October 31, 2018 Wednesday
Bedtime Story
Dealing with the Absurd
Weinberg thus is only confirming the
assertion that Albert Camus makes in the first chapter of his essay that the
universe is pointless which makes this world and all life forms on its surface
including human lives pointless.
Anything pointless to human way of
reasoning becomes by default nonsensical and unreasonable since all of us
strive to seek purpose in existence of any and everything our senses are
capable of perceiving.
Camus stresses that we apes have
incorporated a sense of romanticism abound this world that is in actuality very
alien and inhuman.
“Nature, red in tooth and claw” is a phrase
very commonly found in literature concerning the brutality that is very
commonly displayed in nature but goes unseen or rather ignored by human eyes
since cruelty to other animals is often not seen as such.
The human activities and its relation to
other species are rife with almost wanton cruelty.
In a major report published by World
Wildlife Fund just a couple of days ago as reported in ‘The Guardian’ that
since 1970, 60% of the vertebrate animals have been wiped out.
The annihilation by human activities of the
fresh water habitats is even worse with their populations having collapsed by
83%.
The two biggest causes of this unprecedented
destruction of life forms by a single species (it is now being called the sixth
mass extinction) is agriculture and hunting of animals for food – our insatiable
need for food of the ever growing population.
In short, there is nothing to be proud or
romantic about humans.
Yet there is constant longing and endeavor
in us apes to search out for meaning even though it is plainly obvious that
there is none to be found.
It is absurdity and a paradox that our
lives are replete with.
The other similar paradox that we encounter
constantly is the construction of our lives on tomorrow that will only bring us
closer to death which is our ultimate enemy.
Yet most of us continue to carry about our
lives as if the surety of death does not exist.
Camus then goes on to describe some other
philosophers and their philosophies who too had understood the absurdity of the
human situation but was deeply dissatisfied with the way they dealt with the
problem.
In the end some of them eventually to reconcile
with this absurdity had to abandon reason and switch on to religions and gods
where as others resorted to Platonism.
Platonism is a form of escapism from
reality in that it suggests that what we perceive of the world through our sensory
systems is not the reality.
There exists certain reality beyond our
perception, that he labeled as “Forms” or “ideas” which is true knowledge and
which can be considered as the objective blueprint of perfection.
Platonism is merely another form of escapist
fantasy.
Stay tuned to the voice of an average story storytelling
chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
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Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
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