On Philosophy
I am starting a series of posts which will always be titled according to this scheme: "On X" where X is the topic of the post. And in these posts I'm planning on blathering on about what I think about topic X. I like these posts and enjoy writing them but realize they can be sort of boring for others. Sorry. Deal with it!
For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in philosophy. Or what this idea I had of philosophy was when I was growing up and in high school. When I was heading to college, philosophy was on the short list of possible majors. But then I got there and started taking philosophy and the classes just seemed to take all the fun out of the topic. They seemed to get so bogged down in semantics and so abstract that they ceased to be about anything useful. Philosophy means 'love of wisdom', which I guess is not really the right meaning for how I like to think about philosophy. Philosophy for me is interesting when it is talked about in similar ways to the books Walden, or Into the Wild, or Desert Solitaire, or The River Why. In these books they don't discuss consciousness, morality, ethics, wisdom, rationality or reason. They talk about living; they say, "This is how I live my life. This is my life philosophy. This is why I don't live my life like X. Or Y. Or Z."
And I guess that is the distinction. You can talk 'philosophy' or you can talk about 'your life philosophy' and I think these two different connotations have two completely different meanings. And I like the latter. With the latter having to do with how you live your life, or how you treat others, or what your goals are, or who you are. More concrete questions. And I think the other kind of philosophy does try to answer these questions, but it just doesn't do so in a way that is useful to me.
I love thinking about how I want to live my life. (Just look at all the posts tagged with 'life'!). But 'thinking' is probably the wrong word. For me, philosophy is figuring out a way to describe this feeling I have inside of me for how I want to live my life. Yes, for me, philosophy is as much about feeling and heart as it is about reason.
I guess another name for this gut feeling might be 'world view'. Philosophy is a way of explaining or understanding my world view. And if I want to discuss philosophy with you then that means I want to know what your 'world view' is (mostly to see if it sheds any light on _my_ world view). My world view encompasses everything about how I understand my experience in life. My opinions on right and wrong, compassion, reason, faith, obligation, duty are all based on this world view.
I just had an 'a-ha!' moment. I think the philosophy classes in college were all about famous philosophers trying to develop a world view through logic and reason, but the philosophy that I like and enjoy is all about understanding or developing the world view that I already have.
Which personally makes a whole lot more sense, since any reasoning that you do has to be done from within the context of a world view. So, I'm not trying to deduce something, I'm trying to understand something.
Which also is personally infinitely more interesting, because I am infinitely more interesting!
And I don't think a world view, this gut feeling in my stomach, can be created or deduced either. It is something that reacts and develops all on its own. This world view is the core of who I am. And in discussing it, or thinking about it I am trying to understand who I am. Aristotle said "The unexamined life is not worth living", well, I couldn't agree more. I think philosophy took a turn along the way at some point from being descriptive to being constructive.
And like I said a world view isn't created. I envision it as this mass inside me, but instead of being like a lump of clay that can be prodded and pulled in different directions it is like the ball of energy that practically kills Doctor Octavius in Spider-Man 2. (I guess you'll have to see the movie to understand the feeling.) And (the ball is really rolling right now!) this is where that whole nature vs. nurture thing comes into play. Where does a world view come from? I guess nature gives you your lump and what it is capable of but this lump takes its form from nurture. Or something.
Anyway, this is seriously a huge revelation to me, guys. We made major break-throughs in my understanding of the world tonight; This distinction between creation and explanation. Huge!
6 June 2009 09:22am UTC • 261 views • 0 comments
Tagged with philosophy, understanding, life, onX
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