan brought to cosmogony. And then try to imagine him on his death bed. He was an atheist and he presumed that death would thrust him forevermore into oblivion. He wanted so badly to to understand these things. And he knew he never, ever would.
And yet, if atheists and agnostics need a hope to cling to as they stare down into the abyss, they really only need to grasp just how unimaginably enigmatic and inscrutable and surreal existence almost certainly is.
Who the hell really knows what happens to us after we die?
And it will stun me if the man or the woman who finally does find out is a professional philosopher.

Dan~ wrote:iambiguous wrote:From Brian Green's, The Elegant Universe:
In 1965 Richard Feynman, one of the greatest practitioners of quantum mechanics, wrote:
'There was a time when the newspapers said that only 12 men understood the theory of relativity. I do not believe there was ever such a time. There might have been a time when only one man did because he was the only guy who caught on, before he wrote his paper. But after people read the paper a lot of people understood the theory of relativity in one way or the other....On the other hand, I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.'
Although Feynman expressed this view more than 3 decades ago, it applies equally well today....Quantum mechanics is different....In a real sense those who use quantum mechanics [today] find themselves following rules and formulas laid down by the 'founding fathers' of the theory....without really understanding WHY the procedures work or WHAT they really mean.
What are we to make of this? Does it mean that on a microscopic level the universe operates in ways so obscure and unfamiliar that the human mind, evolved over eons to cope with phenomona on familiar everyday scales, is unable to fully grasp 'what really goes on'? Or might it be that through historical accident physicists have constructed an extremely awkward formulation of quantum mechanics that, although quantitatively sucessful, obfustcates the true nature of reality? No one knows. Maybe some time in the future some clever person will see clear to a new formulation that will fully reveal the 'whys' and the 'whats' of quantum mechanics. And then again, maybe not. The only thing we know with certainty is that quamtum mechanics absolutely and unequivocally shows us that a number of basic concepts essential to our understanding of the familiar everyday world FAIL TO HAVE ANY MEANING when our focus narrows down to the microscopic realm. As a result, we must significantly modify both our language and our reasoning when attemting to understand and explain the universe on atomic and subatomic scales.
So, I'm guessing this has something to do with philosophy. Or something to do with the world we live in?
Also, exploring the quantum world seems less mysterious to me than attempts to understand how and why time and space itself came into existence. After all, it is within these astrophysical parameters that quantum interactions take place. And why one set of laws and not another?
When one thinks of existence in terms of infinite time and space the mind is boggled. But no more so than trying grasp how time and space came into existence in the first place.
And the odds I suspect are overwhelming that we will all be long dead and gone before it is found out.
In other words, remind yourself of the passionaite quest Carl Sagan brought to cosmogony. And then try to imagine him on his death bed. He was an atheist and he presumed that death would thrust him forevermore into oblivion. He wanted so badly to to understand these things. And he knew he never, ever would.
And yet, if atheists and agnostics need a hope to cling to as they stare down into the abyss, they really only need to grasp just how unimaginably enigmatic and inscrutable and surreal existence almost certainly is.
Who the hell really knows what happens to us after we die?
And it will stun me if the man or the woman who finally does find out is a professional philosopher.
The smaller a particle gets, the more flexible and reactive it becomes.
Very very small particles are more easily effected than large clumps, since they reach a point of having less or no mass.
A small enough particle can skip over the laws of physics at least partially because it is so small and its properties are different than the larger clumps.
This principal explains why tachyons can move passed the speed of light, and yet most things can't move that fast.
All physical laws and principals, aswel as dimensions, are based in force and space.
Without force, there is now law. The quantum level is near the level without force, the level where there is now law.
Tachyons are a theoretical particle. Most physicists think tachyons don't exist. There is no experimental evidence for tachyons.This principal explains why tachyons can move passed the speed of light, and yet most things can't move that fast.
Calrid wrote:As Bohr opined we may just not yet have the language to explain existence.
phyllo wrote:This isn't rational. Some things will always be beyond a person's ability. It's on the same level as looking up at a bus and being upset that you can't jump on top of it. Pessimistic and self-destructive thinking.Life is for living it of course. But some have the wherewithal to go way beyond that. But it brings them grief when they find out they can't go anywhere near as far as they want to.
They are born with the capacity to ask questions they can't answer. And the brutality of that particular facticity just drives them up the fucking wall.
lizbethrose wrote:Iam, you seem again to be asking yourself questions to which you have no answers. Other people may have their answers, but you need your own answers. The thing is, to me, no one can arrive at their own answers to the questions life gives you, until you're able to take bits and pieces of other answers, chew on them, digest them, internalize them, and then spit out that with which you don't agree. That should give you a basis for your answers to yourself.
Probably true.I suspect you don't really grasp the point I am trying to make here.
I can think of cases where these two things may be reasonable.Sometimes it is reasonable to be pessimistic. And sometimes it seems reasonable to be self-destructive. When you go down deep enough here it's always rooted in dasein.
Being driven 'up the fucking wall' is what I don't get. It sounds like a little kid having a tantrum and not a mature intelligent adult. Maybe it's a moment of frustration. I don't see how it can be viewed as reasonable if it persists.This is the sort of stuff you speculate about from a first person subjunctive point of view. Now, if you see these "questions without answers" as the equivalent of getting upset when you can't jump up on top of a bus, well, that truly baffles me.
iambiguous wrote:Calrid wrote:As Bohr opined we may just not yet have the language to explain existence.
And if we ever do I can't help but wonder if it will or will not accommodate human autonomy. If we can know everything are we still free to change it?
Pezer wrote:lizbethrose wrote:Iam, you seem again to be asking yourself questions to which you have no answers. Other people may have their answers, but you need your own answers..
I strongly disagree.
lizbethrose wrote:Pezer wrote:lizbethrose wrote:Iam, you seem again to be asking yourself questions to which you have no answers. Other people may have their answers, but you need your own answers..
I strongly disagree.
So! Shall we meet at dawn? Do you have your second? Have you cleaned and oiled your dueling pistol?How about noon and swords?
My apologies to iam if I've in any way offended. I really meant it as a compliment--I think everyone needs to find their own answers, don't you?
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