Just not as smrt (sic) as I once was I guess….
I told a very bright friend yesterday that I was reading Ayn Rand. He, being quite adept in the realm of philosophical discourse, asked why I would bother, her philosophy was horrible. I replied that while it might be true that her philosophy is not as intellectually stimulating as the material he is interested in, her notion of “selfishness” is applicable to everyday life in a way that contemplating the meaning of consciousness endlessly, for example, is not applicable. He looked at me with a blank stare.
I used to believe that knowledge for the sake of knowledge had value in and of itself. However, I feel I must qualify that now and say that knowledge for the sake of knowledge is good, knowledge that can be applied to one’s life in a way that changes who one is, is better. Complex theories are great but do they do anything? Can they be used in some way other than to perpetuate even more complex theories?
I heard a wise man on a podcast say once that the statement “It works in theory but not in practice” indicates that it was not a good theory to begin with. Once I would have disagreed with that. Now I see the wisdom in that approach. We are all here a short time, shouldn’t we be learning and doing?
