Thursday, May 31, 2012
Meaning?
Uncommon Descent is arguing that universities aren't supposed to provide useful skills and knowledge. Instead, universities are supposed to provide "meaning", whatever that is. For some reason I've never understood, conservatives often hold this peculiar view.
Absolute word salad. Utterly devoid of substance.
First, author is applying logic to what he calls "meaning", in order to "prove" that logic has no correlation with "meaning". After you say that the "meaning of life" can't be computed, don't try to compute it!
Second, nobody is really looking for "meaning", whatever that is. College students are looking for STATUS and CONNECTION because they're teenagers. Adolescence is the time when you try to establish your position in the hierarchy and make connections with higher-status people.
Third, there's no earthly reason to assume that the job of a university is to provide "meaning", whatever that is. Universities traditionally satisfied the needs of privileged adolescents, providing a controlled situation where connections could be made and position established. They still do the same thing, though we define privilege in a slightly different way now. It's still purely a matter of inheritance, but we don't use old titles like Duke or Countess. Instead we use new titles like First Nations or African-American or LGBT2Q. ¶ 4:17 AM
As Camus puts it in The Myth of Sisyphus, whether the Sun goes around the Earth, or the other way, is a matter of profound irrelevance to the meaning of life. If it did so determine meaning then we would not be free. There is no ought from is.
Absolute word salad. Utterly devoid of substance.
First, author is applying logic to what he calls "meaning", in order to "prove" that logic has no correlation with "meaning". After you say that the "meaning of life" can't be computed, don't try to compute it!
Second, nobody is really looking for "meaning", whatever that is. College students are looking for STATUS and CONNECTION because they're teenagers. Adolescence is the time when you try to establish your position in the hierarchy and make connections with higher-status people.
Third, there's no earthly reason to assume that the job of a university is to provide "meaning", whatever that is. Universities traditionally satisfied the needs of privileged adolescents, providing a controlled situation where connections could be made and position established. They still do the same thing, though we define privilege in a slightly different way now. It's still purely a matter of inheritance, but we don't use old titles like Duke or Countess. Instead we use new titles like First Nations or African-American or LGBT2Q. ¶ 4:17 AM
