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19 years old. Homeschooled, then went to a community college instead of high school. Currently at Hampshire College. http://www.facebook.com/NamelessWonderBand http://myspace.com/namelesswondermusic http://youtube.com/namelesswonderband http://twitter.com/NamelessWonder7 http://www.youtube.com/dervine7 http://ted.com/profiles/778985

Friday, March 20, 2009

Metaphysics

This is something my brain started throwing at me while I was walking, I haven't taken the time to go over it thoroughly, so it's probably a bit sketchy, but interesting nonetheless.
We have a problem with metaphysics. The problem is that the only language we have to talk about it is a language that is ill-equipped to talk about it. Our language is terribly imprecise, filled with hidden assumptions, limited, parochial, inherently worldly, and a host of other things. When you try to translate from one language to another, as we do if we try to discuss, say, Greek philosophy, or Biblical doctrine, there is meaning that is lost: how, indeed, can we be sure that the meaning we give the translation is anything like the meaning the ancient Greeks had in mind?
We then try to take this unwieldy language and use it to talk about things that are entirely out of it's league: is there a self? Is there a soul? What is a soul? Is there free will? Is there a god? Do things really exist? What does it mean to "exist"? What does "meaning" mean? It just gets worse and worse!
Not only that, but these aren't pointless questions: some of them are of vital importance! What then do we do?
For ideas, let's consider a way of describing the world that's a little more down-to-earth: regular Physics. Now, when you think about it, physics is also impossible to describe with language. Sure, you can say that "gravity makes objects attract each other, etc.", but you'd be missing a whole bunch of meaning and nuance, and once you described gravity this way, you'd be stuck: no new discoveries could be made. Your description would also be terribly imprecise and would run into problems of translation to other languages.
That's not the hardest physics to describe with language, though. What about Quantum Physics: "well it's sort of a wave and sort of a particle but really it isn't either but sometimes it's both except when it interacts with something..." ugh! Or four dimensions, which are entirely impossible to characterize using human language except through analogy.
There is, however, a language which describes physics. And it is precise, with assumptions that are, for the most part, clearly defined, universal, and has no need to be translated from one language to another, since except perhaps for some differences in symbols, it is the same for everybody. Mathematics. And in mathematics, things like Quantum Physics, which are so impossible to describe in human language, are clearly defined, and four dimensions even more so.
So it seems to me what we need is language that is to Metaphysics what mathematics is to Physics. What it could be I don't know.
Regardless, I am going to continue to discuss metaphysics in regular, human language :)

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