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Friday, February 20, 2009Love and Other Constructs of the Mind If love is just chemical then if i reproduce the same chemical in someones braincan I literally make them fall in love with anybody?A: That is the "deterministic" (or worse, the "fatalistic") explanation ofemotions. Emotions, consciousness, soul, free will, conscience, etc are not "just"chemicals or snynapses or whatever science declares it to be.Science is not wrong, except in its metaphysical classification of these events asbeing "just" chemical, or "merely" bio-physiology at work.Metaphysics is the art of constructing explanations for everything that exists.For example, the description of a "table" is metaphysical, while the table itselfis physical. Every word except personal pro-nouns, in every language, represents ametaphysical concept. Deterministic science dismisses the metaphysical descriptionof conscious and bio-physiological events as anything more than the starkscientific (physics) description.However, "love" and all the rest of that is obviously much more than the sum ofits total bio-physiological activity. It has metaphysical meaning for all of usthat encompasses not only the recognition that love is a reaction to something,but that since we don't all love the same things, there must be a relation betweenthe bio-physiology and the metaphysics we each, individually, hold.Your metaphysics may be somewhat or extremely different than mine, and differentfrom someone else. Sometimes we do not even recognize the metaphysics of anotherperson; in other words, he and we seem to be talking about two different thingswhen in fact we are talking about two different things--his metaphysicalevaluation describes "love" as bio-physiology, while yours and mine describes itas "a pleasurable emotion that gives us confirmation that something is importantenough to value beyond "like."Since love is an individual response by one person to the value system he/shesubscribes to, it would be impossible to make someone love what you want them tolove through the introduction of a "love chemical"--at least not without incitingwithin them a neurosis having to do with the conflict between what you have forcedthem to love, and what they actually value enough to loveWhat is this moment call "now?"?Epistemologically, it is the only moment in existence. The old play on words iscorrect: "Yesterday is gone, and tomorrow will never come."Time is a construct of the mind that allows it to string together all the momentsof "now" into something cohesive and having the charcteristic of endlessness, yetbecause of the construct we can remember prior moments of now.
 
"Time is a measurement of motion; as such, it is a type of relationship. Timeapplies only within the universe, when you define a standard—such as the motion ofthe earth around the sun. If you take that as a unit, you can say: 'This personhas a certain relationship to that motion; he has existed for three revolutions;he is three years old.' But when you get to the universe as a whole, obviously nostandard is applicable. You cannot get outside the universe. The universe iseternal in the literal sense: non-temporal, out of time." Leonard Peikoff, “ThePhilosophy of Objectivism” lecture series (1976), question period, Lecture 2"The idea of an infinitely small amount of length or temporal duration hasvalidity only as a mathematical device useful for making certain calculations, notas a description of components of reality. Reality does not contain either pointsor instants (in the mathematical sense)." Harry Binswanger “Q & A Department:Identity and Motion,” The Objectivist Forum, Dec. 1981, 13.The brain has a "clock speed", which works virtually the same way as a computer.It has been estimated that our minds can absorb approximately 10 "moments" eachsecond, and it is these moments we string together for the illusion that time iscontinuous (whereas it is actually motion that is continuous.) Time, as statedabove, is a relationship to motion. But we do not comprehend each of those 10moments each second; sometimes we don't even comprehend "seconds" because whensomething extraordinary or at least eventful and consciousness-filling happens, wesay "time flies." An hour can go by in what feels like minutes.So the moment wecall now is only the moment you are in and only when you realize you are in it. Itcan be as short as your mind can comprehend, or as long as your mind is consumedin an interest.What constitutes beauty in your eyes?When we say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, we are talking aboutmetaphysical values. Generally, our species appreciates that beautiful sunset, agreat play or movie, a job well done, heros, birth, and the "eternal" over the"transient" because of metaphysical value judgments we make.Metaphysics, "in the formation of a sense of life, [which has since come to becalled a "world view"] is the term important. It is a concept that belongs to therealm of values, since it implies an answer to the question: Important—to whom?Yet its meaning is different from that of moral values. Important does notnecessarily mean 'good.' It means 'a quality, character or standing such as toentitle to attention or consideration' (The American College Dictionary).“Important—in its essential meaning, as distinguished from its more limited andsuperficial uses—is a metaphysical term. It pertains to that aspect of metaphysicswhich serves as a bridge between metaphysics and ethics: to a fundamental view ofman’s nature."Is the universe intelligible to man, or unintelligible and unknowable? Can manfind happiness on earth, or is he doomed to frustration and despair? Does man havethe power of choice, the power to choose his goals and to achieve them, the powerto direct the course of his life—or is he the helpless plaything of forces beyondhis control, which determine his fate? Is man, by nature, to be valued as good, orto be despised as evil?" Ayn Rand, various sourceshttp://aynrandlexicon.com/lexicon/metaph...The Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists is the SM ofThe Free Assemblage of Metaphysical Naturalists LLC.The Academy of Metaphysical Naturalism TM,
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