Worth Re: [FoRK] Faith and/or Science - Newton et al

[Corinna Schultz]

On Nov 29, 2007 3:34 PM, Lion Kimbro <lionkimbro at gmail.com> wrote:
>   But those stories come from an external source.
[ ...]
>   And he's absolutely correct.  We can't look to other people for
>   the answers.
>
>   ** So how do we resolve this? **

That's what I'm getting at. The original sources are external -
Dalton, Beethoven, Sartre, etc. But they have no intrinsic meaning or
significance. I can regurgitate facts for a test, or explain what
so-and-so meant when he said such-and-such, but when I make it my own,
it becomes integrated with other things I think, believe, and feel
(subject to principles like coherence, evidence, etc). That internal
synthesis is unique to me -- I can try to explain it, but I will never
be able to adequately communicate what it means to me.

[As an aside, it makes me sad to know that I will never really be
understood by anyone, no matter how hard I try.  Perhaps people
instinctively shy away from facing this sense of alienation? Maybe
that's part of what the existentialists are referring to, I don't
know.]

I agree "no man is an island", but I also think there is no adequate
meaning until the raw material is internalized, mushed together, and
synthesized into something new. People who are more creative than I
(like my husband) add their own material into the mix, and that's
where you find new and interesting ideas being created.

But people who rely on external sources for their meaning will spend
their time (for example) wondering what Beethoven was *really* trying
to say when he wrote that sonata, so they can see the true meaning of
it. They will never try to understand it for themselves, or explore
their feelings and reaction to the music, etc. The sonata will not
change their perspective, or get connected to (say) Philip Glass's
quartet, and that one song by the Beatles, and then lead to developing
a personal musical taste.

It's the difference between the student who gets straight A's because
they study a lot, take good notes, and memorize the material, and the
student who gets A's because they *grok* the structure of the material
and see how all the details fit together.

Self-help books are another example - many of these books (perhaps the
better ones!) feel the need to say "take what works and leave the
rest". I think this indicates that people have a tendency to think
they have to follow the entirety of the advice they read in a book. If
so, these people are not *thinking* about the advice and how it fits
into their lives or whether it applies to their particular problem.
They are not engaging in any kind of synthesis, but are looking for an
external authority for answers.