On 26/12/17 15:17, Norman Wells wrote:
On 26/12/2017 06:14, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 25/12/17 19:28, Norman Wells wrote:

The business of philosophers is the contruction and maintenance of
metaphysical world-views.

For the rest of the populations, such as yourself, this is largely a
meaningless exercise, because you labour under the delusions that your
view of the world is actually reality itself. You consider that space,
time, causality, matter, and energy *actually exist*.

Yes, but I'm really quite happy with that.Â* It seems to work somehow.

Except when it doesn't. I.e. quantum physics


Rather than being the metaphsyical axes and axioms on which we
*construct* the physical world (view), that people now tell us is *all
there is*.

To be a philosopher, is to stand outside the constructions of
humanity, as far as possible and see them for what they are -
constructions.

But does it help?

In the limit at the bleeding edge of real knowldege, yes it does.

And at a very much more normal level as I outlined below, it makes sense
of why people get politically conned and why they attach so much emotion
to it.





To be a sheeple, is to live inside them and to take them for real.

Look at Brexit/Remoaner arguments. Two fundamentally different
metaphsyical positions based on opposed views of a certain political
structure - the European Union. One view holds that it is however
flawed, a fundamentally benevolent institution that embodies lots of
nice cuddly ideas about peace and social justice and so on, and is
synonymous with 'Europe'.

The other view holds that it is a pernicious self seeking lying
anti-democratic and thoroughly dangerous organisation that has sought
- and succeededÂ* - in usurping democractic power from the nation
states that comprise it, and it is thoroughly incompetent in its
exercise of such power as it has usurped.

To people who are bound to think that their world-view *is* reality,
these are massively emotive issues. One side must be right, and the
other side must be wrong, and the angst of possibly being on the
*wrong* side drives the emotional battle that there is.

And I personally consider that it is the remoaner side that is more
convinced it *is* the custodian of the 'real view' - the class of
individuals comprising the brexiteers is of necessaity somewhat
anti-orthodoxy, and therefore not so cemented into a a particular
world-view.

Brexiteers for example, have a much more sophisticated view of
Europe,. being able to distinguish between 'Europe, the geographical
continent' 'Europe, the peoples that comprise it' 'Europe, the nation
states that exist within it' and 'Europe, the European Union that
purports to represent and rule all of the above'.


Brexiteers say we are leaving the EU, butÂ* by conflating all of the
above into one nursery level entity, remoaners moan that we are
'leaving Europe'.

Because there is no distinction in their simplistic worldview, they
are aghast.

Whereas Brexiteers regard it as simply a political disconnection. We
are not leaving Europe. We simply choose not to be ruled by the EU.

Our politicians may be sons of bitches too, but they are our sons of
bitches, we lnow where they live, and we can in theory sack the ****s.

I mention this to show how a *model* of reality, pushed by marketing
and propaganda, becomes *reality itself* to the lesser minded sheeple.


The more sophisticated you are, or in some cases the less
sophisticated you are*, the more you realise that *the map is not the
territory*. The entity 'Europe' is an intellectual construct and has
no clearly defined real meaning that is common to all people.

Allowing such bait and switch techniques as 'we are leaving the EU =
we are leaving Europe = we are turning out backs on European culture,
and European nations and pursuing a policy of idiotic isolationism'

This is all done by simply reniforcing the nursery level concept that
the EU IS 'Europe' and is a synonym for any other use of the word
'Europe'

Simlarly a 'no [trade deal]' is empahasised as a [no trade] deal - yes
there are people who think that without a magical 'trade deal' we wont
be able to trade with Europe AT ALL. And I have met with and spoken to
them. They were very young.

This is all political metaphysics.

And that is why you need philosophy. To point that out. That these
concepts and notions are not reality itself, they are a narrative, a
story, about whatever reality is. And like all stories, they are
selective, limited,and fictionalÂ* and whilst handy to bend peoples
wills, not really that handy when it comes to dealing with the reality
of whether we are going to let Mohammed Ahmed and his 'refugee'
brothers into Britain next thursday.

The class of reality modelÂ* that *is* handy when dealing with such
mundane issues was identified by Nigel Farage as 'common sense'.

Other handy models are e.g. 'physics'Â* and 'chemistry'. Mostly these
work, too.

Models that dont work, but *make stupid people feel good* are
'socialism' 'emotional intelligence' 'religion' and so on. All
designed to make people feel that they are fundamentally excellent and
valuable members of society, when they are in fact just parasitic ****s.

*I have found that illiterate labourers, who are so humble in their
own ability to think in complex terms, tend to be immune from the
'bull**** baffles brains' syndrome that infects people who think they
are intelligent, right up to when you get to the serious geniuses, who
have got to the bleeding edge and realised that after all, we know
**** all for sure either...and I dont mean Hawkings or Dawkins either.
Both second rate minds.

Ah, well, there ya go, squire.Â* Same time tomorrah?


--
Any fool can believe in principles - and most of them do!