|
Home ||
Home |
Part 1: - Politics
To download the whole book please click on either of the links below.
Word Format (.DOC) Click HERE to Download
Adobe Acrobat Format (.PDF) Click HERE to Download
(You must have Adobe
Acrobat Reader Installed)
Palm Pilot TealDoc Format (.PRC) Click HERE to Download
(You must have TealDoc
loaded on your Palm Pilot for this file to work.)
Or you can read the book online by clicking here.(this page may take awhile to load)
Selected Essays of Part 1
Part 1: - Introduction
Part 2: - The Process of Philosophy: The Quest for Truth
Part 3: - Existence: The Greatest Movie of All Time
The Thoughts of a Peasant Philosopher
Philosophy is the noblest profession. It is the ultimate endeavor in terms of honor and intellectual achievement anyone may embark on. In the past, we looked upon the philosopher with awe and with a sense of inspiration. We looked to the philosopher for guidance and instruction in regards to the how's and why's of our world. We believed in what the philosopher was attempting to construct with his ideas.
But all that has passed.
Today we are confronted with the argument that philosophy and the philosopher are relics of the past, with no more importance than that of a historical footnote.
For some people, philosophy is a very troublesome and frightening concept. Many people throw up their arms in frustration and walk away when confronted with philosophy. This should not be the case. When kept to the basics, philosophy can be understood by everyone.
There isn't anything that can't be explained if you're communicating clearly.
Philosophy rules everyone's life. The same rules of existence apply to the poor man and wealthy woman in equal measure. It does not make sense that for something with such a hold on ones existence the majority of people in this world don't have a clue to what it is. This apathy has not just captured the hearts and minds of the general public but a majority of our academics, politicians and intellectual elite as well.
How could we as a species have all but swept aside that very human endeavor which has helped us out of the jungles and fields, and into a modern and advanced civilization?
More than anything else human existence and progress is best expressed through the development of ideas. It is philosophy which is the messenger of these ideas.
Over the centuries, philosophy has exposed us to the wonders of the universe. The means by which we have forged an existence appear varied and, to a degree, somewhat unpredictable. It would seem that very often progress for our species has been one of luck and chance. But every step along that path, it was philosophy and the philosopher that guided our way, changing and creating within it a varied process of understanding and reason, a process that has as its ultimate goal the achievement of truth.
The Process of Philosophy: The Quest for Truth
We cannot give up dealing with hard questions for the sake of expediency and easy answers, but we insist on throwing away anything that we cannot understand. But in so doing, we have left out a great part of our existence - we've stopped looking for the truth behind an idea.
For me, life has never been a simple journey that begins with birth and ultimately ends in death. There are others who feel as I do, that life is more than something to be endured. For me, life has shown itself to be a journey of understanding and intellectual achievement that has led me down two specific paths. One, a quest to undo certain wrongs of the past. The other, to understand the world in which I live today, as realistically and objectively as possible.
I knew very early on my life was different from anyone else. My ideas as a child grew rapidly and my understanding of the world and my place in it followed in step. At certain points, I found myself asking questions no one could answer to my satisfaction. Therefore, I made up my own answers as I went along, continually testing them against the status quo and my personal experience in an attempt to ascertain their validity.
I keep asking what, or who, determines the truth behind an idea for us?
Who is to say that this idea or point of view is right and that one is wrong?
That has always been a point of great contention for me. Do we listen only to the ideas the majority of people agree upon? Or perhaps those who know the truth are the ones with the greatest number of letters behind their name? Personally I have always looked upon the letters Ph.D. with some skepticism.
In the past it was (or it would seem) easier to bring forth new ideas or new concepts about the world, challenging the status quo and thereby expanding the possibility of our understanding of the world in which we live. In essence it was easier for philosophical investigation than it is today. Perhaps this is because the free-flow of ideas has become too politicized and in some instances the defence of politically correct ideas has taken on a hysterical and shrill quality. Philosophy needs openness and a free exchange of ideas. For at its very base of existence, philosophy is nothing more than the concept of a question, with not an answer as the final outcome of the philosophical process, but more questions.
It is this free discussion of concepts which allows for further concepts to flourish. If we close off any aspect of our investigations, we are limiting our ability to comprehend any part of the truth of our existence.
Ever since I was a little boy, my thoughts always focused on the metaphysical. For me, the metaphysical seemed to harbor more interesting questions than anything else. Whether it was the reason behind the existence of myself or of how I viewed the world, I needed to know not so much the reason why, or how, but more so the "what." It was never enough for me to know the reasons why something existed, or for that matter the plain truth to the existence of a phenomenon. To know what something is in terms of one's senses is not a question of knowing what it is. We are fooled by our senses into thinking that we can categorize and name objects at will, and that is what they will be forever more. I needed to go deeper in my search for understanding. I needed to know why the reason itself existed. I needed to create more questions.
It was this need to always go further that has been the corner stone to my existence in this world. Never satisfied with the answers of the present, I searched for the questions of tomorrow.
Shortly after I started school I soon found out that the educational system I was forced into did not make allowances for accommodating my interpretations of the world.
An educational system that does not allow for new ideas? Anyone who goes to school can understand what I am talking about. How many people publicly and privately educated have been told "that question," or ones like it, will be covered next year or next semester? Then, the following year, one asks the question again only to find the same answer is given, until the time comes when one is out of the educational system
entirely, with no more teachers to answer questions and ultimately, with no real answers.
But beyond this hand - me - down approach to learning, the greatest difficulty I had with education was what I was being told conflicted with what I believed deep down inside. What I was being taught did not correlate to what my own intellect accepted as right and true.
Of great concern to me was the concept of equality. I saw that this concept held true only under certain circumstances and not being applied in any way as the term was being used. I was told individual members of the species were equal. I found this completely false. The term lacked any real evidence to suggest this was true. Who is equal to me? No one. Not because I am superior or inferior, but because I am unique. I am an individual. So how can I be equal or the same as someone else, when physically, emotionally, mentally, I am constructed differently than everybody else?
It was this type of incongruity that taught me the educational system is a closed system. It is a system that leads itself to indoctrination and not education. It is not interested in philosophy or the concept of questioning. School is not a place for a truly inquiring mind to flourish. Certainly an educational system can teach a great many things that are useful. But it only teaches these things one way. It does not accept anything other than what it teaches. In essence, what it teaches is not open for debate.
I have found that everything in this world is open for debate.
Existence: The Greatest Movie of All Time
I like to use the analogy that all of existence, from the very beginning, up to and including the end, is like a movie. The problem is we walked into the theatre with our popcorn in hand and enthusiasm high, only to find we missed the beginning of the movie. Now we have to piece together the plot from the remaining moments of the film. If it is absolutely necessary, we can ask the person next to us what we missed at the beginning of the movie. However, when it comes to existence and the beginning of that great movie, we don't have anybody to ask. We are all forced to pick up the plot as we go along.
Even if we do figure out the plot at some point, we still don't know what happened at the beginning of the movie. This problem does not preclude us from still making assumptions about the past. But how correct are our assumptions?
Assumptions are nothing but conjecture. As in a movie, the beginning does not repeat itself somewhere else along the way. Nor does anything depict in any way the origins of the beginning of the film.
For instance, did the credits begin before the music? Was there music? Did the camera open up on a picture of a tree or a building? When these types of questions are asked, or more importantly examined from the prospective of our own existence, it shows we are faced with some daunting problems. Did we have speech or linguistics before we had the use of tools? Was existence formed by a big bang? Was the human species born with self-consciousness or was it acquired latter?
All these questions have answers, but they are also all conjecture from our perspective. Even though we may not know which answer is correct, there is a truth out there. How can we be sure there is a truth out there? Because just as when you go to a movie, it has to have some sort of beginning, so to does our existence.
Truth and existence are the same. Truth can only exist because existence allows it to. Truth is a combination of human understanding and physical reality. It exists just as concretely for those who believe in it, as it will for those who do not.
The key to understanding truth does not come from our assumptions of the past, but only from our complete understanding of the present. Everything you ever wanted to know about existence can be gleaned from that very spot upon which you rest at the present. It's this truth that lies at the root of philosophy. Everything that we know about the present tells us more about the past. It may not tell us in what specific order things may have happened, but it certainly lets us know that at some point what was there at the beginning. Furthermore, the better the present is dissected, the more truth that it reveals. Truth only exists in the present. It does not have any connection to history or the future. Every fleeting moment that encompasses the present changes the truth of our existence.
Aristotle believed in the here and now. A chair was a chair and that was it. Zen goes beyond this simple answer to question the very idea of its existence. It is not that the idea of truth exists within the parameters of these two definitions, but rather that truth exists outside these borders. For too long we have confined our questions to those things upon which we are certain. It is time to begin our process of questioning at that point where our certainties end.
A chair can exist today and tomorrow, and the question of it's existence can as well, but what it really is only exits for the moment.
But before we can stand up and say that we understand this truth, we have to be sure we understand the present. And understanding the present only comes from understanding ones place in existence. If our understanding of the present is incorrect, then we are no better off than just blindly attempting to conjure up the past through our simple assumptions.
Who is to say today's truths are not tomorrow's falsehoods? This has been the axiom by which I have lived my entire life.
I think my personal uneasiness about the world and how it has been presented to me is born out by the fact that any real questioning of the world and how it is presented is always met with an incredible amount of denial from all respected and reputed sources. This then tells me there are only two possible positions of a truth one can take from this situation.
First, everything we currently know is correct. When I say correct, I mean one hundred percent proof positive, there does not exist any other form of reality and truth has finally been revealed. We know all there is to know. The life each of us leads exists exactly the way in which we are told it does.
Second, truth is a closely guarded secret that exists solely for the convenience of those who can profit the most from it. Now profit can mean a great many things to different people. Profit does not necessarily mean money. It can mean proving the existence of a theory to a scientist, an undeniable hypothesis to the physicist and an indestructible idea to the philosopher.
For me, I believe in the latter. If we really did know everything, and truth had finally revealed itself, then the need for anybody not to question it would be the universal fact of life. However, as we all know, this is not the case.
Is it possible that everything we have been taught is correct?
From my perspective I would say no. Certainly there can be improvements on certain aspects of our interpretation of the world. It is with this endeavor that I put forth my ideas to help in our quest for truth.
The following is a collection of thoughts, ideas, and experiences that I hope will help us understand where we have been as a species and where we want to end up. This body of work (divided into volumes and topics) attempts not to ultimately define what truth is, but expand on what is already known by fostering inspiration in what it could possibly be.
For without a better understanding of what truth may be, we will forever be destined too misunderstand the how's, what's, wherefores and whys of that great movie called existence which we have as yet seen the end credits.
| Home |