Monday, August 28, 2006
The danger of idealism
Is that there becomes a wide gulf between philosophy and life. The ideas are noble, but the life can be vulgar. Most people would define it as hypocrisy. Sartre said he wouldn't build any houses he couldn't live in, the criticism of those before him being a valid one. And in my life too, I realize the ideal in temperance, where I still satisfy the cravings of my body. I call for courage, where my heart becomes deeply troubled and is cowardly. I ask for justice, but am unable to stand up for what is right.
But in my view, one goal of philosophy is to be a guide, and a guide to me implies the guide is more competent than the follower. You are putting your trust in something that is greater and smarter than yourself. Your guide gives you something to strive for, an archer trying to make his target. And in the space between idea and actual experience, where there is a wide gulf between your life and your guide, there is much to be learned.
Pythagoras said at the end of the day, you should ask yourself, where have I gone amiss? Where have I erred? Where could I have done better? So even the wisest among us experienced this gulf between the way we should be and the way we surely are. And the early saints who left the city to go into the deserts. Their gospel was pure while they were visited by the most evil spirits. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
There are other complaints, especially concerning modern idealism, that I have as well. I for one do not believe atoms did not exist before man conceptualized them. Or that rocks and trees did not exist before man. So in this sense, I tend toward a halfway between idealism and materialism. While I believe rocks predate man, I believe they are made perfect, through a natural participation, by man. Same with the trees, the oceans, and so on.
When I was younger, I marvelled at creation in and of itself. I experienced it directly through the mud and sweat on my skin and the scrapes on my legs and so forth. With a little bit of age, I marvel that the universe seems to fit naturally into man. That what we apprehend subjectively tends to be what something is in and of itself.
And I can't get away from the intelligible realm. A bridge spans an expanse because the numbers say it will. It supports it's load because it is mathematically static where it should be and mathematically dynamic where it should be. This, to me is an example where the abstract lies beneath the concrete to make something useful and even beautiful at the same time. And it's amazing to see cracks in mud that take on geometric forms such as squares and whose lines show a line of action that can be predicted by observation.
It has been my experience that there can be a vast gulf between truth and phenomenon. That what we perceive to be is absolutely divergent from what is truly there.
But for the most part, things carry on predictably and yes, in an orderly fashion.
And in the case where the truth is divergent from what is experienced, it simply falls outside the categories of logical thought and falls into the realms of mysticism and spirituality.
Is that there becomes a wide gulf between philosophy and life. The ideas are noble, but the life can be vulgar. Most people would define it as hypocrisy. Sartre said he wouldn't build any houses he couldn't live in, the criticism of those before him being a valid one. And in my life too, I realize the ideal in temperance, where I still satisfy the cravings of my body. I call for courage, where my heart becomes deeply troubled and is cowardly. I ask for justice, but am unable to stand up for what is right.
But in my view, one goal of philosophy is to be a guide, and a guide to me implies the guide is more competent than the follower. You are putting your trust in something that is greater and smarter than yourself. Your guide gives you something to strive for, an archer trying to make his target. And in the space between idea and actual experience, where there is a wide gulf between your life and your guide, there is much to be learned.
Pythagoras said at the end of the day, you should ask yourself, where have I gone amiss? Where have I erred? Where could I have done better? So even the wisest among us experienced this gulf between the way we should be and the way we surely are. And the early saints who left the city to go into the deserts. Their gospel was pure while they were visited by the most evil spirits. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
There are other complaints, especially concerning modern idealism, that I have as well. I for one do not believe atoms did not exist before man conceptualized them. Or that rocks and trees did not exist before man. So in this sense, I tend toward a halfway between idealism and materialism. While I believe rocks predate man, I believe they are made perfect, through a natural participation, by man. Same with the trees, the oceans, and so on.
When I was younger, I marvelled at creation in and of itself. I experienced it directly through the mud and sweat on my skin and the scrapes on my legs and so forth. With a little bit of age, I marvel that the universe seems to fit naturally into man. That what we apprehend subjectively tends to be what something is in and of itself.
And I can't get away from the intelligible realm. A bridge spans an expanse because the numbers say it will. It supports it's load because it is mathematically static where it should be and mathematically dynamic where it should be. This, to me is an example where the abstract lies beneath the concrete to make something useful and even beautiful at the same time. And it's amazing to see cracks in mud that take on geometric forms such as squares and whose lines show a line of action that can be predicted by observation.
It has been my experience that there can be a vast gulf between truth and phenomenon. That what we perceive to be is absolutely divergent from what is truly there.
But for the most part, things carry on predictably and yes, in an orderly fashion.
And in the case where the truth is divergent from what is experienced, it simply falls outside the categories of logical thought and falls into the realms of mysticism and spirituality.
