Looking for Meaning

September 5, 2019 Cognitive Insights No Comments

Many bright people live in a world devoid of meaning. By avoiding the devoid, they even get more and more in a strut. How to get out?

This is an important text to me…

and to you, dear reader, for one plain reason: without meaning, there is no meaning… of anything.

Meaning is related to depth.

Meaning is related to the subconceptual.

At the purely conceptual level

there is no meaning possible. If one says: the meaning of concept Y lies in concept X, what is then the meaning of concept X? One keeps looking for meaning as in a look-up table. That would be meaningful if one would, for instance, end up at concept A which would be truly meaningful.

But then I would ask: why?

–  “Because I say it’s meaningful.”

Why do you?

There is no way

of getting beyond concepts in purely conceptual thinking. And ‘meaning’-as-a-concept is just not about the conceptual, at least not as I’m using this term and as you might have guessed.

This meaning is being lost in many scientific domains because that’s a world prone to concept-ualize everything.

Conceptualizing is OK where it’s OK.

Conceptualizing may have bad consequences where it’s not OK. [see: “Other Consequences”]

So, how to get out?

Perhaps by using scientist’s schemes: conceptualizing the subconceptual.

Well, I’m trying to do so as much as I can. Still, I encounter scientists who are ‘resistant’ to anything that could open their house of concepts. Outside of that house, they feel very uncomfortable to the point of – almost – losing rationality itself.

So, how does one find deeper meaning?

By finding it, of course. Which is: by experiencing it. Eventually, one is the other.

Experiencing is a here-and-now event. It’s about poetry, about art, being in nature, being in relationships, etc.

Hm. For instance, physicians see lots of patients but what many of them really see too much are diseases, prognoses, etc.

No depth. No warmth. No meaning in the job. Burnout.

Meditation

is according to me a nice way to reach deeper layers of meaning.

A lot of different stuff is being called ‘meditation’. One of them – my take on it – is centered on deeper contact with oneself. That’s also the goal of the 1000+ AURELIS health meditations.

It is my attempt to bring some meaning.

Leave a Reply

Related Posts

Generosity ‘from the Inside Out’

What if true generosity isn’t about the act of giving but about what flows naturally from within? When generosity emerges from a place of inner abundance, it feels like an expression of who we are. The paradox is this: those who give from fullness never feel diminished. The more they give, the more their abundance Read the full article…

How Doctors Think

Surprise! They think like everybody else. This is based on several articles, my own experience, and long-time interest in the topic. ‘System-1 and system-2’ This is the terminology of Kahneman: System-1 is the ‘fast thinking’ ― more intuitive if you like. System-2 is the ‘slow thinking’ ― more formal reasoning, hypothesis-testing. Nr. 1 is more Read the full article…

Patterns of Everything

Perception is finding patterns. So is thinking. The patterns are in what is perceived or thought and in the perceiving and thinking themselves. This text may seem difficult, but it becomes much easier if you take your time. [‘Patternist’ = related to patterns] Patterns are regularities in associations This way, anything we can see or Read the full article…

Translate »