Post by Oliveman on Dec 4, 2007 16:41:48 GMT -5
We've had alot of talk about truth on here, both big and little T, but what I wanted to do was put forth my own theory that I've been batting around. Of course, it's not quite my own, but a more updated version of theories going all the way back to the Allegory of the Cave. (you can find that here: www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/plato.html )
Basically, truth exists only within the context the observer of truth is provided with. Their "reality" is dictated by the limits of their world.
But what we often think of in this layout is that truth is like one shell around the next, and that there are only higher and higher levels to obtain, and that somewhere is the ultimate context where we are to obtain some form or another of enlightenment. True as that might be, it doesn't address the practicality of this model, or rather... the fact that we can create our own "contexts" that could possibily transcend the previous set up laid out by the universe.
What got me thinking about this were online MMORPG games. These are, in a sense, contexts of truth, wherein there are goals and interactions that make sense only within the context of the game. Is becoming a part of this decending to a lower level of truth? Or is it, instead, becoming a part of a different truth.
Such a difference could seem silly, if not for the human aspect to it. By engaging in the game it is easy to take on a different persona from the "real" person that you are. Some would consider this deceptive, and in many cases, it is. The possibility this opens up, however, is the ability for a person to act without the burden of their past: not just past actions or thought, but past body, and all physical attributes. What I think this brings out is a truer individual, or at least the potential for one. Instead of someone in the game being deceptive, it is the person they are in real life that is deceptive, since there they bear the masks of their past, and their physical form.
What I am saying is that the issue of creating worlds, or other contexts of truth, shouldn't be dismissed as a mere distraction or mask to reality. This "decent" back into ignorance is not so - it is ALSO an ascent of sorts, bringing about greater enlightenment through detachment.
Therefore, we shouldn't think of the Allegory of the Cave as one that tells us we can obtain Truth by moving out of the cave of ignorance. No, we should instead think that it is only the act of moving that allows us to see things more clearly. For knowing Truth is not necessarily Right, it just allows us to more clearly distinguish that Right.
Basically, truth exists only within the context the observer of truth is provided with. Their "reality" is dictated by the limits of their world.
But what we often think of in this layout is that truth is like one shell around the next, and that there are only higher and higher levels to obtain, and that somewhere is the ultimate context where we are to obtain some form or another of enlightenment. True as that might be, it doesn't address the practicality of this model, or rather... the fact that we can create our own "contexts" that could possibily transcend the previous set up laid out by the universe.
What got me thinking about this were online MMORPG games. These are, in a sense, contexts of truth, wherein there are goals and interactions that make sense only within the context of the game. Is becoming a part of this decending to a lower level of truth? Or is it, instead, becoming a part of a different truth.
Such a difference could seem silly, if not for the human aspect to it. By engaging in the game it is easy to take on a different persona from the "real" person that you are. Some would consider this deceptive, and in many cases, it is. The possibility this opens up, however, is the ability for a person to act without the burden of their past: not just past actions or thought, but past body, and all physical attributes. What I think this brings out is a truer individual, or at least the potential for one. Instead of someone in the game being deceptive, it is the person they are in real life that is deceptive, since there they bear the masks of their past, and their physical form.
What I am saying is that the issue of creating worlds, or other contexts of truth, shouldn't be dismissed as a mere distraction or mask to reality. This "decent" back into ignorance is not so - it is ALSO an ascent of sorts, bringing about greater enlightenment through detachment.
Therefore, we shouldn't think of the Allegory of the Cave as one that tells us we can obtain Truth by moving out of the cave of ignorance. No, we should instead think that it is only the act of moving that allows us to see things more clearly. For knowing Truth is not necessarily Right, it just allows us to more clearly distinguish that Right.