DM, Clearly, I do wholehearted. I hope I have conveyed some of my conviction in this regard in every post I have ever made here.
I've recently been informed once again by my friend dmb that my views are merely oh-hum-common-sensical. In this respect I wish it were so, but I fear not. Rather I think common sense makes people flee from this view into the arms of whatever obscure philosophy, religious practice or doctrine they can find to shield them from the shear horror of this view. It is far better to believe that the universe cares or is open to entreaty or that our actions play into some karmic dance of fate that to stare in to the abyss of cold indifference without flinching. Krimel Hi Krim & others I wonder how many of us here would say we live in a truly dynamic universe and that therefore it an extremely dangerous place to be? David M ----- Original Message ----- From: "Krimel" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, December 30, 2007 1:18 AM Subject: [MD] James' Post-it Note to Ham > Ham, > > I found that post-it Hume left for you a while back. Here is one from > James. > I don't know why I am getting your mail. > > Krimel > > "Probably the weightiest contribution to our feeling of the rationality of > the universe which the notion of the absolute brings is the assurance that > however disturbed the surface may be, at bottom all is well with the > cosmos-central peace abiding at the heart of endless agitation. This > conception is rational in many ways, beautiful aesthetically, beautiful > intellectually (could we only follow it into detail), and beautiful > morally, > if the enjoyment of security can be accounted moral. Practically it is > less > beautiful; for, as we saw in our last lecture, in representing the deepest > reality of the world as static and without a history, it loosens the > world's > hold upon our sympathies and leaves the soul of it foreign. Nevertheless > it > does give peace, and that kind of rationality is so paramountly demanded > by > men that to the end of time there will be absolutists, men who choose > belief > in a static eternal, rather than admit that the finite world of change and > striving, even with a God as one of the strivers, is itself eternal. ... > But > it is hard to portray the absolute at all without rising into what might > be > called the 'inspired' style of language-I use the word not ironically, but > prosaically and descriptively, to designate the only literary form that > goes > with the kind of emotion that the absolute arouses. One can follow the > pathway of reasoning soberly enough, but the picture itself has to be > effulgent. This admirable faculty of transcending, whilst inwardly > preserving, every contrariety, is the absolute's characteristic form of > rationality. We are but syllables in the mouth of the Lord; if the whole > sentence is divine, each syllable is absolutely what it should be, in > spite > of all appearances. In making up the balance for or against absolutism, > this > emotional value weights heavily the credit side of the account." > - William James "A Pluralistic Universe" > > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
