Re: Joy of this, Joy of that

On 07/12/2024 16:39, D wrote:

So therefore, metaphysics doesn't really exist, except as thought forms to make us feel better (if we need that), in which case it's just a bunch of nice stories.

Well you are starting to make clear a completely metaphysical position here.
What do you mean by 'really exist' ?
Do a persons hurt feelings 'really exist'? Or are they just pulling your strings?
Metaphysics is the study of the assumptions we make about everything in order to be able to describe and manipulate  things.
If your metaphysics and your language doesn't have room for the 50 kinds of snow that some arctic cultures can claim exists, do those types of snow exist for you? No. Do they exist at all? Arguable. It's just 'snow'.
It is clear you have no idea what metaphysics means and are confusing it with mysticism and religion.
Sure, religion is a form of metaphysics, but *so is science*.
Religion is the study of a world that includes a supernatural component.
Science is the study  of one that does not.
The question of whether or not there is a supernatural component is proved by neither. In the end you assume what you assume, have faith in it and proceed to collect $200 and avoid going to jail, so to speak.
I have no intrinsic problem with 'materialism' apart from the fact that like religion, it is a remarkably narrow and exclusive view and wholly unsatisfactory in the limit, and like religion, insists it  is the One True Fact.
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For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
H.L.Mencken