3 ms·
Well, I can tell you what has helped me so far in my own epistemic crisis: The first two chapters of “Maps of Meaning” helped me separate truth-as-a-descriptiv
by undershirt 8y ago
Well, I can tell you what has helped me so far in my own epistemic crisis:
The first two chapters of “Maps of Meaning” helped me separate truth-as-a-descriptive-framework vs truth-as-a-functional-framework, which was great for recovering from what postmodernism did to our sense of truth.
“Postmodernism for Rationalists”[1] really helped me define the chaos i felt about truth, and helped me put words and philosophers to different thoughts that I didn‘t know were there.
“States and Nomads”[2] helped me realize how all models are wrong, and their utility is ultimately contextual. It also introduced me to Jorge Luis Borges, who has written a lot of creative fiction around ideas like this.
A big reprieve came from this analysis of an Emily Dickinson poem on truth[3]. The part about “circumference” of truth really worked for me, I feel now that peace has to come from outside that circumference, not inside (which is what you might be struggling with?). Bertrand Russell spent his life trying to find a philosophical basis for religion and never found one, but this is as close as I've gotten.
For my happiness, I intersperse fiction (poetry, short stories) with more serious essays of philosophy. I think that resulting balance between art and treatise has been important for me in getting through this, but I haven't been on this for long.
If any of this has landed for you, we can swap sources and thoughts sometime, which might be a good therapy (both ways).
[1]:https://palegreendot.net/assets/2017-10-09/postmodernism_for_rationalists.pdf https://palegreendot.net/assets/2017-10-09/postmodernism_for...
[2]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGaFcI2UNrI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGaFcI2UNrI
[3]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55kqNg88JqI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55kqNg88JqI