I would argue that nothing gives life more purpose than the realization that every moment of consciousness is a precious and fragile gift.
Interpretation
Life is a precious gift, and being aware of our conscious moments gives it purpose.
In this quote, Steven Pinker emphasizes the importance of recognizing the value of life and consciousness. He argues that when we realize that each moment we are aware is unique and fragile, we begin to appreciate our existence more deeply, and this appreciation brings a profound sense of purpose to our lives.
In practice
During a motivational speech, to emphasize the importance of cherishing every moment.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
To expose a 4.2 Trillion dollar ripoff of the American people_x000D_ by the stockholders of the 1000 largest corporations over the last_x000D_ one-hundred years will be a tall order of business.
Every person born in this world represents something new, something that never existed before, something original and unique.
We have so exalted a notion of the human soul that we cannot bear to be despised, or even not to be esteemed by it. Man, in fact, places all his happiness in this esteem.
What more ghastly image can be called up than that of a man betrayed by his body who, simply because he did not die in time, lives out the comedy while awaiting the end, face to face with that God he does not adore, serving him as he served life, kneeling before a void and arms outstretched toward a heaven without eloquence that he knows to be also without depth?
We are travelers on a cosmic journey,stardust,swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.
To swallow and follow, whether old doctrine or new propaganda, is a weakness still dominating the human mind.
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