Things I have learned so far[1]
If you have ever questioned the nature of your own existence you are a philosopher. “Philosophy” literally translates as “love of learning”. This love often feels like hate or pain. Radical self-dissection is the most painful thing you can undertake. When we are not being philosophers we distract ourselves constantly; we consume food, products and each other: we exist on the level of fulfilling our baser urges.[2] In general, attaching value judgements to things is unhelpful, unless we are careful to consider carefully the value itself. If the highest value is contentment, balance of the mind/body dualism, inner peace, the “good life”[3] then we cannot fail to judge correctly. It is important to remember that we are animals and therefore that existing on the animal level is not a less valid mode of being; the key is to recognise that it is not the only mode of being. This is what is meant by transcendence[4]. We exist on the animal level of existence from the moment we are born and some people remain on it until their death. However, as soon as you look outwards and that thought is reflected back to you, your consciousness not your exterior, you become self-reflexive[5]. This is the portal to philosophy. It is not like a light switching illuminating your interior self and making it all at once transparent. It is like the spark of a match in a cave, a match that builds over time to become a fire that casts shadows around the rocky crags of your own psyche and exposes all the facets the knowledge of which are necessary for your happiness[6]. You realise that your brain is an organ and is fed by your body; nurturing your body nurtures your brain. You choose methods to improve the state of your physical being. These methods have to be learned and in order to learn we must quiet our voice, or ego, and become receptive to the passive assimilation of knowledge. When we become receptive to the silent voice that speaks from within us, knowledge becomes belief. We realise that we are born alone and die alone and rejoice in the belief that we can choose to perfect our existence during this window of time[7]; life is a gift. We realise the futility and transience of every endeavour that concerns the animal level and strive to make a lasting and significant change. The only thing that we have sufficient control over to achieve such a change is ourselves. Once we realise that, although neuroscience has taught us that we inherit certain potentialities, we are born a blank canvas – we are free.[8] We realise that we can achieve harmony between mind and body, between ourselves and others, between our perception and our experience, between our emotions and our thoughts[9]. At this moment a state of equilibrium is reached that is the end of our philosophical journey[10]. Except of course that if we are true philosophers we are in awe of the magnitude of the task in hand and marvel at the splendour, beauty and terror of existence itself.[11]
[1] P.Foks; Completed 05:50, 10.08.10, Brighton
[2] See Hegel “Desire” in Phenomenology of Spirit (trans. Miller; Oxford
[3] or “eudaemonia” (see Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics)
[4] Levinas, ‘Philosophy and the Idea of Infinity’ in Collected Philosophical Papers (trans. Lingis; Dusquesne UP, 1998)
[5] See Sartre, Being and Nothingness (trans. Barnes; Routledge, 2003) pg 276-326
[6] See Plato’s analogy of the cave in the theory of Forms
[7] See Heidegger on the “call of conscience”, “authenticity” and “Being-towards-Death” in Being and Time
[8] See Sartre, Being and Nothingness, pg
[9] On dualisms, see Nietzsche ‘Truth and Lies in a Non-moral Sense’
[10] See Hegel on “Absolute Spirit (or Knowledge)”, PS § 347-359, Chapter (DD.), Section VIII
[11] “All I know is that I know nothing” – Socrates (paraphrase)
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