@Meaningness I read your piece on specialness (and saw you intend to write an expanded version. Hopefully maybe soon?
) —
Seems important + counter-intuitive :o
Why is it 'specialness is a broken concept' instead of 'everyone is special'?
Can you make your own 'cosmic plan'?
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Replying to @reasonisfun
Hopefully maybe soon, but I haven’t done any work on that page since 2007, so possibly not very soon. (I still care about all the parts of the book and “intend” to finish them, but get <10% time for writing, so most of it may never happen.) However, I can answer questions :)
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Replying to @Meaningness @reasonisfun
So a meta explanation first, addressing possible confusions… this is not “ordinary language philosophy” so it’s not analyzing how people use the word “special” (although that may be helpful). It’s pointing at a “stance” meaning a complex of thoughts, feelings, and ways of acting
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Replying to @Meaningness @reasonisfun
The particular stance this “special” wants to point at is something like “chosen by Destiny,” although not always *quite* so grandiose as that phrase.
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Replying to @Meaningness @reasonisfun
Case in point: my first-grade class hatched some chicks, an egg earmarked for each student. When mine was first to hatch, I was like "See, I knew it, I *am* special! Just goes to show you." At some level I knew this was unreasonable, but that felt like quibbling.
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That is a GREAT example!
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