"Objects" and "Directions/Goals"

@tariki Said


The "merton quote of the day" is by such the road to joy is mysteriously revealed to us without our exactly realising it

@Electric_Banana Said

I don't think it's intended as malicious but when you see it for the gears and strings, one immediately assumes that it's diabolical because they don't understand much better.

It's like the drones landing in your back yard situation. Yeah, they look spooky but it doesn't mean they have evil intentions.

And, to some degree, I see life as a mad science experiment with intention of making life better for everyone.

@tariki Said

These words of Merton were written to a very young girl, the daughter of on of his many correspondents. This little lass had sent him a picture of a house, to which Merton responded by saying the house looked very beautiful but that there was no road to it. She herself than sent him another picture, of the same house, but this time with a path leading up to the door. So, thinking about it, I suppose Merton knew where THAT particular road came from.........

"and a little child shall lead them".........as the Good Book says.

@Erimitus Said

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I think that something determines our goals but it is not clear to me what that is. There are biological imperatives, air, food, and water that drive us to attain the goal of breathing, drinking, and eating. There may be equivalent psychological imperatives that drive us to attain the satisfaction of our idiosyncratic tastes.

What do you think?

@RedKate Said

I dont think that eating, drinking and all that are really our main goals. Its like when you're in a car and it needs petrol and so on, but the goal is where you're travelling to or whatever. Our goals come from us as the driver not the body. That's what I think anyway.

@RedKate Said

I dont think that eating, drinking and all that are really our main goals. Its like when you're in a car and it needs petrol and so on, but the goal is where you're travelling to or whatever. Our goals come from us as the driver not the body. That's what I think anyway.

@Erimitus Said

I suspect that if you did not have any air for even a short period of time, getting some air would be a goal with a very high priority.

Eating and drinking are examples of biological imparatives.

I think of people as having drives, as being driven; thinking of a person as the driver is an excellent analogy. The question is why does the driver drive where the driver is driving?


My actions to some degree are automatic. At least some of may actions are intentional. When my actions are intentional I am the driver. My intentions, for the most part, are directed at minimizing pain and maximizing pleasure.

What do you think?

@Erimitus Said

RedKate: You have to put petrol in your car, but that doesn’t determine where you want to go - it just allows the car to take you there. Why you want to go there has nothing to do with how the car works. It's just a vehicle.

E: In our (well actually your) analogy the vehicle represents the body and the driver represents the mind (or some aspect of the mind). The driver can drive the vehicle where the driver wants to. There may be a few constraints on where and how the driver drives. For example the vehicle must remain on the road, the vehicle must follow the traffic rules, and the vehicle must have enough fuel.

[We may be asking a lot for one analogy but here is the next question.]

Where does the driver drive to and why does the driver drive their?

@RedKate Said

Well, if you're like a mind in a body then you can do what you like but you do it within the abilities of the body. Like two people might be the same in what they can do, but if one is riding a bike and the other is in a jet plane one can do a lot more, but they can still choose.

@Erimitus Said

You may be happy and not even know it.