Monday, February 8, 2010

Do stories serve too many purposes?

I tell myself my job is really important to get out of bed. It works and that is a good thing. But later I may need a different story to get me to get out of the rut my current job has me in so that I may look for a new one.

Is this a problem at all? It strikes me as more like the is-ought distinction. Logically speaking, no amount of description of what is the case ever warrants any conclusions about what we should do. But that issue, which is a bottomless canyon when Hume describes it, isn't even a crack in the sidewalk in real life. If I see my friend about to step in a pile of dog crap I warn them. Or I don't because I want to laugh at them. But, either way, I don't have any trouble going from what is to reaching a moral conclusion.

Sometimes we can't make up our mind. I sit up all night trying to decide which college to apply to. The facts don't help me. Yes, life is like that sometimes.

Is changing out story to serve different purposes any different? Sheila was madly in love with Rob and told herself a story about how he was going to be the man she would spend the rest of her life with. Now they have broken up and she is madly in love with Malcolm and tells herself a story in which Malcolm is the man she will spend the rest of her life and Rob was a mistake and she sometimes tells that story as an example of how close she came to making a tragic mistake.

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