Define common experience.

Is it even possible to have a common experience?

I may have been in the same place doing the same thing as someone else but how I percieved the whole event defined my experience which I don''t think is ever common with the rest.

Ben
http://therabbithole.redback.inficad.com

quote: Original post by KalvinB
Define common experience.

Is it even possible to have a common experience?

Despite the fact that people may arrive at some experience in life from different avenues, and along those avenues experienced things which have molded the way they interpret new experiences, there nonetheless is a common ground shared by most which unifies and speaks to us in a way that transcends all chances of misinterpretation.

In short, KalvinB, despite our differences regarding religious views and electronics store policies, I believe that the experiences I am talking of would communicate straight to your heart and soul, bypassing any intellectual interpretation you might choose.

As for intellectual interpretations, common unifying experiences grounded within any particular community, say retail clothing (one of your specialties), enable you to quickly and concisely communicate to others within that community regarding the nuances of that field.

Common experiences do exist, either through basic primal interpretations, or intellectual interpretations derived from certain disciplines.

quote: Original post by bishop_pass

In short, KalvinB, despite our differences regarding religious views and electronics store policies, I believe that the experiences I am talking of would communicate straight to your heart and soul, bypassing any intellectual interpretation you might choose.

This makes me think of two common areas that the vast majority of us seem to respond to: breathtaking natural vistas, and individual suffering. We may have differing interpretations of what we see and what it means, but our emotional responses tend to be very similar.


btw, bishop, I wasn't interested in deconstructing what you wrote. I just didn't understand "Somewhere along the treacherous route up a certain famous creek" . It looked like you were beginning to explain near the end, but I wasn't sure if I understood. Obviously, you're making a metaphor, but as it reads now it almost sounds like a real place (which I know isn't right).





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Just waiting for the mothership...


Edited by - Wavinator on July 11, 2001 2:53:08 PM

quote: Original post by Wavinator

btw, bishop, I wasn''t interested in deconstructing what you wrote. I just didn''t understand "Somewhere along the treacherous route up a certain famous creek" . It looked like you were beginning to explain near the end, but I wasn''t sure if I understood. Obviously, you''re making a metaphor, but as it reads now it almost sounds like a real place (which I know isn''t right).

Very interesting Wavinator. Now I am a little confused, and you are going to become more confused. I am indeed talking of a real place.

Your style is definitely uninteresting. People who write philosophically have the problem of using hundred-dollar words when they could achieve so much more with a few cents.

I don''t like to read posts for two reasons: first, most people don''t practice excellent grammar, and second, most of us are very eccentric, and we like to ramble on for hours. When you do this, you lose most of your audience. Notice how I keep my paragraphs short and to-the-point?

Now, if you were to rewrite all of that in terms that are easy to read and understand, and stop talking in goddamn metaphors once in a while, then I would most definitely be willing to analyze your content with far more interest and give you some serious input on the matter.

Just a suggestion from someone who''s been there.

quote: Original post by Tom

Now, if you were to rewrite all of that in terms that are easy to read and understand, and stop talking in goddamn metaphors once in a while, then I would most definitely be willing to analyze your content with far more interest and give you some serious input on the matter.

Unfortunately, I would find that hard to do, because there really is only one metaphor and that is in the first sentence. The rest is just discussion regarding a route up a creek which was going to be developed later on in the essay, and the sharing of experiences with other people, which was also going to be developed later in the essay.

Oh well. Cheers to your grand wisdom. You''ve been there? Where is that?

quote: Original post by bishop_pass
Very interesting Wavinator. Now I am a little confused, and you are going to become more confused. I am indeed talking of a real place.

LOL! Okay, methinks the best thing to do is wait for the entirety, which I shall do.


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Just waiting for the mothership...

It sounds like you''re basically saying, "In theory, there''s no difference between practice and theory, but in practice, there is." I''ve always enjoyed this quote myself, because it''s so true.

I used to have a problem with "over-writing" everything. That''s basically what I see in your position above. This actually sounds very much like Ghost in the Shell. I''m talking about the original manga series by Masamune Shirow, which I''m sure not many people have had the privilege of reading. He posits all kind of bizarre and difficult-to-understand philosophies on life, and that''s scary considering he doesn''t overspeak his ideas.

I''m not sure it would be worth your while to write an entire essay on any subject regarding life experiences, unless you did so for your own sake. Nobody else would care to read it. Most of us like to experience life for ourselves rather than have it handed to us in the form of opinions.

Or is that part of what you''re trying to say?

quote: Original post by Tom

I''m not sure it would be worth your while to write an entire essay on any subject regarding life experiences, unless you did so for your own sake. Nobody else would care to read it.

If you say so.

quote:

Most of us like to experience life for ourselves rather than have it handed to us in the form of opinions.

Or is that part of what you''re trying to say?

Meet my in Lone Pine, California next Saturday and we can go participate in the same experience, at which point you will be more qualified to decide whether an opinion is worth forming regarding such an experiece.