When I started the project "Why am I here?" I was not really aware of how much the question affected me personally. Some things have become clear after more than ten years of PHILOSOPHY CLASS.
Today I want to discuss my own answer to this question. We have already seen a few answers: leaving behind poetry collections, transferring knowledge and skills to others, and helping others.
But from a philosophical perspective, I am concerned with something that transcends these answers. The meaning of my life is the pursuit of understanding and explaining reality.
That may sound very high-flown and presumptuous, but I don't think it is. I started studying philosophy as a young person, and it was not without reason.
Last Thursday's lecture on Truth in particular made me think. So you have statements to which you can assign a truth value and statements that are at least as important, to which you cannot assign a truth value.
The first type is descriptive statements. Statements that describe a state of affairs in reality, for example, "There are differences in incomes".
The second type is normative statements. These are statements that are based on a norm, for example, "There should be only minor differences in incomes".
Descriptive statements are easy to understand. Normally they are based on sensory perception and you can check them. Science is based on this.
But now comes the point: "Science should be based on verifiable statements". Here, nothing is described, but here, a norm is set.
And we actually find that norm even more important than science itself. First comes the norm and then comes science. That, in my opinion, is the world as I understand it.
We live in a universe of norms, from which we describe our world, and in that universe, truth does not play the primary role, but our willingness to accept a certain norm or not.
That would therefore lead to the conclusion that there is not one unambiguous reality, but as many realities as there are people with their own set of norms.
But that is not entirely true, because whatever standards you adhere to, that is to say, your ideas about what should or must happen, a phenomenon like gravity is simply there, standards or no standards. So you just have to take that into account.
Normativeness therefore seems to precede the description of the reality, of science. And perhaps we see here an age-old behavior of homo sapiens: his habit of starting with what we call a religion,
to determine his standards from there and to describe his reality on that basis. remarkably within hard limits, which the world we perceive sets.
A person cannot fly without aids. Antibiotics kill viruses. Fish live in water. Hard facts, but the first question is, what do we do with those facts?
The answer to that question is called ethics and when we start talking about it, a witches' cauldron of discussion breaks loose, then Pandora's box opens.
that perhaps brings us to the ultimate standard: we must provide arguments for our standards. That leads to debate and the only standard we have left is logic.
Thank you for your attention again.....
Main Sources:
MacMillan The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2nd edition
TABLE OF CONTENT -----------------------------------------------------------------
1 - 100 Philosophers 9 May 2009 Start of
2 - 25+ Women Philosophers 10 May 2009 this blog
3 - 25 Adventures in Thinking 10 May 2009
4 - Modern Theories of Ethics 29 Oct 2009
5 - The Ideal State 24 Febr 2010 / 234
6 - The Mystery of the Brain 3 Sept 2010 / 266
7 - The Utopia of the Free Market 16 Febr 2012 / 383
8. - The Aftermath of Neo-liberalism 5 Sept 2012 / 413
9. - The Art Not to Be an Egoist 6 Nov 2012 / 426
10 - Non-Western Philosophy 29 May 2013 / 477
11 - Why Science is Right 2 Sept 2014 / 534
12 - A Philosopher looks at Atheism 1 Jan 2015 / 557
13 - EVIL, a philosophical investigation 17 Apr 2015 / 580
14 - Existentialism and Free Will 2 Sept 2015 / 586
15 - Spinoza 2 Sept 2016 / 615
16 - The Meaning of Life 13 Febr 2017 / 637
17 - In Search of my Self 6 Sept 2017 / 670
18 - The 20th Century Revisited 3 Apr 2018 / 706
19 - The Pessimist 11 Jan 2020 / 819
20 - The Optimist 9 Febr 2020 / 824
21 - Awakening from a Neoliberal Dream 8 Oct 2020 / 872
22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
23 - The Concept of Freedom 8 Jan 2022 / 965
24 - Materialism 7 Sept 2022 / 1011
25 - Historical Materialism 5 Oct 2023 / 1088
26 - The Bonobo and the Atheist 9 Jan 2024 / 1102
27 - Artificial Intelligence 9 Feb 2024 / 1108
28 - Why Am I Here 6 Sept 2024 / 1139
The Discussion
[13:20] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:20] herman Bergson: Still with me?
[13:20] Max Chatnoir: Yes, and thank you!
[13:20] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i think so, at least i didnt crash and loose this event also
[13:20] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): and was interesting
[13:20] Max Chatnoir: I'm happy for that, Bejiita!
[13:21] herman Bergson: So yje basic question could be: Where do our norms come from?
[13:21] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm
[13:21] Max Chatnoir: Observation and pattern-seeking?
[13:21] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): only from religion?
[13:21] herman Bergson: Gppd one Max
[13:21] herman Bergson: Good
[13:21] Max Chatnoir: I'm wondering about economics. It's so dependent on human behavior.
[13:22] herman Bergson: Especially this idea of pattern-seeking
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that sounds indeed very likely
[13:22] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that this could be a source
[13:22] herman Bergson: Formerly economics was a part of psychology in the universitarian curriculum
[13:22] Max Chatnoir: We like to have predictability, so we look for regularities.
[13:23] herman Bergson: And for a huge part it still is psychology
[13:23] herman Bergson: Yes but not at the stock market :-)
[13:24] herman Bergson: But pattern-seeking and predictability are brother and sister in science
[13:24] herman Bergson: I did a whole project on pattern-seeking
[13:24] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): yes
[13:25] Max Chatnoir: When was that, Herman?
[13:25] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): the one before the AI one
[13:26] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i think
[13:26] herman Bergson: 22 - A World Full of Patterns 1 Apr 2021 / 912
[13:26] herman Bergson: starts with lecture 912 in the blog
[13:26] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): was it that far back? i remember it as quite recently
[13:26] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): was a good one
[13:26] herman Bergson: yeah...funny, isn't it....
[13:27] herman Bergson: three years already
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): sure the projects are quite long but
[13:27] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): or i just recall my absolute favs easier
[13:28] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): what have patterns to do with the meaning of life?
[13:28] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): I'm a pattern seeker if anything
[13:28] herman Bergson: When looking for an answer to the question Where do our norms come from, I also love to look at biology and ethology
[13:28] Max Chatnoir: I'm wondering about the current argument over economics. The "elders" of economics seem to think that Harris is a better bet than Trump. But it's so dependent on population's responses....
[13:29] herman Bergson: Patterns and meaning of life...
[13:29] herman Bergson: The drive to understand reality is the relation Beertje...
[13:30] herman Bergson: science is the ultimate pattern-seeking process
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i used to say i like patterns cause i write code a lot and such things but there is more to it i think, we all are pattern-seeking in one way or another
[13:30] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): its one of our main traits
[13:30] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): my reality is not nessesary the reality of others
[13:30] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): Norms develop from our repeated interactions with each other, so that goes back to the idea of patterns developing.
[13:31] herman Bergson: There we call patterns tradition or habits, Sooki
[13:31] herman Bergson: No Beertje, bot for 100%
[13:32] herman Bergson: not
[13:32] herman Bergson: but to some extent, it has to be otherwise we would not understand each other at all anymore
[13:33] herman Bergson: What I am thinking of is, that in a way there is some common ground for all of us, and apart from that there is our own mind
[13:33] Max Chatnoir: My computer is making funny noises, so if I suddenly disappear, that's why.
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ur machine cursed too?
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hmm ok
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): hope nothing happens
[13:34] Max Chatnoir: I think it's the fan.
[13:34] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): bad bearings?
[13:34] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): Yes, to some extent we all share the same basic reality....we are all human beings, we all live on the earth, we all seek to survive....etc.
[13:34] herman Bergson: only harddisk and fans are the mechinicl parts
[13:35] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): but most comps use SSD nowadays
[13:35] Max Chatnoir: SSD?
[13:36] herman Bergson: Yes Sooki, and it is interesting to think about WHAT is that common ground, because our mental worlds are so diverse...take all those religions for instance
[13:36] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i use a combo as i don't trust SSD completely, they are reliable reading but each time u write to it u wear the memory cells down so u have a finite amount of writes to an SSD
[13:37] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): Physical reality, I guess, is the common ground we all share as human beings.
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that's true i say
[13:37] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): 100 %
[13:37] Max Chatnoir: I just voted this morning, so I'll be interested in seeing how many other voters share my view of things!
[13:38] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): oki
[13:38] herman Bergson: But what about people that believe in auras or telepathy or even ghosts or the epiphany of Maria in a cave?
[13:38] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): btw..Bergie has still visitors
[13:38] herman Bergson: Where begins and where ends physical reality
[13:39] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): good question Herman
[13:39] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): I would consider those things metaphysical, beyond the physical. But I'm not sure if all would agree.
[13:39] herman Bergson: Does a god belong to someone's physical reality....
[13:40] herman Bergson: That's the point....
[13:40] herman Bergson: Because...when you say...it must be emirically verifiable, you formulate a norn....not a fact...
[13:41] herman Bergson: and then they say...why the primacy of sensory experience?
[13:41] herman Bergson: and there we go :-))
[13:42] herman Bergson: there still are philosophers that claim that the only reality is the mind
[13:43] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): By that do they mean that your reality is what you perceive it to be?
[13:43] Max Chatnoir: And what does that mean in terms of physical reality?
[13:44] herman Bergson: 1685 -1753....Berkley already. He held that ordinary objects are only collections of ideas, which are mind-dependent. Berkeley was an immaterialist.
[13:44] Max Chatnoir: But if somebody comes into my house, I bet they can see the piano even if I don't tell them it's there.
[13:45] Max Chatnoir: There is a lot of agreement about physical objects.
[13:45] herman Bergson: The basic reason is....everything you say you KNOW is actually only what happens in your mind caused by sensory experiences
[13:45] Max Chatnoir: Yes, knowledge is tricky.
[13:46] herman Bergson: I agree...the philosophical position of Berkley is difficult to hold
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): sensory or not, u cant walk through a piano even if u don't see it so it still exists with or without senses
[13:46] herman Bergson: But even today we have soe Dutch philosopher that holds such an immaterialist position
[13:46] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): that's where it gets tricky
[13:48] Max Chatnoir: Well, I once banged into the outdoor door at a friend's house because the glass was so clean, I couldn't see it, but it sure bounced me off when I tried to walk through it.
[13:48] herman Bergson: Funny thing is..I live in my own philosophical bubble so I HAVE SPEND LITTLE To no attention to this immaterialism :-)
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): indeed Max, happened to me also
[13:48] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): or if the person going to your house is blind, he don't see the piano but will still bump into it if he approaches it
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): it is still there
[13:49] herman Bergson: That must be a weird experience Max :-)
[13:49] Max Chatnoir: So it has some kind of independent reality.
[13:49] Max Chatnoir: And yes, it was a weird experience!
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i say i guess so
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): as said, now is where it gets tricky
[13:49] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:50] herman Bergson: Well, I guess enough philosophical doors are opened today :-)
[13:50] Max Chatnoir: ;-)
[13:50] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): ㋡
[13:50] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i guess so
[13:51] herman Bergson: So, time to relax....
[13:51] herman Bergson: Thank you all again...
[13:51] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): i lost half an event but gained another is my conclusion
[13:51] herman Bergson: Class dismissed ...
[13:51] Particle Physicist Bejiita (bejiita.imako): so feels happier again
[13:51] .: Beertje :. (beertje.beaumont): Thank you Herman
[13:51] Sookie Hart (sookicatalina): Very thought-provoking
[13:51] Max Chatnoir: Thanks again, Herman!
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