It is Wrong to Compare Man's Pettiness to the Majesty of the Universe
It has become a cheap intellectual pastime to contrast the infinitesimal pettiness of man with the vastnesses of the stellar universes. Yet all such comparisons are illicit. We cannot compare existence and meaning; they are disparate. The characteristic life of a man is itself the meaning of vast stretches of existences, and without it the latter have no value or significance. There is no common measure of physical existence and conscious experience because the latter is the only measure there is of the former. The significance of being, though not its existence, is the emotion it stirs, the thought it sustains.
Thomas M. Alexander, John Dewey, Larry Hickman, The Essential Dewey: Pragmatism, education, democracy (1998-07-01)
Notes
Because we are comparing existence and meaning.
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cheap intellectual pastime, infinitesimal pettiness, existence, physical existence, stellar universes, vast stretches, characteristic life, common measure, conscious experience, meaning, man, significance