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Right and Wrong
So far, what I've gotten from being here is a new perspective. It's not the only thing, and it's not the only new perspective, but I'll just stick to describing this one for now.
People always underestimate the degree to which they don't think beyond their own nose. Just "don't", not "can't"--it's not an absolute, it's just a hobby. We come into the world assuming, first of all, that there is a world, then further assuming that we perceive it as it exists. The fact is that we don't. We have a generally clear picture of things, but that's all it is--a picture. The world is full of information that must be inferred or learned, and a surprising amount of it is indirect. It must all be inferred. Coming into the world with five senses, we must build our entire world on the basis of them. We're very good at it, but it's a very variable process. I didn't say imperfect, because it's not a matter of right or wrong, perfect or imperfect. It's just a matter of opinion.
I've known all this, and generally it's not useful knowledge, so I don't think about it a lot. Certainly no one can be absolutely sure of anything, but to say that just undermines our further usage of the word "sure", or "right"-it's all semantics, and at the end of the day, we must act as if the world is real and solid, and as if we had free will. We have to get along somehow, day after day. But when I came to this foreign country, and learned this foreign language, it reminded me. I started to feel it in a visceral way, not just theoretically. All the human creations followed basically the same lines, but varied just slightly: Coca-Cola is made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, McDonald's has a shrimp burger, people park cars on the sidewalk, streets and sidewalks are cobbled with stones or bricks instead of paved with concrete or asphalt. But nature, and the fundamental aspects of human life, remain mostly the same.
I guess what I'm learning is what's fundamental, and what is variable. And that the world doesn't need my agreement to function in a certain way. The concepts of "right and wrong" have a very limited function.
People always underestimate the degree to which they don't think beyond their own nose. Just "don't", not "can't"--it's not an absolute, it's just a hobby. We come into the world assuming, first of all, that there is a world, then further assuming that we perceive it as it exists. The fact is that we don't. We have a generally clear picture of things, but that's all it is--a picture. The world is full of information that must be inferred or learned, and a surprising amount of it is indirect. It must all be inferred. Coming into the world with five senses, we must build our entire world on the basis of them. We're very good at it, but it's a very variable process. I didn't say imperfect, because it's not a matter of right or wrong, perfect or imperfect. It's just a matter of opinion.
I've known all this, and generally it's not useful knowledge, so I don't think about it a lot. Certainly no one can be absolutely sure of anything, but to say that just undermines our further usage of the word "sure", or "right"-it's all semantics, and at the end of the day, we must act as if the world is real and solid, and as if we had free will. We have to get along somehow, day after day. But when I came to this foreign country, and learned this foreign language, it reminded me. I started to feel it in a visceral way, not just theoretically. All the human creations followed basically the same lines, but varied just slightly: Coca-Cola is made with sugar instead of high-fructose corn syrup, McDonald's has a shrimp burger, people park cars on the sidewalk, streets and sidewalks are cobbled with stones or bricks instead of paved with concrete or asphalt. But nature, and the fundamental aspects of human life, remain mostly the same.
I guess what I'm learning is what's fundamental, and what is variable. And that the world doesn't need my agreement to function in a certain way. The concepts of "right and wrong" have a very limited function.
quixotic