The law of contradition constitutes a definite limit to meaning in human expression and understanding. A thing cannot both be and not be simultaneously. The nature of our relationship to the universe makes discernment, and therefore choice, unavoidable.
Dichotomies are dangerous. Because the universe is defined by the law of contradiction, dichotomy-based thinking is understandably widespread. But our survival depends on developing an ability to distinguish between valid existential claims and adjectival attributions.
Language operates by exclusion, by the application of the law of contradiction. Its universal use encourages the fallacy, responsible for unimaginable suffering throughout human history, that properly specific exclusions and distinctions are themselves universal. This fallacy is the illusion of the absolute. By fostering the illusion of the absolute, language can lead humans to inhumanity.
Existence precedes essence -- but most of the factors that shape our essences exist before us. Born to specific people in a specific time and place, we are thrust from the womb into a specific pattern of choices, a specific range of possibilites.
Social contracts are valid only when continually, individually reaffirmed. No contract binds absolutely.
Humans differ radically from their environment. Humans make choices; the environment does not. Purpose is a fundamental characteristic of humans, but to attribute it to the environment is always erroneous. The question "Why are we here?" admits only a human response.
Freedom is necessary, but it is not sufficient. Denoting freedom good-in-itself, an end rather than a means, provides license for a sanctimonious brutality capable of annihilating any human culture. Our subjective apprehension of reality makes it impossible for any system not based upon individual moral authority to function non-destructively. |
