Ah yes! “From first principles”; I think that is definitely the best place from which to embark.
We are the prime observer, the experimental laboratory and the final arbiter.
I am with you; What a slog, to tread the weary path of the ‘sophisticate’. It is no doubt natural for other peoples ideas to eventually become our own, but probably best to get a bit of fieldwork ‘under the belt’ first; Before we disappear down those dusty corridors.
I think too much knowledge of what is ‘right and respectable’ can seriously hamper any attempt at building from first principles.
I am not at all keen on the act of belief. It feels like one is saying, ‘job done!’, ‘case solved!’ and I imagine, one can soon get into, ‘Look at me, getting here; Those poor saps are still looking!’
Belief seems like an act of self-crystallizing and a resting on ones laurels.
What have we got then?
We have the hotchpotch results of our observations and experimentation, together with an accumulation of ‘outside’ ideas and themes that must have been attractive enough, for us to build our little ‘island of being’, there upon.
The more I delve, the less i’m sure about ‘truth’ and ‘reality’. The wise would probably say, ‘stop digging then!’ Ha ha.
There seem to be as many ‘truths’ and ‘realities’ as there are observers.
Obviously, we have the solid ‘truths’ as laid down by the rules of causality that govern our world. But even with this, I feel a certain mutability creeping around the edges.
Your mention of dreams is interesting. Clearly our dreams are going to have a hard time overcoming the laws of causality, but that does not stop them having a ‘reality’ and a ‘power.’
To us, ‘real’ means being able to affect the physical world; And by ‘affect’, we mean, in a way discernible to our physical senses, or via apparatus or equipment that we have manufactured.
This seems quite a narrow, ‘sweet-spot’ for reality!
I see where you are coming from though; If all is up for grabs, then it is feeding time at the zoo! Wars breaking out over conflicting beliefs on what colour harnesses the sky fairies prefer.
We are probably coming from not dissimilar places.
I have very little belief, I think; Just a bag of ideas and themes that I have a ‘warm’ feeling about!
To me, this ‘business’ seems to be about striving to retain a fresh outlook. (staving off the force of crystallization and accretion), playfulness, (developing and playing games) and retaining interest in ‘the search’. (asking questions with a sense of wonder)
