1y, Posted for: Whole Community
Going deeper into "purposes" podcast
Posted by: James Brent
{"ops":[{"insert":"The main organizing ideas of the podcast according to Dr. Nosich are that, first, when we reason, we always have a purpose (even if we're not entirely conscious of what it is) that underlies all the other elements, and second, that we can say the same thing about all the other elements--they are all equally interdependent. \n\nThe concept of faith was not really used in the podcast, but the notion that we should believe in our own ability to attain or achieve our own capacity, to fulfill our own purpose, is. That suggested to me that faith in essence is a fundamental assumption that there is purpose or meaning in life, the universe, and everything (as Douglas Adams would say). \n\nBut the first question is, do we find that purpose or meaning, or do we make it? \n\nDr. Nosich cautioned that we might not be able to achieve happiness as our purpose or goal. Buddhists do assume that by following the eightfold path we can reach nirvana, and Erich Fromm suggested that mindfulness could help us do something analogous. \n\nAnother important insight the podcast provided was that time is a function of our own capacity to reach our goals or achieve our purpose. We may have the inherent ability to reach our capacity, but it's still impossible because we don't have the time to do it. \n\nThe topic of making choices and being satisfied with one's life arose during the podcast. It occurs to me that the sense of self can be integrated into a living as long as one can focus on the fact that \"doing\" the job is fulfilling, not just getting paid for it. \n\nFinding different layers of purposes was also an important topic of the discussion. But it raises some questions: foremost, shall we apply all of the elements to each of the elements as we analyze something? We have a purpose, but must we know whether that purpose has a purpose, and so on? That looks like a Zeno's Paradox in the making. I suspect that through our application of the standards we validate whether our purpose is the one we want to focus on, so we don't have to perpetually revolve around the wheel. \n"}]}
Posted by: Gerald Nosich
{"ops":[{"insert":"Hello James,\nI read you as genuinely working through the content of the podcast using strong critical thinking.\n\tLet me begin with just your last paragraph. I think you are right in concluding that finding the purpose behind your purpose behind your... is excessively dysfunctional. One way to look at it is to realize that some purposes do not seem to require further purposes behind them. I may have many overall goals in my life: to provide for myself, for my family, to have a rewarding job, to maintain good health, to contribute to making a more critical society, and any number of others. But underlying all of those there seems to be something like meaningfulness. A basic goal, I would say, is for me to live a meaningful life and to do what I can to help others live meaningful lives. I don't see that it is productive (or even reasonable, perhaps) to ask \"What is the purpose of living a meaningful life?\"\n\tYou bring up the concept of faith (not necessarily in a religious sense) in your second paragraph.For myself, I'm pretty sure I don't assume that there is meaning in the universe, much less in everything. But putting my own case off to the side, there have been many individuals who lived meaningful lives but who did not have the kind of faith that you mention. (David Hume, Albert Camus and Bertrand Russell are examples, and each of them is different from the other two.)\n"}]}