mcandreb wrote:
Arthur forwarded:
EXISTENTIALISM
Thinking About The Unthinkable
Often in futures research we attempt to estimate the probability of an
occurrence as well as its possible impact. There are many
methodologies that
can be used for risk assessment and impact analysis, but at the heart
of
them all is the ability to estimate either an objective or subjective
sense
of likelihood. (The ways in which we have learned to deal with risk is
wonderfully described in Peter Bernstein's book, Against the Gods: The
Remarkable Story of Risk.)
I had never previoiusly noticed the phonemic closeness
of Gods and odds. Interesting, and perhaps significant....
[snip]
An existential risk is one where humankind as a whole
is
imperiled. Existential disasters have major adverse consequences for
the
course of human civilization for all time to come.
[snip]
This is no existentialism like I've lived and studied for over
40 years.
What this guy is writing about is VERY IMPORTANT, but,
metaphysically, it's naive: He adopts the standpoint of
naive realism, in which "I" am a minute object in a
very big object realm AKA "the universe", and what's
important is the objective course of happenings in
that object realm. This is also the way of looking
at things which rationally justifies sacrificing hundreds of
thousands for a "cause" and for "future generations".
Food for powder.... What matters is the future of the
race, not the individual....
Existentialism was (still is?) about the individual's
irreplacability as his or her own unique life. (Metaphysically,
the entire universe and all of "history" is only
an object in the individual's living experience, which
living experience is what the individual engages with
in existentialism as I have always understood it.)
But what's in a word? What's in a Weltanschauung?/Lebensanschauung?
\brad mccormick
--
Let your light so shine before men,
that they may see your good works.... (Matt 5:16)
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
<![%THINK;[SGML+APL]]> Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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