You may come to realize that no mundane facts, no matter how extreme, could actually make you special; they’re just contingent. What you need is transcendent, metaphysical specialness. You need to be Chosen by the Cosmic Plan.
The central insight is that we're always trying to make things mean either more or less than they do, which doesn't work out well. The "confused stances" are a catalog of strategies for adding or subtracting meaning.
-
-
"I am special because they aren't" is one. "Everybody's special, so collectively we are truly meaningful" is another. "My life is made meaningful by serving others"; "my life is meaningful because I'm getting all the goodies I can"; etc.
-
The "complete stance" says that we don't have to go around adding and subtracting meaning, we can just let things have whatever meanings they do or don't. Then we don't have anything metaphysical we have to keep trying to prove.
- 2 more replies
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.