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Stephen Grundy's avatar

Hey...I've occupied myself for much of my adult life with wrestling with various philosophies - the main question behind all of which has, I reckon, been working out what is true/real and what is appearance (what "seems" to be reality).

Recently, I've seen that, in any given moment, there is no difference. The terminology only changes from "real" to "seemed real" once we have come up with some alternative version to what we have actually experienced - retrospectively.

In the moment, the issue is moot.

I wish you well bro.

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Jane Cecilia's avatar

Responding to https://robertsaltzman.substack.com/p/the-new-flat-earthers

Hi Robert, I agree with you and would like to add something: in my experience, I see and know that "proving" the "truth" of any metaphysical claim is impossible. Ok.

However, our metaphysical position influences our subjective experience and our behavior in the world. To grossly oversimplify for the sake of an example, if someone believes that behaving a certain way in life will lead to eternal suffering, that person likely experiences increased levels of anguish and suffering just thinking about whether and how they can avoid the pits of hell, or whatever.

By the same token, if someone believes that ultimately nothing more can be known than what is directly experienced, but we may as well be nice to each other in the meantime, that person will behave differently and experience life differently than someone with a different metaphysical position. Again, pardon the oversimplification.

I also know I did not "choose" to "believe" what I "believe", because free will does not exist (metaphysical assumption on my part, borne out by experience), so this is not "advice" for anyone to choose a metaphysical system that is more enjoyable, or life-affirming, and so on; it's just an observation that our position, though not "chosen" in the common meaning of that word, has significant impact on our lived experience.

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