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by opportune 2882 days ago
I agree, it’s not profound except at face value. Just strikes me as extremely vague and hand-wavy metaphysics

This is the reason that a lot of people don’t like philosophy - because people hide behind verbal tricks which have little meaning beyond sounding “deep”. Green ideas sleep furiously

3 comments

Some ideas are so subtle that words fail to describe. In the same way lay explanations of physics lack understanding that pure equations deliver.

The trick of the philosopher is an attempt at conveying meaning with a blunt instrument.

"To cross a river you need a boat. But when you reach the other side you don’t pick up the boat and carry it." ~ Alan Watts

My former PhD advisor said something along the lines of 'the incompleteness of natural language', this being one of the hardest problems he's been aware of.

This is him:

https://www.cs.stevens.edu/~naumann/publications/publication...

I agree. If you immediately know the candle light is fire, then the meal was cooked a long time ago.
Can't there be room for both awarenesses in a single mind?