
Experiencing Self vs. Narrating Self (2017) - visopsys
https://mihankes10.blogspot.com/2017/02/experiencing-self-vs-narrating-self.html
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cs0
Link gives me a 404.

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opless
[https://web.archive.org/web/20190114063123/https://mihankes1...](https://web.archive.org/web/20190114063123/https://mihankes10.blogspot.com/2017/02/experiencing-
self-vs-narrating-self.html)

This link works.

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SolaceQuantum
"Medieval crusaders believed that God and heaven provided their lives with
meaning. Modern liberals believe that individual free choices provide life
with meaning. They are all equally delusional."

This essay seems to be mostly posited to critique the belief in individual
narrative- i.e. the idea that we are free individuals who have the will to
choose rationally, as the idea of liberalism is based in.

While I'm down for that argument, the above passage is of particular confusion
for me. If no external, nor internal force provides meaning to life, what is
there? If the passage was to claim there is no meaning at all, why not just
say that clearly?

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jackstraw14
Not the author, but I think there's a difference between claiming there is no
meaning and claiming that the different narratives of meaning are an illusion.
Saying it as the author did shows that there is a process happening but maybe
the "meaning" we come up with isn't the useful piece. Simply saying "there's
no meaning" can either end the discussion or take you in a thousand different
philosophical directions. Taoism's 10,000 things could be rephrased as 10,000
narratives of meaning.

Maybe the value/meaning of our cognition lies in this process, but not in the
narratives we associate with it.

