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By materialism I don't mean earning a living. What I mean is the belief the material world is all that exists. We are seeing the belief work itself out in the
by yters 8y ago
By materialism I don't mean earning a living. What I mean is the belief the material world is all that exists. We are seeing the belief work itself out in the destruction of the humanities. However, the science and engineering fields are not immune, since they all depend on the humanities for their credibility. I.e. what sense does science make if there is no objective truth? Or, why worry about engineering good quality products if goodness doesn't exist? Then it's just a matter of what everyone can get away with to get the diploma and the high paying job. Hence the high rates of cheating, plagiarism, faking results, etc.
Humanities education made a lot more sense when the subject of the humanities was believed to exist. Then there'd be reason to have many openings for humanities professors, spin off education jobs in public education, private education, etc.
- GCA10 8y agoThanks for the clarification - and sorry to go full tilt at rebutting an argument you weren't making! (Though it was fun to cover the territory.) You're right that without any aesthetic sense, everything gets bleak. Are things that dire, though? With the business media getting obsessed about unicorns, $1T market caps, etc., it's easy to believe that money fever has infected everyone. It hasn't. Friends who teach, make movies, deliver social services, write, etc. are still keeping some sense of goodness alive.
- whatshisface 8y ago>Or, why worry about engineering good quality products if goodness doesn't exist? Why bother reasoning from our intuitions about what we want when we could just pursue our subconscious goals directly? Who needs to be convinced that they want a product to be good-quality?
- yters 8y ago> Who needs to be convinced that they want a product to be good-quality? Many people, apparently.