A Human Strategy by Matt Berry, aphorism 152

152
If physiological reality could be seen as a scale, along which one may have more or less force, more or less joy from existence, then I would say that certain orientations toward … from reality elevate; others, send us downward.  This is my objection to modern realists.  In the process of building their perspective, they give no thought for their own physiological reality.  That is, the physiological perspective is, as it were, more akin to a glass elevator than a duck blind.  Ignoring the physiological flux of the observer does not bring one closer to disinterested objectivity.  Rather, such ignorance precludes the goal.  Yet as descendants of the ascetic order, the realists have acquired the habit of resignation, and so they resign all to a single, myopic honesty.  They travel up and down the whole scale of possible heights and depths, sitting in the corner, cursing their fate or rejoicing their fortune ... never seeing that realism is a human invention ...  that any claim for “objective observation” implies man as machine ... and so why not care for the fuel, the gears, or a real control mechanism? What is the role of my condition in the formation of my premises? And what stimuli do they provide after they have been formed? Rational Idealism shunted aside, why continue to believe we intend our actions by way of our thoughts?

The whole descent toward realism — like spiritual elevation — is artificial — is like a “building” in that it is an addition to nature.  The building opposes nature in the sense that it is raised up in opposition to the laws of gravity, erosion .... In short, honesty with our own perspectives must be trained.



A Human Strategy ** The Mechanics of Virtue ** Post-Atheism



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