Zeraph

The shirt was white (or thought/conceived of as white and then made into existence as a white shirt) but then it was sold by the merchant/maker and the new owner dyed it green. Is the shirt white or green? It came into this world as white, the preconception of its existence was white, and if bleached it would return to its whiteness. But for the current owner it is green, he wanted it that way and acted accordingly to make it so. For the memory of the merchant/maker it will always remain white, white is its roots, it is how it came into existence.

Therefore the merchant/maker would likely call the shirt white, the shirt, if it could reason would likely call itself white, but the new owner considers it green. He wears it green, he likes it green, and he made it green. Its future is likely green, presupposing that the new owner does not change his mind it likely will remain green until it is faded or torn and is discarded ending its current life with the new owner.

But as it's fading and "dieing" it slowly returns to white and will likely come to its end either white or a very light green/white color. Again ask yourself what color it is--is it its original color white? Is it only what it currently is?--in which case it will constantly be changing, thereby remaking itself every moment it exists. But it is a shirt, it can't really redefine itself, it needs a sentient human to do so. Is it what it is from one moment to the next, past irrelevent? Or does the past make the future with a steady stream of contingencies that constantly creates the future?

So if the shirt is what it is from one moment to the next regardless of past then any change to the shirt happens from a force outside the shirt itself, the human or new owner. The new owner wanted it green and made it so. It became green because he made it green. So is it the same for humans? Do we act on ourselves or does it just appear that way?

If we suppose however, that the future is created from a steady stream of contingencies then what the shirt started out as is most important, because that color decides its future color(s). Yet the shirt isn't sentient and didn't act on itself. The merchant/maker decided on its color for it, then the new owner decided on another color. And finally decay (laws of the universe, time) "decided" on its final color. It would seem then, that each "decision" did not determine the next. The laws of the universe will act on everything by definition, the owner always liked green before he bought a white a shirt. The standard for white shirts was decided before the merchant/maker made a color that would sell to the widest amount of people.

So we take these 3 arbitrary colors: white, green, faded white/green/color of original material (wool) and apply meaning to them. But the shirt was not made this way nor did it decided what color it would be, nor did its previous color really decide what color it would be. It was white because humankind "decided" it as a standard color, it was then green because an individual liked green, it was then faded because the laws of the universe apply to everything.

The shirt itself seems to have no real existence if we define existence by exerting some will to change a system. I define it this way because existence must by definition be different than nothingness. We value making a difference, that has deep meaning that we rarely think of. If we are complete automatons and make no difference in a universe that was decided from the first atom's position in time and space, then we change nothing in an already dead environment. There is no novelty, there is no life in a dead universe filled with automatons. Therefore by life, we really mean the ability to change, to make a difference. Nothingness (not the word) has no meaning, no life. To change nothingness into existence we must add an ability to change, to create so there is no longer nothingness.

Getting back to the shirt, the shirt doesn't seem to exist outside of our influence. We make it green or white, the laws of the universe only exist (matter) because we have an ability to create, to change, without this there is nothingness. We are our own cause, existence precedes essence.

So for the shirt, does it matter what color it is? Does meaning exist regardless of what it is called and what it really is?


So what color is the shirt?