Friday, July 05, 2002

I had a little revelation at Sitwell's coffee shop (in Cincinnati) the other night, and I think I may have passed up nihilism a little too quickly. Actually it's a good place to start with ethics too.

I think it's preposterous to say science is completely false, at least so far as it's applications work. However, I am wondering if this isn't true : with reason alone no value judgment can be made that is true.

Take for example my love of Busta Rhymes songs. Some people hate his music,some people love it and some are indifferent. But whether they like it or not makes no difference with reason alone. We could make value judgments about his sexualization of women or the violence in his music. Rationally though, these are just furthur value judgments. I could also argue about rap, how it has conventions, uses poetic license and metaphor, how it requires a great deal of skill. But if I don't value skill and the techniques of poetry (rap is poetry) then I have no reason to prefer it.

So the nihilism that keeps me awake at night is the nihilism of value. Think about it too long and you're in for a shock. What guides me through this stuff is that I still value happiness and want to obtain it. That allows me to take on other beliefs, for the sake of happiness alone, which please me. My belief system is fairly fluid, as you'll see if you start reading any quantity of this page, but happiness and my desire for it keep me going when nothing else will.

Lastly, I read Rudolf Steiner's Theosophy this week and loved it. It has helped me form some more of my own beliefs, which if they hold up to scrutiny I will talk about later. His other books seem kind of silly ( moon beings and such) and I've never been that into Rosicrucianism, but Theosophy itself really meant alot to me. Take your time with all this.

.: posted by Timothy 6:35 PM