Thursday, February 17, 2022

(Deceptive) Experiential Truth

Sharon Rawlette claims that the feeling of "ought-to-be-ness" just is goodness. She writes from a utilitarian point of view, a simplistic view of life, which is somewhat inhuman.

But we can clothe the feeling of "ought-to-be-ness" in more familiar and less alien clothing. For instance, the feelings of love, joy, and peace have no law against them. They are or have in them the feeling of ought-to-be, so of course there is no law against them.

We can call the feeling of love an experiential truth. Just to experience it is to connect to a truth, an absolute truth which can't be refuted. Perhaps that truth can be expressed in words, perhaps not. But either way, the feeling of love is 100% true.

If the feeling of love (or of joy, or peace, or whatever else) is not connected with reality properly (for instance if the feeling of love does not connect to actions or intentions of love, or the feelings of joy and peace blind us to other people's suffering, which is a truth in itself) then those experiential truths -- 100% true in themselves -- can deceive. Because of how we are, we draw false conclusions from their 100% reliable evidence. They are then like any other deceptive truth.

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