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RE: You are at the center of the Universe (And you have the whole thing to yourself)
I upvoted this because I think it's a very interesting way of looking at things, and am glad you took the time to write something like this. However, I totally disagree with you:
- People are already a-holes; if they actually believed they were the center of the universe, we would all get a lot worse.
- Even though we all have different perceptions of reality it does not mean reality is different, only our perception of it. For instance, you a gave the blue sheet of paper example. I happen to be color blind, at least with red. I cannot see the difference between blue and purple. However, give me a spectrophotometer and I can point out purple everytime. Why? because our reality and the way objects react within it can be objectively evaluated through mathematics.
Check out the article I wrote the other day:
https://steemit.com/philosophy/@melek/the-rise-of-pluralism-and-the-supremacy-of-truth
We will proably never agree. However, Steemit is amazing because it's great to have a place to discuss these things.
By the way I totally agree with these two statements:
You perceive this Universe through your own unique means
You interpret this experience in your own unique manner
My article states those ideas as well.
Interesting, how we have exactly opposite conclusions
Hello melek, thanks for your reply.
1 - I realize the title might sound a bit like promoting self-centredness, but it's not the case, since what I am arguing for is not that every person is the center of THE universe, but rather the center of THEIR universe, which being true for every single conscious being leads to an absolutely equal ground for all of them. In fact, if anything, I am saying that this is a rather daunting prospect (you are responsible for everything you perceive and how you perceive it, being fundamentally alone in your perception of your own unique reality), however it shouldn't bring you down, since it simply means that you are alone in creating your existence, but shouldn't necessarily feel lonely (very different things). This is something I will elaborate on in further installments of this theory as I flesh it out some more.
2 - Indeed, what I argue for here, is that our realities differ from one another's on three different levels: physical, perceptual, and interpretational. The physical differences manifest themselves simply from the fact that we do not share the same coordinates in spacetime. Since you are colorblind, this means there is also a fundamental discrepancy in perception (but even if you weren't, it would still be present, albeit less pronounced). But thirdly, even if we both were able to perceive more or less the same color blue, there is no way of telling what this perception evokes for each of us on the level of our interpretation. For example, for one person the color blue has strong connotations of sadness, intimidation, loneliness, for another it is associated with the vast sea, freedom, and potential. This is the level of qualia, and it is completely up to the individual on how to interpret it. So, even disregarding the first two levels of discrepancy (physical and perceptual) I argue that since your consciousness is what fundamentally shapes your reality, your interpretive cognitional level plays a key role in shaping the actual reality you exist in.
Math is a very special beast in this regard, as it is indeed universal in its description of the universe/reality, however it also bears absolutely no relevance to the actual experiencing of it. I will elaborate on this more in the following installments as well, but just as an example: there are no such things as circles, dots or straight lines in the universe, they simply do not exist. All of these are our own constructs, existing solely in the abstract realm of mathematics, yet these concepts are the only things that we can all agree upon as observers (making math universal in our understanding), while having no actual basis in reality.
Thanks again for commenting, and I will check out your article.