@Dasein,
Dasein wrote:As Martin Heidegger says in “Being and Time”, “In Being-there (Dasein), the way the world is understood is reflected back ontologically upon the way in which Being-there (Dasein) gets interpreted.”
Fortunately, Marx, long before Heidegger, already showed we also
produce the world we live in: "being-there" is also "working-there," as thus changing whatever "there" means.
Dasein wrote:In other words, you live your life as if who you are is the world you live in.
And the world itself gets changed by your activity, by which you change yourself.
Dasein wrote:You were born into a world that was here long before you (or your parents, parents, parents) got here and along with the 'world' and the 'they' you have reduced Be-ing to the level of memorizing the things that were here before you got here. Things like concepts (a combination of characteristics), animals, opinions, human beings, cars, philosophy, trucks, and anything else that is measurable and definable. You even got to memorize your parents', and their parents', and their parents' attitudes about the predicament you and they are in. “The sins of the father will be visited on the son.” You live your life as if who you are is a measurable, definable thing and you really don't have a choice in the matter.
We are not measurable things: consciousness is unmeasurable, it rather measures things. There are measurable and unmeasurable things, and we ourselves, in which we have that is fundamentally different from objectivity, are unmeasurable.
Dasein wrote:The world and the opinion of the 'they' defines who you are.
The world only partially defines who I am, as also does history: I myself do the rest of the work. We are not "reflections" of the world, we are active makers (and lately destroyers) of it.
Dasein wrote:The 'world' and the 'they' define your conversations, your agreements, your disagreements, etc. The parameters of the 'things' you agree to define the very conversation you have, so what you're left with is manipulating and being manipulated, no satisfaction. When you disagree, you argue for your point-of-view and when you reach a point of not wanting to think anymore you pull out the 'wild card' and tell the other person that everybody is 'entitled to their own opinion' never noticing that its the things of the world and the 'they' that define your agreements and disagreements, your participation in the conversation, and ultimately who you are. Your only 'free will' in the matter is to apply your particular 'spin' on that which defines you. “Thingdom” doesn't have any room for you to be.
There is always room for you to be, and if you chose not to, then that is your choice, and you are the only one to blame, no matter how much history you have on your back as an excuse. That's what's missing in your philosophy: responsibility.
Dasein wrote:Who you are is the 'My' in 'My finger', you are the 'My' and not the 'finger' which is measurable and definable. Look up 'My' and 'I' in the dictionary. 'My' and 'I' are both defined as “used by a speaker in referring to himself or herself”. That's not a definition, 'My' and 'I' can't be defined by the 'world' or the 'they', that means only you have the power to bring meaning into this meaningless world.
Meaning depends both on you and on the world: you cannot produce any meaning without the world, but the world has many people in it, which can produce meaning without you. And your contribution to meaning in a social scale is usually minimal. Besides, mankind has already produced plenty of meaning, actually much more than one single person can deal with. Our problem is not the lack of meaning: it is the lack of consistent meaning -- meaning capable of solving our present many conundrums, some deadly for even our entire species.
Dasein wrote:You are the subject and philosophy is an object with no meaning.
Philosophy is our thinking, it is not an object. Books are objects, not ideas. And without meaning, there is no philosophy. Neither literature, nor mathematics, and so on.
Dasein wrote:You have to remove the separation you've artificially created (to protect you), reach into the abyss of who you are, and drag meaning (kicking and scratching) into this world.
If you dig into yourself in this way, you will only find one thing: madness. The world already produces meaning: you are not alone, and you are not an abyss. An abyss is what is in front of us right now, and we will fall if we keep listening to people like Heidegger, someone who's intellect was so great that he couldn't see that Hitler was a monster.
Dasein wrote:The world is meaningless. Everybody is looking for meaning in the world and you ain't never gonna find it there.
Unless you consider the world as including other people.
Dasein wrote:Meaning comes from you.
Meaning comes from our interaction with the world and other people, including our productive life ("by the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground," remember?). You are not a brain in a vase on the desk.
Dasein wrote:The deeper you go into the abyss, [...]
The closer you get to the madhouse.
Dasein wrote:[...] the more meaning you find in the world. I didn't make it this way, it just took me almost 62 years to notice the way it is.
I suspect you will need another 62 years...
Dasein wrote:The only 'free will' you have is whether or not you are going to extract your 'self' from the entanglement of the meaningless 'world' and the 'they'.
How did you get so deadly sad? Don't you do anything meaningful, productive or positive in your life? Jesus.
Dasein wrote:As Emerson said it in the 1800's this is “the plot of ground you've been given to work” and nothing else will give you any joy or satisfaction.
You remembered me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EToJ4lRq0xk