{"id":1369,"date":"2013-08-29T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2013-08-29T22:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=1369"},"modified":"2013-08-29T14:02:00","modified_gmt":"2013-08-29T22:02:00","slug":"the-experience-of-vitality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=1369","title":{"rendered":"The Experience of Vitality"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), the noted pioneer of contemporary views of mythology, wrote: \u201cPeople say that what we\u2019re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what we\u2019re really seeking. I think that what we\u2019re seeking is an<em> experience of being alive<\/em>, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>I so agree, because it\u2019s deeper than the mental construct; it\u2019s visceral. We can talk about meaning, but it becomes more when we can <strong><em>feel<\/em><\/strong> that our lives are meaningful. The feeling rather than the thinking is important. Admittedly, though, it is closer to poetry. I like to quote Whitehead on this: \u201cThe use of philosophy is to maintain an active novelty of fundamental ideas illuminating the social system.\u201d My interpretation of this passage from near the end of his book, <em>Modes of Thought<\/em>, is this: Good philosophy, meaningful philosophy, will be unafraid to use new words, new constructs that are slightly elusive of mere rationality. We\u2019re talking about aesthetic, moral, intuitive ideas that transcend logic.<\/p>\n<p>Meaningful philosophy, a philosophy of life that is felt as compelling, a philosophy that illuminates, must escape the dry confines of mere rationality.&#160; Admittedly, rationality is better than superstition, but there is a subtle difference between pre-rational ideas that have been kluged together so that they offer the illusion of coherence\u2014which is what constitutes 80% of normal discourse, and trans-rational ideas, which must reach into novelty, poetry, to suggest something that can be uplifting or inspiring. Philosophy as it stands is fairly good in cultivating critical thinking. Yet at a moderate to advanced degree, mere rationality lacks the power to fully describe the ideals of morality and aesthetics.<\/p>\n<p>What then will it take, what words, what experiences, to help you to feel more meaningful in your life?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), the noted pioneer of contemporary views of mythology, wrote: \u201cPeople say that what we\u2019re all seeking is a meaning for life. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what we\u2019re really seeking. I think that what we\u2019re seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literacy","category-spirituality-and-philosophy","category-wisdom-ing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1370,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1369\/revisions\/1370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}