ThomasRyan comments on Rationality Quotes January 2010 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Zack_M_Davis 07 January 2010 09:36AM

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Comment author: ThomasRyan 17 January 2010 05:04:41AM 0 points [-]

All men, at some moment in their lives, feel themselves to be alone. And they are. To live is to be separated from what we were in order to approach what we are going to be in the mysterious future. Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition. Man is the only being who knows he is alone, and the only one who seeks out another. His nature -- if that word can be used in reference to man, who has "invented" himself by saying "No" to nature -- consists in his longing to realize himself in another. Man is nostalgia and a search for communion. Therefore, when he is aware of himself he is aware of his lack of another, that is, of his solitude.

-- Octavio Paz, The labyrinth of Solitude

Comment author: wedrifid 17 January 2010 05:31:02AM 6 points [-]

Solitude is the profoundest fact of the human condition.

Or maybe that is just what a lonely man might think so he can feel deep. Like a high status emo.

Comment author: ThomasRyan 17 January 2010 07:00:40AM *  0 points [-]

Or maybe it's what a genius would say after emerging from the "existential labyrinth," the main theme of The Labyrinth of Solitude.

Here is Jostein Gaarder's response to your response:

Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care.

The condition of solitude is not imaginary; though, Octavio Paz, being a poet, sensationalizes it well. It's a condition that has, at the very least, lightly touched every human. And it is a condition that has spun many great people into the deepest kind of angst.

Communication is a major human bottleneck, and Octavio Paz laments this. Our input/output capabilities are severely restricting, considering everything that goes on in our minds. Our methods of communication aren't very effective.

I find Octavio Paz's quote interesting in light of transhumanism.

Comment author: wedrifid 17 January 2010 07:53:26AM 2 points [-]

Or maybe it's what a genius would say after emerging from the "existential labyrinth," the main theme The Labyrinth of Solitude.

"Lonely" -> "senstationalise the experience so I sound deep" -> "gain status as a poet and author" -> "get laid". That ranks well above "cutting" as far as plans go.

I do not respect wallowing in existential angst and definitely don't consider it rational. More importantly I do not allow my brain to reward itself with a sense of smug superiority when it generates such trains of thought for me.

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