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Confusion
A helpful concept for understanding how to negotiate consciousness and reality
A thread
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A helpful concept for understanding how to negotiate consciousness and reality
A thread
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I first came across this concept in a way that was satisfying and somewhat complete on http://www.meaningness.com which is a wonderful hypertext book by @Meaningness
Give it a go if you're into this sort of thing, I started here https://meaningness.com/an-appetizer-purpose
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Give it a go if you're into this sort of thing, I started here https://meaningness.com/an-appetizer-purpose
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I studied a bit of philosophy but often acquired no tools. Meaningness has given me a more robust vocabulary for navigating the world, and whether I understand it 'properly' or not doesn't quite matter because, imo, the whole point of philosophy is to live better!
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The tetralemma is a good place to start. Being and nonbeing and inherent contradiction. Yet I still struggled to understand how to /apply/ the nature of inherent contradiction in my life. How do I live with paradox? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catu%E1%B9%A3ko%E1%B9%ADi
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In Chapman's plain language approach to philosophy, it finally clicked
https://meaningness.com/nebulosity
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https://meaningness.com/nebulosity
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"People often disagree about meanings. Sometimes one person is right and the other wrong. However, often the difficulty is not that we don’t know what the true meaning is, but that it is inherently ambiguous. It is a feature of reality, not of knowledge."
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Id heard these kinds of ideas countless times but, with Meaningness, the ideas finally "clicked". I developed a real sense for the ways in which paradoxes commingle
The world can never be known for certain. Life is inherently improvised. Truth is how we negotiate with reality
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The world can never be known for certain. Life is inherently improvised. Truth is how we negotiate with reality
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This perspective allows me to more easily rest within uncertainty. It gives me a more complete approach to the inherent paradoxes of reality. In a sense, life is better, philosophy is doing its job
8/ https://twitter.com/VecnanKrait/status/1315412652160675840
8/ https://twitter.com/VecnanKrait/status/1315412652160675840
Now to get to the heart of it--Confusion
What does it mean to be confused?
Confusion is when you negotiate reality improperly and without ambiuity. Confusion occurs at the extremes of reality's representation--when meaning is either static and eternal, or void and empty
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What does it mean to be confused?
Confusion is when you negotiate reality improperly and without ambiuity. Confusion occurs at the extremes of reality's representation--when meaning is either static and eternal, or void and empty
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Certainty is death. We live in an impermanent world, to be certain is to be inherently wrong and intellectually dead
Yet, to be completely uncertain is also death. Both of these are an end to the process of pursuing truth
https://meaningness.com/fixation-and-denial
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Yet, to be completely uncertain is also death. Both of these are an end to the process of pursuing truth
https://meaningness.com/fixation-and-denial
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Similarly, believing everything has a fixed meaning, or believing that meaning is unimportant, are ideas that are equally "unworkable"
Reality is ambiguous
https://meaningness.com/preview-eternalism-and-nihilism
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Reality is ambiguous
https://meaningness.com/preview-eternalism-and-nihilism
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These extremes are forms of confusion, and as you move through the world, you will find that confusion has never-ending application.
https://meaningness.com/confused-stances-come-in-pairs
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https://meaningness.com/confused-stances-come-in-pairs
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And yet, it is also confused to believe that there is an 'answer' in between the extremes. This is also unworkable, consider again the tetralemma
https://meaningness.com/no-middle-way
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https://meaningness.com/no-middle-way
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So how can we apply this in a useful way in our lives?
We can skip forward a bit (a lot) to this motherlode of practical considerations
https://meaningness.com/all-dimensions-schematic-overview
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We can skip forward a bit (a lot) to this motherlode of practical considerations
https://meaningness.com/all-dimensions-schematic-overview
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We find problems of confusion and their possible resolution through the process of resting and improvising within ambiguity
There is a lot to consume here, and the ideas are very worthwhile. I invite you to consider if they are useful for your understanding.
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There is a lot to consume here, and the ideas are very worthwhile. I invite you to consider if they are useful for your understanding.
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By better understanding the ways in which our thinking and presumptions may be confused, we may be able to work to end our struggle against these unworkable takes and stances
16/ https://twitter.com/chaosprime/status/1295501777736007680
16/ https://twitter.com/chaosprime/status/1295501777736007680
