Posted by
Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/Re-Direct-conversation-tp3137870p3148399.html
Russ Abbott wrote:
> Now that we've arrived safely in Canberra, here's my loose end.
Haloo down under!
>
>
> The more abstract way of saying this is that meaning occurs only in a
> first person context. Without meaning, all we have are bits, photons,
> ink on paper, etc. If you want to talk about meaning at all -- whether
> it's the meaning of a first or third person perspective -- one has
> already assumed that there is a first person that is understanding
> that meaning.
This "complementary" way of describing seems to help (me at least) in
resolving some distinctions between my own experience and the general
shared intellectualization about these things. I have a *distinct*
feeling of "being me" that I cannot shake by noticing that noticing my
self (my body, my shifting ocular POV with my shifting motor activities)
is very similar to noticing not-self (3rd person). The complement,
... noticing that noticing others (3rd person observation) is
intrinsically the same as noticing myself goes down a lot easier and is
roughly what I call "empathy". The former causes me to get caught up
in the differences while the latter allows me to notice the similarities.
Meaning seems hard to pin down without a receiver of meaning... perhaps
this is part of what lead folks to want a God to be the infinite
observer that not only gave all things their existence but also by
elaboration, their meaning.
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