I didn't consciously make the connection betwe...

2011-07-20T10:21:44.613-06:00

I didn't consciously make the connection between law/justice and fact/meaning as I was writing this, but now that you mention it, I think that's a great observation.

The relationship between law and justice is very similar to the relationship between fact and meaning. The people who revere "The Rule of Law" and confuse it with justice are just like the people who revere "Scientific Fact" and think it means something about how one ought to live.

Those people are bringing something unexamined to their worldview.

Anyway, to your other point, it seems to me that Adam Smith once said something about how sometimes we shouldn't concern ourselves with these stories that happen to other people. What good does it do us to feel for the distant victim of accident? Smith seemed to think there was some sort of paralysis in this type of fretting over things.

He has a point, particularly for our modern world that is awash in griefs. Rather than paralysis, though, it seems that indifference is more the risk today.

Occasionally it behooves us to find out what these stories mean and to exercise our sympathy. I, too, would hope for a Dr. Kevorkian to save me from a medically induced limbo.

Lots of things to think about (and all this before...

2011-07-18T18:05:27.273-06:00

Lots of things to think about (and all this before the whole Murdoch media empire scandal hit).

It's possible today to observe, at least second-hand, a great many events. Your post reminded me about one life's greatest struggles: coming to accept that many terrible things happen, and there doesn't seem to be any justice done.

I know that personally influenced me in my twenties, and I became quite cynical as a result.

You wrote: "No doubt you will answer those questions, if you care to do so, with truths. Maybe they will be the same kind of poetic truths, like the truth of happiness, that are true only because someone believes in them. Truth rarely stops disagreements, though; not the kind of disagreements that happen when competing truths collide."

Exactly so -- to make a removed statement about how one eventually comes to terms with life's events. What do you tell yourself about the motorcycle victim? Or burn victim, etc.? Honestly, the only thing I can say for certain is that I'm glad it's not me -- but if it were, please don't leave me an empty shell trapped in medically-induced limbo. I have better things to experience.

Lastly, you wrote: "... whenever a materialist says anything is good or bad, he is telling a lie". I couldn't agree more. Having attempted materialism, I think that ultimate materialistic understanding requires one to be a machine. I also liked the implication that the rule of law does not necessarily provide human justice, just as facts do not provide human meaning.

Comments on Surviving Phalaris: Recent Events

I didn't consciously make the connection betwe...

Lots of things to think about (and all this before...