Comments by "Peter deWolf" (@StoneShards) on "Truth as Glorious Adventure | Douglas Murray | EP 376" video.

  1. At 59:55, Jordan says, "...you kindled that inside you", a curious phrase as it got me thinking: we all nurse our favorite ideas, and favor certain sorts of experiences, over other sorts, mysteriously. Our ongoing life experience is the crucible in which our character forms from the perspective of the constellation of "favorites" that, mysteriously, constitutes our contextual awareness. Each of us is unavoidably unique, while being essentially the same. The One engenders the Many by expression through different contexts.
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  2. "Beauty" is the exhibition that commands attention without coercion.
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  3. I think we're mostly "moved", or "deeply moved", by recollection of intense experience. In awareness, perception triggers associations with experiential memory; the stronger the memory, the more intense the recollection. The depth of the recollection runs from the deepest, sensory level to the highest, least intense, mental level. The quickest trigger is at the deepest level. Observation quickly gives way to identification of the object observed. This is the process of "noticing". However, the identification elicits associations from experiential memory which aggregate to imply "value". The problem arises when, by an act of will, the imaginary senses are extended, projected to re-experience the object! This is "attachment", and it produces original sensation from the memory of it, but without the original context, but rather a new context, the context of the present moment. This may cause an inappropriate transference of value from the original experience to the experience of the present moment, whatever that might be.
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  4. The "tensions of opposites" all proceed from the model: there is Order and there is Chaos, and their oppositional relationship is innocent. The pressure of disorder is the aspect of Chaos that powers the construction of Order, like the pressure of steam drives the engine mechanism designed--ordered--to utilize it. There's an aspect of Order that modulates the intrusion of Chaos into the realm of Order--the "throttle", I suppose...hehe. According to what it's pushing on, the pressure of disorder manifests differently. Emotionally, it might be "panic"; mentally, specters of possibility haunt attempts at focus with all manner of distraction.
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  5. Starting at about 26:00, Jordan begins speaking insensibly: "You have a profound aesthetic sense, so some things move you deeply, and in principle those are profound things." The insensibility revolves around the interplay between the terms, "profound", and, "deep". In popular parlance these terms are synonymous. But the dictionary offers, "intense", as a definition of, "profound", so this difference becomes a basis for interplay, though "deep" may mean "intense", as well. So it is not clear whether a distinction between the terms is intended to inform the semantics of the statement. I don't know exactly what is meant by, "aesthetic sense", in Jordan's usage, but it generally refers to a capacity to appreciate beauty. But an advanced sense of aesthetics it not a prerequisite for being moved deeply! Then comes the implication that, because Douglas's aesthetic sense is profound, the things that move him deeply must, therefore, be profound! I don't see the logic.
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  6. Putting what you don't understand in a box you call, "evil", has limited utility--but it makes a handy crutch! Is there no alternative to the good vs evil rationale in your high-minded reasoning, gentlemen? You best find one! If you accept a "machinery of cosmos", you can't justify elevating the good vs evil rationale to the position it holds for you. Good vs evil is a misapprehension become grotesque by overemphasis. "Evil" lives because you feed it your evil intents.
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  7. I see "admiration" as the love of humanity. In admiration I compare myself to someone offered as greater in a particular regard and then appreciate the nature of the difference. Take an extraordinary athletic performance, for example: I know something about the difficulty involved, so I can appreciate the accomplishment. When that appreciation is..."kindled"...hehe...attachment occurs, generating an emotional value, like "awe". "What would it take for me to be able to do that?!" is a natural question to have--it's the aspiration at the heart of love. The desire to emulate the model grows--it's also the urge to "show off"! To show others how you've progressed in your ability to express the potential of humanity, to encourage them, likewise, as you were encouraged by YOUR model. From this point things get very complicated...
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