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Old March 21st 17, 02:40 PM posted to sci.astro.amateur
Chris L Peterson
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Default So, what's on the Moon?

On Mon, 20 Mar 2017 23:44:26 -0400, Davoud wrote:

Davoud:
I think that the notion that the Universe is beautiful is purely
sentiocentric; it wouldn't be beautiful if if no one were in it to say
that it is beautiful.


Chris L Peterson:
That's true. But it's beautiful while there's something sentient to
make that observation, and it's all meaningless when there isn't.


Sometimes I take the nihilistic view‹that on a sufficiently large scale
it is all meaningless in any case. Strangely, perhaps, that view is
sometimes comforting, at odd moments.


While it superficially appears to meet the definition of "nihilism", I
don't myself adopt that terminology for the simple reason that I don't
think the philosophy itself is adequately developed to be useful, in
that it rests on other concepts which are themselves poorly defined,
such as "meaning" and "value" as "intrinsic" things.

That sentience is an objective "thing" like any other property that
things in the Universe can possess isn't important. What's important
is that I have it, and can therefore reflect on my observations. Why
should I care if that's nothing special in terms of the Universe as a
whole?