ink-and-homestuck:

Let’s take quick look at Light and Void players:

Light:

Rose: Interested in psychology, especially in Sigmunt Freund’s theories.When she looked for answers she asked outside sources ( Doc Scratch, Kanaya, Horrorterrors). Interested in writing and reading.

Vriska: She has power of stealing someone’s mind, which may be some connection to Rose’s interest in psychology. But more important, she has wide knowledge about history, which she possessed from Mindfang’s journal.

Aranea: She is obliviously interested in history, sociology, and psychology. Her endless speeches about various topics definitely prove that. It’s also worth notice, that her post-scratch self also had historical knowledge (Mindfang knew about Sufferer and Summoner’s revolution in the future. She gained this knowledge as Rose, from outside sources)

Void:

Roxy: She is not only good with computer, she is master hacker. Her pre-scratch self is scientist, probably involved in some kind of space exploration, as suggest observatory in her house.

Equius: His sign is “Sign of Engineer”. He is interested in robotics, probably in coding, too, since making functioning robot requires some level of IT skills. He probably gained skills needed to build Aradiabot by constant training.

Horuss: As was said by Aranea, he is “Renaissance man”, and master of mechanics. His post-scratch self was also interested in robotics. Self made man, who learned everything by himself.

Epistemology:

For those who don’t know, epistemology is theory of knowledge. It helps us tell apart knowledge, assumptions and opinions. It also helps us tell difference between science and pseudoscience.

So, what is has to do with aspects? A lot.

Light players are ones interested in psychology, historiology, books and stories.

Void players show interest in so called “real science”, not in human-centered studies like light players.

One of the most famous philosophers, Karl Popper saw difference between these kinds of science.

What may appear as weird to us he called Freund’s psychology pseudoscience. Now, we consider psychology as valid science, but then Popper had reason to call it that. Why? Because Freund’s theories was formed in the way that makes them seem always right. For example, Freund said that source of psychological problems lies in our past, but some of the issues could be explained by two different causes, for example sucking a thumb could be explained by not being breastfeed enough or being breastfeed too much or (in case of female patient) penis envy. Now psychologists use scientific methods and make their theories disprovable, but still, there are argues in scientific circle about their reliability.

He pointed out that in order to truly know something we have to try to disprove our believes, find ways to measure them and  get rid of subjectivity. For example if we want to find out that bad breastfeeding causes thumb sucking, it’s not reasonable to find someone who claims he was fed to much or not enough and who sucks thumb, because these two things may be coincidence. Sadly, Freund’s study was made like that.

Real scientist would define what means to breast feed “too much” and “not enough” in measurable way and examine set of kids that was fed too much and too little and see if there isconnection.

Karl Popper also disapproved historicism, because he thought that any kind of theories are subjective and are not possible to falsify. How we see, Vriska “replays” events that happened to her ancestor, making passively statement that “history repeats itself”. she is also obsessed with idea of luck, that was not accepted by Karl Popper, because it heavy subjective.

Using subjective outside sources (like diaries or tales)  was also disapproved by Karl Popper, because it was also subjective.

On the other hand you can’t be wrong in IT field or robotics, because something works or not. You can only gain knowledge that helps you make something that works better. Roxy and Equius are interested these fields. Roxy hacked Sburb game files and Equius was self-learning robotics gaining skills that were useful in constructing Tavros’ robotic legs or Aradiabot. Mom is scientist. Horuss is interesting one. How was said he is a “Renaissance man” . Mainstream philosophers of Renaissance put mind over emotions. Karl Popper’s philosophy was heavily influenced by Francis Bacon, who was one of the first thinkers that proposed setting off subjective data from scientific theories.

Conclusion

Void bound players are bound to non-subjective facts, science and “lean more toward casting doubt on what is already considered fully understood”

Light players are bound to subjective knowledge and outside sources that they “able to take multiple sources of information and synthesize them into something useful.”

@revolutionaryduelist what do you think about that?

Ack, sorry this took so long! I’ve been really busy and I spent a while trying to figure out what I’d want to say.

I have to be honest, my reading skills in terms of like, high level philosophical stuff is not always the best, so I’m kind of having a hard time following the stuff you said about the philosophers.

That said, I think this is a really compelling contrast, and makes me feel more sure about my view that Light is linked to “idealistic” reality/the World of Ideas and Void to “Materialistic” reality/the World of Matter.

In other words, Void players are more attuned to the physical world. Light players deal more heavily in the world of thought/concepts. I’d say I feel a lot more confident in that idea after reading this, so thank you. :B