We Live in a World in Which Our Actions Have Real Consequences

It’s the birthday of Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, who propounded the notion of subjectivity, i.e., that we all perceive the world around us differently. He would later be joined by the linguistic philosophers whose point was that language shapes the way we see the world, and that it’s impossible for two people to have the same perceptions if they use different words to describe them. 

This is why most of us have limited interest in speculative philosophy.  Let’s assume that all this talk about subjectivity is correct.  How much does it matter?  Call it what you will, we still have war (that no sane person believes to be superior to peace).  We still have hate, intolerance, injustice, poverty, disease, and environmental degradation, all of which, regardless of the words we use to describe them, are horrific conditions that any decent human being must endeavor to improve.

Before I left the academic community of Western philosophy more or less entirely in my mid-20s, I came across the discipline of pragmatism, which sums up the way I feel today, i.e., that an idea is true if its practical consequences are good, and that ideas that have no practical consequences are neither true nor false.  This immediately takes all of metaphysics and throws it out the window, which is precisely where it belongs.  Is the chair I’m sitting on a particular case of the “essence” or “ideal” of a chair?  Well, what are the practical consequences of believing that?  Zero.  Thus it has no real meaning, truth, or falsity.

I bring this up so as to point out the obvious: We live in a world chock full of real sorrow, pain, love and joy.  Our lives matter, precisely because we can make a practical difference in how things turn out for us and our fellows.  We all have a great deal of work to do…too much to get caught up in things that don’t mean anything.