Having just arrived here, I’m a bit late to this discussion but must admit that I’m finding it rather intriguing.
You say, Iambiguous, in the quote above, that IF “there are not objective values “I” can reach, then…”
Elsewhere, you mention that you would find improved certainty re: this topic to be a desirable thing.
I am tempted to offer the counter that there are ‘objective’ values you can reach, that you would be able to discern, if you viewed your subjective plight from the somewhat unique epistemological POV that I have come to embrace.
For centuries philosophers have obsessed about absolute certainty, climaxing with Hume’s doubts about causation. I go a step beyond Hume’s skeptical approach and declare that: (Virtually) ALL KNOWLEDGE IS GUESSWORK. When the test we want to subject our various examples of ‘objective knowledge’ to is that of absolute certainty, almost none of that which we call “knowledge” survives the test.
I know at this current moment that “I” exist. I know that I am currently experiencing various sights/sounds/feelings. I can ‘remember’ existing previous to this moment. I don’t know when I close my eyes to sleep at night if there will be another day tomorrow. I don’t know if I will continue to exist five minutes from now. When the ultimate test of our ‘knowledge’ is that of absolute certainty, the number of things we can cite which satisfy that condition can probably be counted on a single hand.
All else is guesswork.
BUT, we discover, our guesses are not without value. Every time I embrace the guess that there will be another day tomorrow, I am rewarded with yet another validation that my guess was a good one. As scientists are quite aware, we’ve discovered over time that there are a lot of guesses we’ve made and recorded re: the material world that have continually proven to be accurate, pretty much without fail. But in spite of our virtual certainty re: these guesses, we cannot—as Hume correctly pointed out—be absolutely certain that what we saw occur five minutes ago will occur again five minutes from now.
(So yes, most of our ‘empirical’ knowledge—guesses—are contingent upon continued validation. Karl Popper agrees with me )
In a sense, it is accurate to describe Minds as ‘guessing machines.’ That is what we do, make guesses and see if they hold up over time. My point is that that is good enough. We are in Plato’s Cave and cannot perceive things ‘as they are’, as Kant pointed out, but so what? Our guesses are good enough.
It is much more difficult to achieve certainty (or rather high levels of confidence in our guesses) when our guesses are of the analytical a priori type, but still, we are able to eliminate certain of those guesses when we see that they contradict other metaphysical guesses that have been proposed by various thinkers.
I have come to assert certain guesses re: the Mind’s mental experiences which focus on our experiences with pain & pleasure. These painful/pleasurable experience are caused by by a variety of ‘Needs’ that are externally imposed on Minds as a condition of their existence. Based on observation, to exist is to be in need.
I further assert that ALL values are traceable to these Needs, needs which were imposed on us as a condition of our very existence. So another guess we can embrace which seems to be confirmed by our experiences, is that these Needs are universally experienced, which of course would mean that all human beings have in fact the same ultimate values. But because our guesses about what precisely those needs are vary from one human to the next, the ‘values’ we Minds embrace are also going to vary from one human to the next.
Subjectively, values are indeed guesses that individual Minds come up with, but the actual values that Minds should rationally embrace are those which are based on an accurate understanding of what our Needs are. And so, from this thread of reasoning, I assert that all humans have the same ultimate values because we all have the same needs (the sources of all experienced pain/pleasure).
What really starts to develop this conceptualization in a useful direction is when you take into consideration the specific mental needs that Minds must deal with which are responsible for all the forms of mental pain that humans experience (not associated with any incident of tissue damage to the corporeal host). As this is topic can get quite involved, I’ll save it for later.
What I am suggesting to you is that Sartre’ belief that we are ‘condemned to be free’ is ultimately based on a false assumption re: the imagined ability he believed The Will has to create/annihilate needs. I acknowledge that yes, The Will/Mind has the ability to intentionally deprive the host of need-satisfaction (e.g., hunger strikers) but there is absolutely nothing that the Will/Mind can do to avoid the consequences (pain) of need-deprivation. Nor can a need be created that does not already exist.
I further assert that because our needs are externally imposed on us, there is meaning and purpose in this life that has nothing whatsoever to do with our wishes/choices. Ultimate meaning/purpose can be deduced from an improved understanding of what precisely our clutch of purely mental externally imposed needs are, which is yet another topic to explore at another time.
So perhaps the conundrum you have been turning over in your mind is ultimately traceable to what I am describing as an inaccurate initial premise: that there are no ‘objective’ values…
Nice place you guys have here…