The world of the subjective hasn’t gone away. If empiricism was the genuine truth and full basis of knowledge, then why hasn’t the subjective gone by the wayside? There are those who try for that. What are they like? According to the behaviorists, your feelings and behavior are just mechanisms of your brain, and there is nothing ethically wrong with correcting your feelings and behavior making you more functional in any way short of your destruction.
Is there an implied yin yang in these two? I would agree that they do form two parts of a more fundamental whole.
I find it amusing when someone is telling me something scientific, and I present alternative science that gives a different conclusion. Then they say ‘I don’t believe that.’ It’s funny that the scientific one is using ‘belief’ to counter me when I thought it was a scientific discussion.
What would we be like if we could somehow delete belief from our brains? I couldn’t believe in my wife. I couldn’t believe in other people. I couldn’t believe in law or society.
Some say we don’t need to believe these things because they are objectively true. So let’s say that is correct and we don’t have to believe in these things. If they are correct and we don’t have to believe in these things, then how do we deal with people? How do we build relationships?
We take a lot as givens before anything else. Assumptions. Superstition? It isn’t observable.
Su•per•sti•tion (noun): a belief or notion, not based on reason or knowledge, in or of the ominous significance of a particular thing, circumstance, occurrence, proceeding, or the like.
If he is a guy with 666 tattooed on his third eye, I would have a problem accepting a lot from him. The idea of law and social meaning has no basis in knowledge according to empiricism. The belief that a special tattoo has any meaning or should give any cause for concern has no basis in knowledge according to empiricism. Yet we all know the reality here, yes? On levels both obvious and subtle, there are patterns of events, occurrences and behavior that have their roots and their drive in something not subject to empirical standards of knowledge. Yet what could we do without this “not-knowledge”?
If we put our understanding of the spirit of an event or a person’s intention aside, what would that allow us to do? Our brains begin functioning with unprovable beliefs. A baby believes mommy loves them. They believe they are safe.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~