I thought of noding this when I read the replies to my writeup "To all you so-called "logical" motherfuckers:". In there, somebody mentioned that logic does have objectivity as one of its virtues. Well, I won't argue that logic has virtues (it is one of the ten Greek "liberal arts", after all), but objectivity isn't one of them.

Nope, objectivity is another thing altogether, a virtue all in itself, something that Buddhists fight to attain and businessmen pretend to have. Simply using the same method of thinking as most of the Western world doesn't at all confer objectivity. It's just thinking, which is a process (as opposed to consciousness, which is a state of being--THE state of being, actually). People more often than not slant their thinking to conform to some imagined or wished-for reality. Everyone who's ever heard an excuse or confronted an asshole knows that.

Funnily enough, modern science kind of choked itself when it discovered (to its complete and total dismay) that there cannot (logically) EVER be such thing as an objective observer. The guy watching the experiment, even if he's in a different room and touches nothing--he STILL affects the experiment...just by watching. If you think about that for a moment, it makes sense, but if you want it to *logically* make sense, you have only to consult some basic particle physics for proof.

Of course, that makes it sound like objectivity is impossible or something, but I'm not inclined to buy that. The Buddhists seek it, as I said, and they're not in the habit of seeking the unreal. Very practical people, buddhists. But they do view objectivity as a condition of consciousness, not of thinking. According to them (and a few others, probably; there are lots of spinoffs of buddhism), it is not possible to THINK without being subjective about it. But it is possible to BE without being subjective about it.

You got to admit, it sounds like fun, if nothing else.

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