EXPANDED VERSIONS OF THE WAYS Arthur M. Jackson
Copyright 2001, 2003, 2006
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EXPANDED VERSION OF THE WAYS OF WISDOM
A more detailed description of each of the Ways of Wisdom and congruent methods of achieving them are presented below. However, let me begin with a reminder that the current writing about the WAYS OF WISDOM contains much speculation. They are based on the best evidence I have been able to assemble, but they are a long way from being proven. And like all of science they have no more standing than the available evidence can support. These ideas are presented as falsifiable hypotheses. Everything about them is open to change as study, research, and more thought requires. It is the quality and quantity of this research that determines the value of anything written. The goal of this book is to motivate study, experimentation, exploration, inquiry, and investigation relevant to each Way and all related or relevant ideas. This material must be assembled and organized so it can best be used. Such information would help to determine the dimensions, exact components, value, and application in people's lives of each Way of Wisdom, or whatever ideas may replace them. Eventually, there should be vast files developed on each Way detailing the research findings to either support, call it into question, or replace it. These materials would bring together all the information available to clarify each Way of Wisdom, its value, and how to achieve it. VOLUME I is a beginning in this effort, and VOLUME II substantially expands on this material.
FIRST WAY OF WISDOM: Human Beings Are the Ultimate Reference System (HBAURS) living immersed within a universe where reality is the objective reference system.
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Throughout history people have believed that there is something absolute, or ultimate that exists independent of themselves that would make their life meaningful. The foregoing position implies or depends on an Ultimate Reference System that could be used as a criterion to measure and evaluate human life and human behavior. However, more thought and experience makes it clear that human beings themselves are the source of meaning and value. They are as near as we can get to an Ultimate Reference System. Therefore, I take the position that Human Beings Are the Ultimate Reference System defining meaning. (My concept of "reference system" includes what Einstein means by "a frame of reference.")
The foregoing means that it is the human species itself that provides the framework within which meaning of human life must be interpreted. And for each person this makes the answer to this question dependent upon empirical study and evidence.
Because this concept stands in opposition to most of what we have been taught, it is easy to be confused by what it means. Some readers interpret it to mean that I am saying there is no way to use reality as a reference. To help reduce the likelyhood that anyone interprets HBAURS in the foregoing way I would like to present another concept which I hope will clarify matters. This is Reality As the Objective Reference System (RAORS). I take reality to be everything that exists -- chairs, cars, rivers, atoms, eclipses, stars, black matter and black energy, and of course all living things including humanity.
However, the foregoing is talking about existence, not meaning. The only meaning associated with the existence of a chair, star, or living thing is one applied by human beings. If we say a star or an elephant has it’s own meaning we are the ones deciding this not the star, or the elephant. If there are alien life forms capable of using symbolic language they would provide their own reference system which we might or might not be capable of comprehending. Therefore, discussing the meaning of anything that exists is talking about human nature, perception, and interpretations. As a result of this whatever meaning we assign is subject to change as we study and get to better understand our own nature and the rest of the universe in general.
I do not in any sense feel that there is "no way to use reality as a reference." Obviously, reality is the main resource for our efforts to understand and to correct our errors. But reality is not the Ultimate Reference System for many reasons. One, as discussed later is that we can't directly access reality, but only know it through experience and thought so it cannot be our Ultimate Reference System. Another is that our knowledge of reality changes as we learn more and more. But we must make all of our choices based on our current understanding. All of our motivations and knowledge are tied to what is known today. For these reasons Human Beings Are the Ultimate Reference System -- because we live our full life making choices and plans with the Reference System current knowledge makes available to us. It doesn't matter to us that five generations in the future society's understanding of reality may totally change the way people live and the goals they pursue. Our life has limits. It exists only now. The future is just an unknown, and our only tie to it is our own individual life and our relatedness to our humanity.
Because science allows us to better utilize our language ability we are getting better and better approximations to reality (at least in so far as it can be used to improve the quality of human living). But again, all of our interpretations are based on our current understanding of reality -- not on what reality truly is.
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Some individuals have interpreted HBAURS such that they fear it would convince persons to be satisfied with their current understanding of reality and overlook the need to compare all conclusions, ideas, assumptions, thoughts, etc. to Reality As the Objective Reference System.
I take things to be just the opposite. Since HBAURS requires us to focus on quality of life, there then becomes a driving need to learn more and more about everything that exists. Every aspect of our life depends on understanding reality including the reality of ignorance, disease, hunger, and how our bodies work. This would require that in so far as possible every person's ability would be as fully developed as possible and utilized in this process. But not just to learn, also to apply our knowledge because for a Science of Ethics that's what knowledge is for.
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