"Taking its place is James’ rendition of the Tolstoyan deification of the natural man, who toils each day, selling his labor but never his soul." -- Beautiful prose.
The final paragraph reads to me like a beautiful narrativization / illustration of a dialectic
The strongest distinction here, for me, is between the meaning we recognize in others and the meaning we feel from within. That makes James’ therapeutic project feel both generous and incomplete in exactly the right way. He widens perception, but widened perception is still not inhabitation. We can admire the workman, the soldier, the convert, or the intellectual adventurer, yet their significance reaches us from the outside. Our own reaches us as burden, pressure, hope, fatigue, and choice. Perhaps what James leaves unsaid is that significance is not only perceived as a pattern; it is carried as a life.
Very neat and clear narrative. And great perspective. Maybe such view can also be demonstrated from neuroscience, e.g. happy chemicals, dorpamin, endorphin, striving makes u alive.
Meaning as such requires a sense of triviality towards one's life in the grand scheme of the narrative one partakes. It requires identifying the insignificance of one's life to participate in the significance of the grant narrative. Meaninglessness, a term that is tossed like candy in today's world, appears to be a consequence of attributing too much significance towards one's life; doing things for oneself, doing things that make one happy and so on so forth. However, the problem is: such an outlook offers a transient form of hollow happiness or satisfaction that constantly demands novelty. Now, the issue is what to do? Perhaps a starting point would be to acknowledge that life is an outward projection. It demands the presence of the other with utmost sincerity. And that is where I presume, the "ideals are in marriage with the effort" as per William James's account. In other words, life is meant to live for others. There is no 'I' in life; instead, there is him/her.
I think he effectively says it, in essays like “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”; and in general, his celebration of subjectivity is an acknowledgment that meaning is plural and various, and deserves our acknowledgment even when we do not capture the center of someone else’s vision. Strong essay! I’ve shared it on the William James Society Bluesky account @wjsociety.bsky.social.
"Taking its place is James’ rendition of the Tolstoyan deification of the natural man, who toils each day, selling his labor but never his soul." -- Beautiful prose.
The final paragraph reads to me like a beautiful narrativization / illustration of a dialectic
The strongest distinction here, for me, is between the meaning we recognize in others and the meaning we feel from within. That makes James’ therapeutic project feel both generous and incomplete in exactly the right way. He widens perception, but widened perception is still not inhabitation. We can admire the workman, the soldier, the convert, or the intellectual adventurer, yet their significance reaches us from the outside. Our own reaches us as burden, pressure, hope, fatigue, and choice. Perhaps what James leaves unsaid is that significance is not only perceived as a pattern; it is carried as a life.
Thank you for your comment! I agree entirely and I like the way you explained it.
Thank you for the inspiration!
It is raining
It is raining
We sit together
We sit together
The weather is inside us
The weather is inside us
— Sioux Song, Joel Oppenheimer
Very neat and clear narrative. And great perspective. Maybe such view can also be demonstrated from neuroscience, e.g. happy chemicals, dorpamin, endorphin, striving makes u alive.
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate that perspective.
Meaning as such requires a sense of triviality towards one's life in the grand scheme of the narrative one partakes. It requires identifying the insignificance of one's life to participate in the significance of the grant narrative. Meaninglessness, a term that is tossed like candy in today's world, appears to be a consequence of attributing too much significance towards one's life; doing things for oneself, doing things that make one happy and so on so forth. However, the problem is: such an outlook offers a transient form of hollow happiness or satisfaction that constantly demands novelty. Now, the issue is what to do? Perhaps a starting point would be to acknowledge that life is an outward projection. It demands the presence of the other with utmost sincerity. And that is where I presume, the "ideals are in marriage with the effort" as per William James's account. In other words, life is meant to live for others. There is no 'I' in life; instead, there is him/her.
I think he effectively says it, in essays like “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”; and in general, his celebration of subjectivity is an acknowledgment that meaning is plural and various, and deserves our acknowledgment even when we do not capture the center of someone else’s vision. Strong essay! I’ve shared it on the William James Society Bluesky account @wjsociety.bsky.social.