Human beings are dominated by their physical existence because as biological organisms they perceive reality mainly by senses. If we would not have sensual experiences, we would have been closed in our minds not able to survive. Before human developed sophisticated ability to think, reason and communicate, they rely on their senses to satisfy their basic needs as hanger, thirst, place to hide or sleep and something to warm up. Sensual experiences drives our imagination and stimulates our brains to construct our vision of reality and self from received data of sound, sight, taste, touch and smell. However, knowledge requires many different stimulators and factors, not just senses. The areas of human knowledge such as astronomy, biology or physics requires logic and reasoning but without senses we would not be able to observe things, compare one to another or simply explore them by physical means.
We are furnished with mind, spirit and sensual receptors within the body, therefore, all those parts are work along to create unique data of our life. Hence I would say that knowledge is composed of rational representation of reality through mind processes, senses stimulating approach to fulfill those representation and spirit that help us go beyond of those experiences...
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Sunday, September 16, 2007
“Who never doubted, never half believed. Where doubt is, there truth is...it is her shadow" - Philip James Bailey
“The range of a doubt can vary depending on the level of certainty in one’s belief. People tend to trust in their own sets of principles because it gives them sense of control over their reality. Reality can be perceived trough our senses which formulate the physical, tangible presence of the things around us. The physical world limits our perspective of reality, however, what can be heard, touched, seen, smelt or tasted seem to be an axiom.
Reality changes around us and within us along with our age and exposure to the life experiences. During this voyage of acquiring knowledge, our sense of reality passes trough different stages. I always wonder how children can flexible switch from “real life” to their imaginary reality. It seems that for them there is no difference; however we adults can definitely distinguish the real world from the fantasy. But is it always true and obvious, what make us so certain? If we can only start questioning we can possibly find that we live somehow in many realities at the same time on different facets of consciousness.
How about the dreams, fiction and paintings? Are they not representing the vision of the reality? If people are able to create reality how do we know that we are not living in the parallel world of an illusion and false certainty? Methodological skepticism is a way of critical view on our self made image of the world that uncovers our limitation for cognitive experience”...
Reality changes around us and within us along with our age and exposure to the life experiences. During this voyage of acquiring knowledge, our sense of reality passes trough different stages. I always wonder how children can flexible switch from “real life” to their imaginary reality. It seems that for them there is no difference; however we adults can definitely distinguish the real world from the fantasy. But is it always true and obvious, what make us so certain? If we can only start questioning we can possibly find that we live somehow in many realities at the same time on different facets of consciousness.
How about the dreams, fiction and paintings? Are they not representing the vision of the reality? If people are able to create reality how do we know that we are not living in the parallel world of an illusion and false certainty? Methodological skepticism is a way of critical view on our self made image of the world that uncovers our limitation for cognitive experience”...
Sunday, September 9, 2007
“Cogito ergo sum” – I think, therefore I am.
Allegory of the cave is a multidimensional story that presents wide spectrum of ideas about human progress of discovering reality, acquiring knowledge and facing own limitation and challenges of one’s assumptions. Socrates forces us to reflect about the reality and our existence within it and provokes us to rediscover our potential of thinking as a powerful key to gain wisdom.
To understand the true massage of this allegory, Socrates gives us some clues by pointing at the key subjects such as people as prisoners, shadow on the wall, dark cave and fire behind the prisoners. Those figurative images are linked together to reveal deeper, hidden idea of dimness in human society. In my own reflection, people are representing prisoners of their own physical existence which is their body and lack of foresight for important values in their lives. The chains which do not allow them to move are the sets of rules learned and accepted from and by the society they grew up in. People are imprisoned in their own shallow reality of perceiving world through senses and see only what is in the front of them. Cave is the reality of known rules and learned way of thinking, therefore people are isolated in this ironic world of playing shadows and they are not aware of the fire that is behind them that create shadow. They live in the world of false pretence and in the gleam of fire; however they are sincere about the images on the wall that represent their true reality. The human beings are concerned only about the material world that in fact is elusive, mortal and imperfect. Socrates is pessimistic about humans who waste their potential of becoming aware of the soul that represent real, true person. He thinks that our existence has no value without philosophical education. Our true identity should be refined from the earthy drives and desires by the process of acquiring knowledge about the spirit through learning and questioning. Soul is eternal, perfect and is a real person that stimulates our true self by means of intellectual enlightening. Therefore philosophy has an imperative role and should be a part of our everyday lives because it opens our inner eye to search and question. Only critical view of reality can set us free and help us to find the truth about us. Everyone is able to liberated oneself only if the ideas and creativity is a purpose of achieving happiness and fulfillment.
To understand the true massage of this allegory, Socrates gives us some clues by pointing at the key subjects such as people as prisoners, shadow on the wall, dark cave and fire behind the prisoners. Those figurative images are linked together to reveal deeper, hidden idea of dimness in human society. In my own reflection, people are representing prisoners of their own physical existence which is their body and lack of foresight for important values in their lives. The chains which do not allow them to move are the sets of rules learned and accepted from and by the society they grew up in. People are imprisoned in their own shallow reality of perceiving world through senses and see only what is in the front of them. Cave is the reality of known rules and learned way of thinking, therefore people are isolated in this ironic world of playing shadows and they are not aware of the fire that is behind them that create shadow. They live in the world of false pretence and in the gleam of fire; however they are sincere about the images on the wall that represent their true reality. The human beings are concerned only about the material world that in fact is elusive, mortal and imperfect. Socrates is pessimistic about humans who waste their potential of becoming aware of the soul that represent real, true person. He thinks that our existence has no value without philosophical education. Our true identity should be refined from the earthy drives and desires by the process of acquiring knowledge about the spirit through learning and questioning. Soul is eternal, perfect and is a real person that stimulates our true self by means of intellectual enlightening. Therefore philosophy has an imperative role and should be a part of our everyday lives because it opens our inner eye to search and question. Only critical view of reality can set us free and help us to find the truth about us. Everyone is able to liberated oneself only if the ideas and creativity is a purpose of achieving happiness and fulfillment.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
First reflection about an importance of philosophy
......From my perspective philosophy is affection for wisdom that is acquired during our lifetime experiences and from our reflections of reality. Reality is complex and can be viewed differently by each individual therefore everyone can contribute valuable observation about events or forces that create reality such as life, death, good, evil, nature and universe.
This course is imperative for me in terms of evaluating my own thoughts about obvious matters that we all face throughout the life such as suffering, love, morality, happiness or freedom. Those subjects were already introduced and contemplated by many great people from the past who asked the same universal questions as we have today: who I am?, what is my role in this world?, am I free? Therefore, I hope to gain fundamental understanding of the ideas and concepts introduced by people from various historical époques who forces others to think and reflect on reality that surrounds us.
The most worthwhile experience will be participation of all classmates to initiate interesting, inspiring discussion. Today’s world seems to dash along faster and faster forgetting about the reflection that forces to speculate, stop and escape for a moment to immerse in our own thoughts . People seem to get all the answers from TV and other authorities overlooking their own unique vision of the world. Therefore this course will be imperative to help me understand myself better, the universe and importance of other forces that shape our inner self....
My favorite poet, Zbigniew Herbert
Mr. Cogito and the Imagination
Mr. Cogito never trusted
tricks of the imagination
the piano at the top of the Alps
played false concerts for him
he didn't appreciate labyrinths
the Sphinx filled him with loathing
he lived in a house with no basement
without mirrors of dialectics
jungles of tangled images
were not his home
he would rarely soar
on the wings of metaphor
and then he fell like Icarus
into the embrace of the Great Mother
he adored tautologies
explanations
idem per idem
that a bird is a bird
slavery means slavery
a knife is a knife
death remains death
he loved the flat horizon
a straight line
the gravity of the earth
Mr. Cogito never trusted
tricks of the imagination
the piano at the top of the Alps
played false concerts for him
he didn't appreciate labyrinths
the Sphinx filled him with loathing
he lived in a house with no basement
without mirrors of dialectics
jungles of tangled images
were not his home
he would rarely soar
on the wings of metaphor
and then he fell like Icarus
into the embrace of the Great Mother
he adored tautologies
explanations
idem per idem
that a bird is a bird
slavery means slavery
a knife is a knife
death remains death
he loved the flat horizon
a straight line
the gravity of the earth
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