Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, September 12, 2016

The Sublime Mess? (H3)



In our reading for, Plato at the Googolplex, this week a concept called, the Sublime braid, was mention.  The Sublime Braid is a trinity of three qualities: goodness, truth, and beauty, which in the words of another great philosopher from a galaxy far far away, “surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds us together.”  In a less cryptic nutshell these are the things that make up the world and our perception of it.  These are also called Transcendentals just to make it a little more confusing.  However, is this a sublime braid, or a sublime mess.  I want to start this little query with a story some of you might have heard before about the philosopher Socrates.  Once a friend of his went to the Oracle at Delphi and asked her if any man was wiser than Socrates?  She answered “no.”  Thinking this must be impossible he went out to question the wise men and politicians of the day.  Wherever he went though, he could always say.  “Well at least I am wiser than him.  He thinks he knows what is great and good, while I know I do not.” I know I do not.  Socrates had many failings but one thing he believed that has some grain of truth in it was that his wisdom was in acknowledging his own ignorance.  So, taking up this position in a way, I have to wonder.  Beauty is not a universal thing, it can be argued, debated, speculated and disagreed on, the same applies to goodness and truth.  What is goodness, what is truth, what is beauty?  What is the Sublime Brade, maybe, a sublime mess?

2 comments:

  1. Ahh. Star Wars reference! How unrelated. Right?
    Right?
    Well, what religion do we often associate philosophy with? Buddhism, right? And what fact do we know about the force that the supposed horrendous prequels provided us with? It is facilitated by metachlorians. This is very interesting, because although fans like to ostracize Lucas's choice to explain the force. However, many researchers of Buddhism have purported that there is indeed a chemical that some buddhists believe to exist in our bodies, and the increasing amount thereof confirms the higher caliber of connectedness. An example of a proven chemical that is related is Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2. Just a thought! So, interesting comparison.

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    1. First. Wow Noah you cut your hair! Second that is actually pretty interesting. Really the comparisons between the Jedi understanding of "the Force" and Buddhism doesn't end there. For example it is believed that when followers of the light die they become one with the force and basically fade into oblivion, kind of like in Buddhism. Some individuals, however, maintain their individuality and have the ability to manifest as force ghosts to guide others after death. Not unlike the bodhisattvas of Buddhism, who are individuals that hold back form become a Buddha so as to guide others to enlightenment.

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