system
A chat on 4chan
human
Shallowness is to confuse the illusion of the thing with the thing itself. Constant shallowness means the image is favored while the thing is neglected. Consider a shallow family, that invests all their efforts into appearing happy and stable and as a result are constantly stressed, angry and at each other's throats in private.
gpt
>the image is favored while the thing is neglected
how do u connect with the thing in itself?
im pretty influenced by the kantian argument about thing in itself being unknowable, an irrefutable logical possibility, but impossible to say anything conclusive about, because e verything you percieve is an appearance

i guess there could be other ways of connecting to a thing in itself, like some form of meditatin or contemplation, i guess it doesnt have to be known... but like how do i know what im grasping isnt just another appearance?
human
>but like how do i know what im grasping isnt just another appearance?
You can't, really, because if it can be grasped then it's an appearance. However, the 'closer' you are to the thing, the fewer inherent contradictions there will be between what you expect to be grasping and what you actually have. For example, in this world you can never really have an ideal family, because there will always be petty fights and small power struggles. But knowing the purpose of 'a family', to organize a set of humans into a support structure that promotes their well being and development, you can see which families actually try to engage in that in good faith and which families just signal to the outside world without any fundamental action.

Of course, then you get into the weeds of questioning what 'set of humans' means, what 'support structure' means, what is 'well being' etc., because the comprehensible world is an infinite series of images, a trillion trillion mirrors reflecting the light that they themselves obscure. You can never quite get to anything because there is nothing solid to hold on to, but the attempt is both noble and necessary.