The heart of philosophy

Discussion of the nature of Ultimate Reality and the path to Enlightenment.
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Pam Seeback
Posts: 2619
Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2007 10:40 pm

The heart of philosophy

Post by Pam Seeback »

Religion tells us what and who we are. Science tells us what things are. Psychology digs only as far the ego. The Arts stir and move us, therefore have the potential to awaken the spark of self-inquiry but on their own they lack the fire power to bring the absolute answer. Only doing philosophy has the power to bring suffering of not knowing the truth of one’s identity to an end. Allow me to explain doing philosophy.

Philosophy has a bad rap for being dry and far removed from the existential pain that caused us to seek philosophy of existential identity in the first place. While this reputation is well earned due to the association of philosophy with academia, this changes when there is a shift of thinking of philosophy as something one thinks about to philosophy as something one does. In other words, while logic is busy sorting through the why and what of existential identity, the heart that longs to know its identity is being transformed/healed by logic’s probing.

A philosopher that denies his or her longing to know insisting instead that philosophy belongs entirely to the realm of pure logic or pure intellect has not yet understood the original meaning of philosophy: the love of wisdom. The heart wants what the heart wants.
Serendipper
Posts: 136
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2017 12:43 pm

Re: The heart of philosophy

Post by Serendipper »

Pam Seeback wrote:The Arts stir and move us, therefore have the potential to awaken the spark of self-inquiry but on their own they lack the fire power to bring the absolute answer. Only doing philosophy has the power to bring suffering of not knowing the truth of one’s identity to an end.
How about Philosophy in Art? :)

But then they sent me away to teach me how to be sensible,
Logical, responsible, practical.
And they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
Clinical, intellectual, cynical.

There are times when all the world's asleep,
The questions run too deep
For such a simple man.
Won't you please, please tell me what we've learned
I know it sounds absurd
But please tell me who I am.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQfjIw3mivc
Philosophy has a bad rap for being dry and far removed from the existential pain that caused us to seek philosophy of existential identity in the first place. While this reputation is well earned due to the association of philosophy with academia, this changes when there is a shift of thinking of philosophy as something one thinks about to philosophy as something one does.
"Never let your schooling interfere with your education" - Mark Twain
In other words, while logic is busy sorting through the why and what of existential identity, the heart that longs to know its identity is being transformed/healed by logic’s probing. A philosopher that denies his or her longing to know insisting instead that philosophy belongs entirely to the realm of pure logic or pure intellect has not yet understood the original meaning of philosophy: the love of wisdom. The heart wants what the heart wants.
The problem with logic is the lack of creativity. Logic only deals with what already exists. Input/output.

Logic is merely talent gained by practice. To hit the target no one can see, you must think outside the box. It's a quantum leap into the inherently unpredictable.

We learn to walk by evolution, which is lots of random movements until walking is established. No one can actually describe the process and it's more of an art than science. A bit of a Genetic Algorithm
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