Tuesday, 27 January 2026

What Counts

The People Of The Wind, IX.

Avalon and Esperance are so close that their constellations are mostly the same. Philippe Rochefort reflects:

"Three or four parsecs hardly count in the galaxy.
"Does a life? I must believe so." (p. 87)

Two questions: 

Does a life count to living beings? Yes. 

Does a life count to anything other than living beings? I do not see how it can but why should it? That we "count" to ourselves surely suffices? It is we who decide whether to stay alive.

Rochefort subscribes to a world-view that projects the source of value onto a reality outside conscious organisms.

Electric light is valuable whether its source is supernatural or material, as are brains that generate consciousness.

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