i watch my dog playing with a cardboard tube... he's destroying it. therefore i'm thinking, "he wants to destroy that cardboard tube." but does he? how could i know what he's thinking? maybe he wants to make love to the cardboard tube, but in his frustration over the tube's inactivity and failure to respond to his advances, this is as close as he can get. maybe he wants to commune on a metaphysical level with it. maybe he doesn't want anything, and in his dog-world this is the natural interaction between dog and cardboard.
on another level, how can i possibly know what another person wants? and therefore how can i observe them and judge what they are doing and why? (all questions of moral objectivity and natural human ethics aside)
on still another level, how do i know what i want, why i do things, what my motivations are? i am not a little man at the controls of my body and mind. i have no objective theater-seat from which to observe myself. everything i think is filtered through everything i think.
oh, shit.
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ReplyDeletemaybe he wants to make love to the cardboard tube, but in his frustration over the tube's inactivity and failure to respond to his advances,
This made me laugh.
Gassho