My apologies to Dwai for misdirecting my comments to him on a question from VJS. [I'm reposting that message for his attention.]
On 3/10/08 Vishwajeet Daharan wrote: > The last lines intrigued me - if not in world of finite experience, > where should one look for that esthetic or enhancing experience. > And maybe desire in the world of finite is not so good but desire > for THAT..., so a redirecting or in psychological terms > sublimation is a better idea. I assume the lines you refer to are these directed to Marsha: > I don't subscribe to the Buddhist idea that desire is the root > of all evil. Quite the contrary, what we desire expresses our > sense of value and is the driving force of human progress. > Without desire, human beings would be devoid of feelings or > motivation. Unable to discriminate between good and bad, > mankind would have no morality, and civilization would stagnate. > If there is an undifferentiated aesthetic continuum of Quality, > it is not to be found in the mundane world of finite experience. Yes, I believe this to be true. Human action follows choice, and choice is an expression of one's value sensibility. Hence, all voluntary actions are motivated by Value, and what we do in life as free agents reflects those values we choose to pursue for ourselves. When emotional choices are mediated by reason, behavior is made "moral" (in the collective sense of that word). Therefore, unless our actions are obligatory, or imposed on us by some external authority, we are driven by selfish values. But since we are also rational beings, most of us will temper our behavior to some degree by reason. That's why (borrowing from Ayn Rand's philosophy) I came up with the maxim "rational self-directed value". You ask where we must look for "that esthetic or enhancing experience" which transcends the relational world. Where else, indeed, but in experience itself? Human beings are endowed with an exquisite sense of value, ranging from an appreciation of the arts, the beauty and order of nature, the dignity and intellectual perspective of man, and the insight that comes from understanding that each of us is an individualized microcosm of our absolute source. We can only experience reality finitely, as subjective beings negated (or divided) from the essential source. Because the locus of our existence is separated from this Essence, we are free and autonomous agents, capable of making our being in the world a reflection of our chosen values. Human beings are the "choicemakers" of this world. By realizing that value-sensibility is our existential reality, we can shape the world as a rational system in which all mankind will be free to optimize their individual value-sensibilities without fear of imposing their wants on others. The potential for such an ideal world exists here in existence, but we must have both the wisdom and the will to implement it. Thanks for your response, Dwai. Essentially yours, Ham 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/
