The essence of philosophy is words chasing words seeking meaning from which to deduce their purpose. Indeed, the fate of every
philosophy is doomed from the first word which cannot give meaning to itself. The first word can only gain meaning by definition using
other words which, in turn, can only gain meaning by definition using yet more words in a never ending circle once the first word is used
by another word to gain its meaning by definition. And so it is that many philosophies have often grown to fill tomes with words chasing
words for meaning.
The reach of philosophy is always beyond its grasp for it can only use words to convey meaning to that which knowledge or understanding
cannot be directly ascribed. The result is such that every philosophy makes use of at least one unproven or not provable speculation that
must be taken on faith as an axiom of truth. And so it is that a philosophy is on its best footing when Occum's razor can be used
wisely to produce a parsimony of words to confer insightfulness of itself.
"Whenever possible, substitute constructions out of known entities for inferences to unknown entities." ~ Bertrand Russell (1872–1970)
And so it is that this philosophy begins with the axiom that humans perceive they exist as a known entity as an integral part of
whatever constitutes the whole reality for which the perception itself is the only entity known with absolute certainty.
"I think, therefore I am" ~ René Descartes (1596–1650)
From perceptions engendered in the brain, humans appear to exist at two levels of reality. The first is the reality of all that is the
physical phenomena of all that exists in nature. The second is the reality of all that is the mental phenomena of perception of nature in
the mind as created in the brain.
All that we can know of the physical phenomena of nature are the perceptions created in the mind by the physical brain based on sensory
awareness of the objective material world in and around us. And that means all we can know is what we can sense of that world, leaving
everything not sensed as unknown or unknowable. Is is our only pathway by which to become knowledgeable of reality and the truths ingrained
in it.
We can only know the effect of what was sensed in the physical world by our sensory system as a perception in the mental world of our mind,
thus leaving the true essence of the reality of what was sensed as an unknown. And so it is that our knowledge of reality is, at best,
incomplete.
The result of this duality is the paradox of sensing the objective reality of a nature we cannot know firsthand and knowing the subjective
reality of the mind that we cannot sense firsthand. Of neither can we have any certain, leaving us to our lives with the perception of both
being true and the dilemma that no philosophy founded on either of them can be absolute.
“All that we do is touched with ocean, and yet we remain on the shore of what we know” ~ Richard Wilbur (1921-2017)
From the perspective of nature, humans are material entities obeying the invariant laws of nature living our lives in a deterministic
fashion. We are just another rock over which nature holds domain with a single degree of freedom for action and change in response to its
environment. But humans are different from inanimate rocks in that they also exist as biological entities with brains. The human
"rock" exhibits a biological determinism with multiple degrees of freedom for action and change. When two rocks experience the
same change in their environment, the reactions of both rocks result in identical changes. But when two humans experience the same change
in their environment, each may respond with entirely different reactions and changes. This biological determinism and its multiple degrees
of freedom ultimately give rise to humanity.
From the perspective of mind, humans are entities with domain over nature. We can decide our actions and their resulting material changes.
We can influence the deterministic course of nature with mental processes of the brain. But we cannot overcome the laws of nature which
govern the mental processes in the brain producing the mind.
Decisions made for actions by the human brain are of three kinds:
(1) Those driven by emotional processes without consideration of rational thought
(2) Those driven by rational processes without consideration of emotional thought
(3) Some combination of emotional and rational processes with consideration for both emotional and rational thought.
Consciousness is not essential for actions taken by humans. Indeed, the vast majority of human actions are taken without any consciousness
of thought. We go about our daily lives performing actions without awareness of them: walking by consciousness of placing one foot in front
of the other; talking without consciousness of the semantics of the language being used; placing food in our mouth, chewing and swallowing;
blinking of ours eyes when they become dry; breathing when we need more oxygen; reacting to loud noises we hear and the like, all without
consciousness. Only when confronted with the need or opportunity for making an decision do we gain awareness of subsequent action resulting
from the decision. And, even then, the mental processes in the brain has made the decision before the mind gains conscious of what decision
was made.
The brain makes decisions and initiates actions based on present and past human experiences in the physical world as perceptions of it
resulting from sensations resulting from awareness of it from sensory information produced by stimulation of the neural sensory system. No
stimulation, no information. No information, no awareness. No awareness, no sensation. No sensation, no perception. No perception, no
experience. No experience, no decision. No decision, no action. We become a human rock. The experience of some event past or present must
always prompt the decision process.
Sometimes we are conscious of the decision and sometimes not, but the mind always reaches a binary "yes or no" decision for
action in every case. And it does so on in humans at a rate of about one new decision every 2 seconds. Indeed we are constantly bombarded
with experiences that prompt the process with new sensory information. Further, the mind is also constant bombarded with information
garnered from past experience that is subjectively related to the present sensory experience and has been previously stored in the brain as
memory is retrieved from memory and incorporated into the decision making process in the brain.
Consciousness of mind is not always necessary for making decision but awareness of sensory information is an absolute requirement whether
accompanied by consciousness or not. Of the new decision our brain makes on average every 2 seconds, we only become conscious of one of
them on average every 12 minutes.
The phenomena of decision making in living things is an ancient one, occurring even in brainless, one cell organisms such as the amoeba
which, based on stimuli from their environment, unconsciously make a primitive decision to move toward or away from substances in their
environment. Awareness preceded consciousness which had to first await the development of brains and then development of that part of the
brain that produces consciousness.
Consciousness plays the role of providing subjective mental awareness of the physical awareness of the world in which we live. This mental
awareness is presented in consciousness as perceptions of the world in which we live as a result of sensations produced by the brain.
Primary among these sensations are the qualia of sight, sound, smell, taste and feel from which the brain creates the subjective
perceptions of objects and actions in the physical world. Indeed, consciousness is the mirror of the mind, reflecting that which we
experience and serving only to give us awareness of our perception of our experience of it.
“Now is consciousness” ~ Eckhart Tolle (b. 1948)
Sensations give rise to the phenomena of subjective emotions to which are ascribed subject evaluation of their significance to us. We
perhaps best know them as ineffable feeling about the objects or events that were the initial cause of the sensations that are experienced.
These subjective judgments are not universal and vary widely as the private judgments made by each individual. What emotions are held as
"positive" for some may be held as "negative for others" and vice versa. But in all cases the valuations arise from the
personal experiences of each individual.
Value judgments of emotions can and often do provide the sole basis for making decisions lacking rational consideration of consequences.
However the development of the human brain also enables us to use logical systems of predetermined form for obtaining considered value
judgments as a basis for rational decisions without consideration of emotional values. Sometimes, if not most times, the values of both
emotional and rational judgments play simultaneous roles in decision making. These decision often prove to be the most difficult to make.
But a decision we ultimately do make even if the decision is to make no decision and thereby result in no action.
The evaluation of emotions and the feelings associated with them are plastic and subject to change over time as the result of new
experiences with them. Conscious feelings of love turn to conscious feelings of hate. Conscious feelings of happiness turn to conscious
feeling of sadness. The objective thing or action that gives rise to the emotions do not change but the feelings associate with them can
and do change, causing entirely different outcomes of actions associated them.
Decisions involving rational considerations are ultimately based choices producing expectations of the most emotionally acceptable outcome.
Is it "better" to do "this" than to do "that"? But unlike decisions made entirely on the basis of emotions,
rational decisions are the product of a system of logic used by the brain to decide if doing "this" will be "better"
than doing "that". How do I "feel" about "this" as opposed to "that"? Experience: It is raining.
Emotion: I dislike getting wet and fear catching a cold. Logic: If (a) I bother to take an umbrella I will not get wet, but if (b) I do not
I will get wet. Decision: I like not getting wet more than I dislike bothering with taking an umbrella and so I take an umbrella.
In the case of rational decisions, the logic systems used by the brain are different for each individual. Some systems result in a decision
for "this" action in response to an experience while others result in a decision for "that" action in response to the
same experiece. Consequent, the logic of one person may be held as absurd nonsense by another. Further, the logic system for each
individual is plastic and subject to change over time as the result of new experiences and thoughts. Unlike the formal logic systems of
mathematics, the logic system of the human brain is systematic but not formal.
"You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions." ~ Elizabeth Gilbert (b. 1969)
"So far, about morals, I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after." ~ Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), Death in the Afternoon
"Ethics is in origin the art of recommending to others the sacrifices required for cooperation with oneself." ~ Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
"He's got crazy flipper fingers, never seen him fall.
That deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball." ~ Pete Townshend (b.1945), "Pinball Wizard"
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