attempts at matters of faith from a rationalist/axiomatic perspective

[jrtom]

http://fdmts.livejournal.com/385030.html

*ponder*

This is one of those things that I need to spend a bit more time on...sometime soon.

Comments

Rationalist...

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

I've tried to build it up from the ground several times, and it didn't work.

This is a different approach. I'm doing well right now ... so I'm trying to back out what it is that's helping me to do so well. I.e: I have certain axioms and they seem to be having the desired effect (living a happy life in which I interact well with the world around me).

This is what I've got so far. I'm sure there's more.

Re: Rationalist...

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Right, this is why I called it rationalist/axiomatic; your approach seems to me to be to pick your axioms (as you said) and to see what they infer.

Arguably, "building it up from the ground" is only meaningful when you define your ground, i.e., your axioms. Your recognition of this fact is what made your original essay of particular interest: if you don't acknowledge your roots, it's hard to know if you're really getting anywhere.

Re: Rationalist...

[fdmts.livejournal.com]

Yeah ... this all started with the very odd realization that I am a "person of faith." We all are. We all have unprovable axioms that we simply choose to believe. I realized that I, for all my protestations, have lots of unprovable axia in my philosophy.

So I've started trying to write them down explicitly. I've thrown out a *lot* of crap along the way ... and these survived that first threshing.

It's a fun process. I get the strong feeling that the wisdom comes from the process ... not from the correct set of axioms at the end.