When we hear of people seeking status, we recall the consequences of pursuit of status (loneliness, strife), rather than what status itself causes for the people who achieve it (freedom, sense of having done something important). Since the action of imagining that status could mean the latter is made impossible due to awareness of the former, the feeling of lostness arises, from a lack of a reference point to empathize with the feelings of others that believe these things.
I don’t know what to make of this. It means everything I’d pieced together about people is utterly, utterly wrong, because it assumed that they all valued truth, and understanding—the pursuits of intelligence when you don’t have the political trait.
Literal emotional reactions are assigned to situations and concepts all the time, but ultimately, every person on Earth just wants to feel at rest, with the awareness that nothing bad is happening and the awareness of opportunities and/or warmth around them. Therefore, everyone (that means yourself and myself!) seeks truth and understanding, it’s just that the very words “truth” and “understanding” are assigned different emotional reactions, and so are given different priorities based on the life situation of the people being queried of these concepts.
Therefore the most one can say about people is not that they don’t seek truth or understanding, but rather, they’ve chosen a different means to get to the place that truth or understanding lead to.
If I may ask, is this line of thinking limited or global in emotional significance?
Not necessarily. While for every person “truth” and “understanding” have require different thought processes in objective reality, the subjective feeling for everyone is similar enough for them to be considered universal values that most people at least desire. This works best if “truth” and “understanding” are considered states of mind that everyone has subjective triggers for, because it allows for an objective reality of “truth” and “understanding”, while preserving the notion of subjective definitions and requirements.
While everyone therefore desires truth and understanding, they may not seek it because those concepts aren’t considered necessary or connected for other desirable things. I may have misunderstood the OP’s dilemma- was he disturbed by the idea that people don’t value truth and understanding?
When we hear of people seeking status, we recall the consequences of pursuit of status (loneliness, strife), rather than what status itself causes for the people who achieve it (freedom, sense of having done something important). Since the action of imagining that status could mean the latter is made impossible due to awareness of the former, the feeling of lostness arises, from a lack of a reference point to empathize with the feelings of others that believe these things.
Literal emotional reactions are assigned to situations and concepts all the time, but ultimately, every person on Earth just wants to feel at rest, with the awareness that nothing bad is happening and the awareness of opportunities and/or warmth around them. Therefore, everyone (that means yourself and myself!) seeks truth and understanding, it’s just that the very words “truth” and “understanding” are assigned different emotional reactions, and so are given different priorities based on the life situation of the people being queried of these concepts.
Therefore the most one can say about people is not that they don’t seek truth or understanding, but rather, they’ve chosen a different means to get to the place that truth or understanding lead to.
If I may ask, is this line of thinking limited or global in emotional significance?
If people seek different things that are named “truth” and “understanding”, then it seems wrong to say that everyone seeks truth and understanding.
True. Would “desires” be more appropriate than “seek”?
The point was that we are using the same name to refer to different things.
Not necessarily. While for every person “truth” and “understanding” have require different thought processes in objective reality, the subjective feeling for everyone is similar enough for them to be considered universal values that most people at least desire. This works best if “truth” and “understanding” are considered states of mind that everyone has subjective triggers for, because it allows for an objective reality of “truth” and “understanding”, while preserving the notion of subjective definitions and requirements.
While everyone therefore desires truth and understanding, they may not seek it because those concepts aren’t considered necessary or connected for other desirable things. I may have misunderstood the OP’s dilemma- was he disturbed by the idea that people don’t value truth and understanding?
Value those things intrinsically or value them instrumentally?
Intrinsically. It may just be that they’re not seeking it at the moment.
I don’t know anyone who claims to have found Zen enlightenment and been dissatisfied with it; perhaps it is theoretically impossible to do so.
But I do know people who are perfectly happy with half-truths and partial ignorance.
That isn’t an inconsistency if people can have more than one intrinsic value.
EDIT: Ahh, I’m not sure I follow what you wrote there.
I meant ’Perhaps it is impossible to find Zen enlightenment without being the kind of person that would be happy with that.
I don’t know how to evaluate people who have multiple intrinsic values but seek stability where fewer than all of them are reached.
Your first paragraph seems like it could apply to anything people care about, not just status.
It can, it’s a specific application of a general principle.