<P L E A S E read it all before responding :()>
Subjective Meaning
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The life of each of us has an innate cause and a subjective meaning.
The innate cause of our birth is that chain of events which started
about 9 months prior to it.
You may stretch the beginning of this chain further into the past just
as far as you wish, and yet it would always stay innate, atleast as long
as you don't have a time machine.
The subjective meaning is something you pick. You are the only one to
pick it, and you always have the freedom (=ability to choose) to pick
whatever meaning you like, no matter how harsh and how inquisitional is
your society.
Your choice is naturally effected by memes, and those are naturally
effected by Society, and yet the actual choice always remain in your
hands.
Note: If you pick serving a certain God (x) as your meaning, then
serving x is your subjective meaning.
Subjective Reality & Subjective Interpretation of Subjective Reality
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Everything you grok is reality. A chair (physical object) is reality, a
thought (mental object) is reality, a unicorn (imaginary object) is
reality. This goes even if you think unicorns exist and chairs are
imaginary. Each of us groks differently, i.e. groks a different reality,
therefore reality is subjective.
-- Two people (Choke and Chalk) are watching fish swimming in a river. Choke: The fish know it's windy. Chalk: How could you know what the fish know? Choke: How could you know what I know?-- I cannot grok what the fish grok. I cannot grok whether you grok what the fish grok. I cannot grok whether you grok the fish. We ASSUME we grok the same platform of reality. Upon this assumption we base language, culture, and (drums please) science. Objective reality\truth\facts\etc. cannot be proved. Either you play according to their rules or you don't. No golden path. No absolutely absolute truth upon which to base any absolutely true reality. If you grok that all horses have green wings, and I grok that all horses have blue wings, none of us bases his claim on a more 'true' claim than the other. We may agree upon somekind of an absolute truth between us, and then check the wings' color according to that convention of ours. If then comes another one who groks that all horses have brown wings, and we can't agree with him upon an absolute\common truth, it leaves none of us with an absolute\objective\true reality. We can always lock him up in an asylum anyway ;). This whole situation is rather theoretical, since it would be hard to understand each other's claim without an agreed truth, no matter in which level-# you claim to be. Pi is also part of subjective reality. The value of pi itself is subjective. Its equivalent numerical expression (3.14etc.) is already a subjective interpretation to subjective reality. 'Red hat' is a subjective interpretation to what you subjectively grok as part of reality. 'Sth. with the shape of a hat and a red color' is also a subjective interpretation of the same thing. Any descriprion, analysis or naming of what you grok is already an interpretation. It doesn't make it wrong or anything, after all interpretation is an inevitable part of our thinking. It's just that it isn't pure subjective reality anymore. It's already infected by memes. Plus it's already influenced by our subjective meaning.The Pyramid itself: ------------------ On the top you have your subjective meaning. On the bottom you have your subjective reality. Those two can exist without the pyramid. Everything else is functional - caused by whatever's below in order to cause whatever's above. -A- is your most important values, those who are crucial for the fulfillment of your subjective meaning. As -A- you can include all that without it your life has no purpose. Some would put here art, some liberty, some love, some Netscape. -B- is usually survival - staying alive. There ARE subjective meanings which don't require physical survival - mostly religious meanings. If you don't need your own survival for the fulfillment of your subjective meaning, you won't take actions for keeping yourself alive. By the end you'll probably die. In this case, your death wouldn't be a loss according to your perception. The fact that you won't be able to reproduce yourself would be irrelevant, as reproduction is neither your SM, nor your -A-, nor needed for the fulfillment of any of them. <Am I still clear?> -C- is all values which are needed for your survival. Social conventions, ethical rules, society, laws, police, army, economy, work - all those may fit as -C-, or lower, or not at all. Of course there's more than just -A-, -B- and -C-. There are innumerous stages\levels in the pyramid, all somehow based on your SR and somehow aimed to your SM. You may also treat concepts like 'society' or 'work' as -A- rather than -C-. The pyramid has no fixed height or width. Another thing which should be emphasized, is that the pyramid is NOT about 'transcending off the materialst world onto the idealist values'. The pyramid is about living normally with your foots well-placed on the solid ground of SR, and your actions well-aimed for a defined SM. Lior Chateau Conspiratorium
Coming up next: House of Subjective Religious Meaning and Subjective Reality...
Subjective Religious Meaning ^ -----------+------------ / -A- \ / -B- \ /____________-C-_____________\ | | | | | | | L I F E | | | | | | | |Interpretation of S. Reality| \ / \____Subjective_Reality____/
Holden Caulfield's: ___________???___________ / \ / \ /Interpretation of S. Reality \ \ / \___Subjective_ Reality_____/
ASCII and 3D pyramids don't go together...