Rewriting reality …
Estudia: I’m back Phi. Where were we?
Philo: We were talking about the error of not differentiating properly between the man-made and metaphysically given facts. You said that you wanted to embrace socialism because it a given fact and I said you were evading reality if you did that. Socialism is a man-made fact so you would be unrealistic in not rejecting a bad idea, and you would just be sanctioning the status quo which in this case in creeping socialism in our country.
Estudia: That’s good to know because I hope to fight bad ideas when I learn enough about good ideas like you have been teaching me. I see my error, but don’t people make the same error when they refuse to accept the metaphysically given facts like death or our inability to know everything?
Philo: Well, it’s another kind of error. You should accept the metaphysically given as absolute. That’s the correct attitude. What you are thinking of is the case where someone doesn’t like something like death and so they evade it or worse say it makes there life meaningless. That is called “rewriting reality” by Ayn Rand. Someone who does this is simply not regarding the facts. The metaphysically given is absolute and they are imagining an alternative.
Estudia: Give me some examples. I think I understand. If something is it is and you’d better get over it. Lots of people don’t like the fact that we die so they invent and claim to believe in heaven or reincarnation. I think that would be an example, no?
Philo: Right! Some go so far as to say that because we die then life is meaningless. We are mortal and to be alive means we are necessarily going to die eventually. All living organisms suffer from mutations, limiting cell-division processes, free radical damage, etc. and that limits our survival. We can’t rebel against this fact of reality, but we can value our lives and search for meaning, and find it too so that we will enjoy our existence. Another example this rewriting of reality can be found in philosophy. Lots of philosophers are skeptics who don’t think the senses are a valid source of data for learning about reality. They would prefer that we gain knowledge from a higher power like our feelings or from a God.
Estudia: What do you say to them?
Philo: I tell them that knowledge depends on sensory data and that is all I can tell them. It is a fact that is necessarily so and hence absolute and no alternative can be imagined except as a fictional endeavor like a good science fiction novel. By our nature, we use our senses to gain knowledge of reality and that is a metaphysical fact that applies to us and all the processes that are involved in using our senses.
Estudia: So I have to conform to the universe and not hope and pray I can get some higher power to change it so it would be, quote, better, unquote.
Philo: Exactly, absolutely correctomenti. You are very bright. Someone who doesn’t accept the absolutism of the metaphysically given has a different attitude. They don’t expect to conform to the universe; they expect existence to obey their desires. A person like this has a serious conflict with reality and will see this as a problem in human life. Lots of thinkers have and still do have a problem distinguishing between the metaphysically given and the man-made. I think even our present day physicists are way off base here. Never could quite get their explanations so I finally gave up with all that imaginary, ghost particle, and uncertainty stuff. Next time I’ll give you a little history and explain one of the biggest dichotomies around.
Estudia: Terrific, I can hardly wait. See ya, Phi.
Philo: We were talking about the error of not differentiating properly between the man-made and metaphysically given facts. You said that you wanted to embrace socialism because it a given fact and I said you were evading reality if you did that. Socialism is a man-made fact so you would be unrealistic in not rejecting a bad idea, and you would just be sanctioning the status quo which in this case in creeping socialism in our country.
Estudia: That’s good to know because I hope to fight bad ideas when I learn enough about good ideas like you have been teaching me. I see my error, but don’t people make the same error when they refuse to accept the metaphysically given facts like death or our inability to know everything?
Philo: Well, it’s another kind of error. You should accept the metaphysically given as absolute. That’s the correct attitude. What you are thinking of is the case where someone doesn’t like something like death and so they evade it or worse say it makes there life meaningless. That is called “rewriting reality” by Ayn Rand. Someone who does this is simply not regarding the facts. The metaphysically given is absolute and they are imagining an alternative.
Estudia: Give me some examples. I think I understand. If something is it is and you’d better get over it. Lots of people don’t like the fact that we die so they invent and claim to believe in heaven or reincarnation. I think that would be an example, no?
Philo: Right! Some go so far as to say that because we die then life is meaningless. We are mortal and to be alive means we are necessarily going to die eventually. All living organisms suffer from mutations, limiting cell-division processes, free radical damage, etc. and that limits our survival. We can’t rebel against this fact of reality, but we can value our lives and search for meaning, and find it too so that we will enjoy our existence. Another example this rewriting of reality can be found in philosophy. Lots of philosophers are skeptics who don’t think the senses are a valid source of data for learning about reality. They would prefer that we gain knowledge from a higher power like our feelings or from a God.
Estudia: What do you say to them?
Philo: I tell them that knowledge depends on sensory data and that is all I can tell them. It is a fact that is necessarily so and hence absolute and no alternative can be imagined except as a fictional endeavor like a good science fiction novel. By our nature, we use our senses to gain knowledge of reality and that is a metaphysical fact that applies to us and all the processes that are involved in using our senses.
Estudia: So I have to conform to the universe and not hope and pray I can get some higher power to change it so it would be, quote, better, unquote.
Philo: Exactly, absolutely correctomenti. You are very bright. Someone who doesn’t accept the absolutism of the metaphysically given has a different attitude. They don’t expect to conform to the universe; they expect existence to obey their desires. A person like this has a serious conflict with reality and will see this as a problem in human life. Lots of thinkers have and still do have a problem distinguishing between the metaphysically given and the man-made. I think even our present day physicists are way off base here. Never could quite get their explanations so I finally gave up with all that imaginary, ghost particle, and uncertainty stuff. Next time I’ll give you a little history and explain one of the biggest dichotomies around.
Estudia: Terrific, I can hardly wait. See ya, Phi.
posted by Rp | 10:29 PM
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