The Wax Argument
Let us take this wax. It has just been extracted from the honeycomb. It has not yet completely lost its taste of honey and it still retains some of the scent of the flowers from which it was collected. Its color, shape and size are obvious. It is hard, cold, easy to touch and, if tapped with a finger, it emits a sound. Thus it has everything that seems to be required for a body to be known as distinctively as possible. But notice that, as I speak, it is moved close to the fire. It loses what remains of its taste, its smell is lost, the color changes, it loses its shape, increases in size, becomes a liquid, becomes hot and can barely be touched. Nor does it still emit a sound if tapped. But does not the same wax remain?
I cannot perceive the wax correctly without a human mind.
~ Descartes
There are many objects and occasions that seem to happen without reason or justice in the world around us. As we wake up every single day, we are constantly thrown into an array of unusual phenomena and happenstance that pass either unnoticed or unexplained. In truth, our mind is the chief culprit in hiding the reality of the world from our hearts. For fear of sorrow and despair, the mind sometimes unconsciously blocks what we would not like to know in an effort to remain in an illusion of total freedom and control over our own fate and destiny. Such is the nature of the common mind.
“Men are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain.”
~ Aristotle
The uncommon mind, both rare and unique, seeks the truth for the sake of knowledge itself and marches with courage into the shadow of obscurity that hides the true nature of reality. Even with its initial hopes and vitality, the uncommon mind may also succumb to the pessimistic forces that persist indefinitely in the external world. Yet as surely as there are only a few winners in a race for many, there are a small number of people that accept reality as it is instead of bending the truth to create a Utopia of bliss in ignorance. The masses fail this test simply because the truth of reality is like a mirror that reflects back the crude ugliness and imperfection of the soul that looks into it. The common mind prefers to cower and hide from its own reflection.
“If an ass looks into a mirror, you cannot expect an angel to look out.”
~ Schopenhauer
Knowledge or ignorance is the ultimate choice given to the uncommon mind. For the common mind, it is sufficient to just invent illusions and superstitions to mask the peculiarities that occur in our daily lives. But the uncommon mind holds a choice. In ignorance, one gains the bliss of accepting the happenstances in life as random with neither reason nor meaning. For some people, it is wiser to choose ignorance over the illusion of absolute knowledge and absolute faith. It is ironic that the acknowledgement of one’s own ignorance is the needed prelude to the acquisition of knowledge.
To choose knowledge over ignorance may sound the better choice for most individuals. Why choose to not know the reason behind unusual objects and occasions? Would it not be better to know in sorrow rather than to be ignorant in bliss? For those who increases in knowledge more often than not increases in sorrow. When one sees the world as it is, without its facade of lies and its mask of beauty, one would feel the sorrow behind even happiness itself. Did not the book of Ecclesiastes state that all is vanity and a grasping of the wind?
“He who increases knowledge increases sorrow.”
~ Ecclesiastes
In the midst of ignorance, one finds knowledge as surely as one knows what is good only through evil. Even an atheist must first know God before saying that there is no God. And thus it is in the middle of two opposing positions that the uncommon mind must emerge victorious. In acknowledging that one must know darkness before one can know the light means that the knowledge of both must be present because they are inseparable as the two faces of the Greek God Janus. The common mind cannot accept this. The common mind cannot and will not acknowledge that all knowledge must be in relation to something else and thus, not a standalone truth by itself.
However, it is undeniable that one finds that he is bonded to many things in the world. As a human being we are both subject to life and death. We cannot change the fact that we are the creation of our parents no matter what we feel about it. Similarly, our parents must also be the product of their parents and their grandparents. In coming into this world, we are already chained by the principle of causality in that we are both an element of cause and effect to the external world. Even the natural world must abide by this law. Plants are eaten by the cows and the cows are in turn are eaten by the lions.
Nothing in the world that is observable to the senses is free from the chains that reality has set for it. While some objects and occasions are seemingly unconnected and appear as standalone realities by themselves, they are but linked by invisible chains that the mind has either not yet perceived or is incapable of understanding. The limitation of the mind to garner knowledge is no excuse for assuming that things are disconnected and of no relation to every other thing in the world. The mind is the one that is at fault when it fails to understand reality. Blame not reality for the failure of the mind.
“We know the mind only as we know matter.”
~ David Hume
It is natural that the mind would lean towards materialism rather than idealism. Matter persists even when the minds that helped shaped it has already perished. The pyramids of Egypt and the Great Wall of China are but a few testaments to the persistence and permanence that matter has over the individual mind. Was not David Hume correct when he said that we know the mind only as we know matter? Did not John Locke state that all our knowledge comes from experience and through our senses?
“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
~ John Locke
But materialism itself is not the end all answer without the presence of idealism. Absolute and necessary truths do exist in an independent reality. The continuous flow of time itself is a testament to this. The data obtained through the senses and experiences amount to just raw data that is incoherent if the mind fails to coordinate and organize it into knowledge. Only the mind can understand the laws of causality and find the links between seemingly unrelated objects and occasions. Without the mind, all knowledge would be impossible. Without the mind, there would be no ideas, no thoughts and no identity.
“But although all our knowledge begins with experience, it does not follow that it arises from experience.”
~ Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was right when he stated that it is the mind that coordinates experiences, sensations, perceptions and conceptions into knowledge. Only the mind can find unity in diversity and obtain the knowledge of what is constant and necessary. Therefore it is the mind that is the active agent in synthesizing the thesis and the anti-thesis of reality. Although the mind will inevitably perish as the body dies, all knowledge of matter would come only through the mind. Without the effort of the mind to construct our knowledge of the laws and processes governing our world, our understanding of an independent reality would be impossible. Philosophical knowledge must not be bounded only by experiences and sensations but must also be both synthetic and a priori.
“How can we explain mind as matter, when we know matter only through the mind?”
~ Schopenhauer
Perhaps the most famous concept of the mind is the Cartesian tradition that represents the human body as a purely physical thing and the human mind as a purely non-physical thing. The ghost (mind) in the machine (body) can be translated into the mind inhabiting the body and controlling it. This form of dualism speculates that the mind and matter are two distinctive things. This stand is opposed to the more current view of scientific materialism that argues that what happens in the mind clearly depends on what happens in the brain. Recent studies and experimentation have indeed proven that brain damage may cause mental disabilities. This indirectly establishes the link between the brain (matter) and the mind.
While scientific materialism can demonstrate how certain sensations like pain can be induced through external stimulation, other more complex intellectual abilities like perceptions, memories and ideas are not so easily explained. Ideas exist only as intangible contents of the individual mind. One cannot be aware of the ideas of another individual as clearly as one is aware of his own ideas. Our perceptions and ideas are fluid and continuous with the constant flow of time. It is not likely that we would ever be able to understand the mind solely through the understanding of matter.
The Fourth Philosophy: Of Past and Present
Posted by jamesesz on May 11, 2009
~ The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
The Achilles
Achilles running to overtake a crawling tortoise ahead of him can never overtake it, because he must first reach the place from which the tortoise started; when Achilles reaches that place, the tortoise has departed and so is still ahead. Repeating the argument we easily see that the tortoise is always ahead.
The Arrow
A moving arrow at any instant either at rest or not at rest, that is, moving. If the instant is indivisible, the arrow cannot move, for if it did the instant would immediately be divided. But time is made up of instants. As the arrow cannot move in any one instant, it cannot move in any time. Hence it always remains at rest.
~ Zeno of Elea
Time is the ultimate concept and measurement that binds everything in this world together. The existence of time is one of the fundamental truths that cannot be doubted. Without time, all reality knowable to the mind would cease to exist. Time is change and because of time, almost everything changes. All matter in reality changes either in form or shape when subjected to time. Therefore the mind’s conception and perception of reality must not be static but dynamic in relation to time.
“Nothing in the entire universe ever perishes, believe me, but things vary, and adopt a new form.”
~ Ovid
Absolute time in that every watch with high precision would register the same measurement of time is a myth. If one would take an accurate timepiece and travel around the world, one would realize that the time registered on this timepiece would be different than that of a similar timepiece that has stayed stationary in a certain place. A number of empirical evidence have indeed proven this to be true and conclusively showed that even time is subject to relativity.
Even if every individual have his own personal clock, time is in general unidirectional as in being a one way flow from past to future. For the observable mind, time cannot flow backwards in any occasion without constituting a collapse in our understanding of reality. Time is therefore a continuous flow from the past to future that permits no regression and no changing of the past. In stating so, time must be understood as an accumulation or a growth. One cannot see broken glasses becoming whole by itself as surely as one can remember the past but not the future.
“Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.”
~ John Archibald Wheeler
The best evidence of the existence of time is in motion. As the Earth rotates around the sun, all things on Earth must also move in accordance with the Earth’s celestial movement. Things are only perceived as static because gravity binds them to Earth. In reality, all matter on Earth is moving and changing! Time is this dimension of change while matter is bound by the three dimensions of space.
All reality must be understood in relation with time and hence, change. This is because all things observable to the human mind are subjected to time. The relevance of time to knowledge is a priori because we cannot conceive a reality with the absence of time. The persistent and permanence of the property of time for all men and all things ensure that time must be the absolute factor that must be taken into consideration.
“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
~ Marcus Aurelius
All experiments and knowledge seeking endeavors must include the time factor in order to be considered relevant and reliable. Cause and effect, action and reaction are only observable and measurable when they include the time factor. Without taking into consideration the affects of time, all knowledge would be void because their relevance and reliability would be compromised by their inability to avoid fallibility. One should always examine whether a ‘truth’ is true at all times. Should a truth be unable to fulfill this criterion, one must state the timeframe or period in which a perceived ‘truth’ is true.
Time is the final frontier of the mind. It is the ultimate limit that restricts human understanding. Most of the time, our intellect catches only the static state of reality and not its constant flux of continuous movement. An idea once written on paper becomes rigid and tangible as compared to the flexibility it has when it is intangible in the mind. Thought is a dynamic movement with multiple ideas and is more of a process rather than a product.
“Time is what prevents everything from happening at once.”
~ John Archibald Wheeler
To view things in its static state is like attempting to understand a person through a photograph. The static state of things is just a small part of the big picture. The German word gestalt, in which the sum of all things is more important than its individual parts, is the best way to describe the relationship between the mind and time. Due to the inevitability of life and death, an individual mind cannot experience what is eternity and infinity on a personal basis. Time places a limit on how much of the big picture an individual mind can see. Hence time limits human understanding.
The understanding of the concept of present is also a common flaw in human understanding. The present is an illusion that does not really exist. The present is the static instance in the continuous flow of time. Essentially, the present is a snapshot of a moving reality, and thus it is a static state. Life is impossible inside a static state. Unless the present is defined as a period of time in a relevant future, the present is non-existent. The moment the word present is uttered, it has already gone into the past. This is why Achilles and the tortoise cannot race unless they start at the same time and race within a particular time limit.
“The present is a point just passed.”
~ David Russell
It is imperative that philosophy must always include the time factor into consideration. We must always be prepared to acknowledge that our own perspective of things may not be true at all times and under all circumstances. Right and wrong can only be determined when we carefully set the conditions and boundaries to which they would apply. The present is an illusion that must be replaced with the reality of the near future.
The Fifth Philosophy: Of Fate and Freewill
Posted by jamesesz on May 13, 2009
The Three Fates
Candide
‘There is a chain of events in this best of all possible worlds; for if you had not been turned out of a beautiful mansion at the point of a jackboot for the love of Lady Cunégonde, and if you had not been involved in the Inquisition, and had not wandered over America on foot, and had not struck the Baron with your sword, and lost all the sheep you brought from Eldorado, you would not be here eating candied fruit and pistachio nuts.’
‘That’s true enough,’ said Candide, ‘but we must go and work in the garden.’
~ Voltaire
The notion of freewill is one of the most commonly used and perhaps most commonly misunderstood concept of human ability. Most of us believe that we have the freedom to make choices and that reality is not externally predetermined by forces not under our control. The belief that ‘we make ourselves the individuals we are’ is the cornerstone of many people living in the world today. Freewill and free choice emphasizes that: we are what we ‘choose’ ourselves to be and that everything in the world starts with choice.
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
~ Rousseau
The common existentialist formula of choice as stated above holds a widespread appeal to the common masses. It gives an illusion of absolute power in the hands of the individual to choose what he would like to become simply with the use of his freewill. It is rare that our minds look back and reconsider the nature of our ability to choose and the nature of choice itself. The common misconception is that if there is no human ability to make choices, everything is fated.
“God does not play dice.”
~ Albert Einstein
If everything is fated to happen, all our choices and decisions are unalterable and inevitable as an effect of a preceding causes that are already predetermined themselves. Freewill would then simply be an illusion of choice when in reality all things are necessary and unchangeable. The most common argument against fate would be the collapse of moral responsibility if everything is indeed predetermined before hand.
Why should an individual be responsible over an action that he has no control of? If everything is fated and we are merely actors playing a part in God’s script, it would make no sense to condemn a murderer over his crime. Even the act of murder itself would be a predetermine product of a predetermine process of which the murderer is merely a tool and not the perpetrator. Moral responsibility of an individual for his actions would collapse because no one could be held accountable for what he has done.
The argument of the collapse of moral responsibility is the most obvious and also the most irrelevant one against fate. If everything is fated, the fact that someone is held responsible over his actions while others escape judgment might also be predetermined. Hence, there would be no collapse of moral responsibility and no negation of fate as being a true principle of reality. Everything in the world would then be just a preset plan which due to time, unfolds at a preset pace. Even the writing and reading of this article is a fated event that could happen in no other way.
“Einstein, stop telling God what to do!”
~ Niels Bohr
Taking reality as is it, we also realize that it is impossible to be alive without making choices. If everything is fated, why is it we must choose what to do in the near future? Why can we remember just the choices we made in the past but not those we will make in the future? The paradox of choice is that we have no choice when it comes to making choices! In other words, we cannot choose not to choose because in doing so, we have already made a choice.
Yet even the definition above is misleading. We have absolutely no choice in denying our own existence due to hunger and desire. We have no choice in choosing who our parents are even if they disown us. Similarly, we have no choice in determining which era we live in and also which era we would die in. After we omit the factors that we have no control on, we realize that the boundaries in which our freewill is allowed to operate is surprisingly small.
“There is no cure for birth or death save enjoy the interval.”
~ Santayana
In relation to time, we find that choice is only relevant for future events and not for past events. While the past in unchangeable, the future is still uncertain and subject to variation. Thus, one can view events of the past as being subject to fate while events in the future as being subject to freewill. However, bear in mind that it is the past that sets the stage for the future and it is the past that we must build our future upon. We can never ‘choose’ to ignore the past.
me said
I was particularly interested in this piece, but the end left me hanging. The way we choose can also be a genetic predisposition, reinforced by years of habit. Still, is the eternal debate. . are our destinies in our control? Most of us, with the exception of masochists (perhaps those with a paradigm that we grow most when we struggle hardest)would choose the path that leads to maximum pleasure and minimum pain. Even the books we read or the sites we stumble upon. . . Is it really due to our choice? What about the dry seasons when we can’t find the answers we need….? Do you really believe the sad looking people we meet on the streets “chose” to be that way??? It might’ve been emotional baggage or even a set mode of thinking (rigidity?) or someone in their lives not treating them right.
My husband abides by the maxim “The highways are fixed, but not the alleys.”
P/S I will be staying on your site for some time. I’m impressed, young man!
San San
jamesesz said
Dear San San,
The existentialist believes that we choose the way we want to be. Personally, I can never agree with this. We cannot choose our parents or choose to undo our past..Time prevents choices made and actions done from ever changing..
Nevertheless, we can ‘choose’ to carry an umbrella even if we cannot control the weather..I guess I kind of agree with your husband..LOL
Please bear in mind that these 5 short essays are incomplete as I am now taking a degree course in the UK..I plan to continue writing and proofreading them when I return to Malaysia..
I have another ‘work in progress’ under the ‘Meditation’ page..It took 4 years to compile data for that one (I am only 22..so 4 years is a relatively long part of my life span..for now.. :-) )
Your’s Sincerely,
James Ee