Wednesday, May 16, 2018

The Uses of Philosophy – The Incompleteness of Science Leszek Figurski



The Uses of Philosophy – The Incompleteness of Science
To philosophize is to attempt to see in a coherent and meaningful vision the totality of my whole existence. It is a renewed effort to see the essential value and direction of my life. Ultimately to philosophize one must decide for wisdom of life.
Here we face a number of difficulties.
First a casual look at the history of Philosophy reveals to us many and different beliefs, ideologies, faiths. As already mentioned, it seems that almost everything that has been believed as true by some thinkers was also denied by others. Philosophers do not seem to agree on the most vital issues, which perennially confront every generation of mortals.
Second a casual look at the contemporary scene, at the world today, seems to suggest the same. There are so many divergent views, ideologies and mythologies and all have dedicated defenders and followers sometimes fanatically sold to their visions of what is valuable, true and meaningful.
This realization may lead to despair. Is Truth attainable at all? How can I know whether there is anything worth believing at all? Is not skepticism the most reasonable attitude? Is not everything relative?
Third the observation of the great majority of people is not encouraging either. It does not take much time to see that a great part of mankind lives without paying much attention to the crucial questions of human existence. False notions of security, ignorance deliberately cultivated, thoughtless pleasure-seeking, mad activism are all glorified and widely practiced. Preoccupation with senseless trivialities – this is what we see everywhere, or it seems so.
Not many people like to think deeply. Many deliberately evade confronting their inner emptiness by constantly trying to run away from themselves. The society in which we live provides immeasurable ways for making it easy to plunge into thoughtless spending of time. It is called entertainment:  drugs, alcohol, bought sex, etc. Many people live this way.
It is enough to reflect on this all to be tempted very strongly to give up the serious search for a true meaning of our lives. Is there any?
This “temptation to despair” is nevertheless the result of a superficial and shallow observation. For philosophy is not a futile quest. Many individuals found deep and rewarding meaning to their lives in personal search; in Philosophy. The quest itself is certainly difficult and may last a lifetime. But it is not a futile quest. Gradually light emerges. Many a truth, a belief acquires through centuries of thinking and rethinking more validity and more solid justification. Everyone wants to make his or her life as meaningful as possible. Mankind never gives up this search for meaning. If it had it would stop existing as mankind. There would be no humanity, we would not exist. For this search for meaning, philosophy is the main striving force of one’s existence. There is no life without it.
The perennial questions confront in some way every thinking human being, but the horizon of knowledge, the depth of insight differs from century to century. All humanity evolves dynamically towards clearer understanding, toward fuller awareness, towards simpler vision of meaning of existence.
The differences must be there, because each culture, each civilization, each generation (and each individual) has a perspectival, partial and limited view. Nevertheless the insights, the answers gained gradually accumulate.
We must not let ourselves be deceived by the perspectival and limited nature of human knowledge. Since human beings are limited, so will be their visions, but limited does not mean non-existent. Since philosophical questions face each one of us, we are very privileged. We can examine how the greatest minds of mankind struggle with the same problems. We have a dialogue with the great philosophers of the past and the present. This itself is a great advantage. By examining their views, the way they formulated the enduring all-human questions on the meaning of existence, we may be spared going into blind alleys of improper ways of questioning. By examining carefully their answers we may get tremendous insights and depth of vision, perhaps even true solutions. We are not alone in this human quest which endures over the ages. My and your vision is certainly very limited and meager, to say the least, but in conversing with the great philosophers, the leaders and giants of insight and vision, we can think the thoughts of the best of all humankind. The great advantage of this fact cannot be overestimated ever. This is most certainly the most exhilarating experience. It is growing towards full human stature as a member of the whole family of men. Are we not contradicting ourselves? First we realized that the philosophical search for meaning must be done by each one for himself and thus it is a lonely search, and now we are saying that this search is nevertheless a search together with other thinkers in a kind of enduring search – dialogue over centuries of time! There is no contradiction here. What is important is our aim, our goal:  to shape my meaning of my existence, for myself. The purpose of philosophy, St. Thomas Aquinas remarked, is not to know what others thought, but to attain towards the TRUTH of things. In studying Philosophy each one must think for himself. Each one is all the time searching and actively looking for his or her meaning. Philosophizing is a constant determined reaching towards the vision of TRUTH. Otherwise it would be a meaningless gathering of scattered information only. So much is always clear.
However, it would be irrational and unjustifiable to reject a philosophical insight, which after careful rethinking appears as true and valid, within an important area of my search simply because it is not my own, but someone else’s. This point is so obvious that it would be a waste of time to dwell on it further. There lies the value and meaning of studying the greatest and the best in Philosophy.
Some of the modern thinkers are rather skeptical of conclusion, transcending what they define as human experience. This experience is conceived by them in a rather narrow sense, called scientific. To those thinkers – contrary to the Ancient Greek belief and Medieval attitude, philosophy should only be concerned with what is empirically verifiable. By empirical verification again they mean sense-verification. This attitude in its extreme form narrows tremendously the horizon of inquiry to the scientifically demonstrable only. There are some, who believe that Science so understood, is all we have to our disposal.
Scientific truth – truth obtained by special sciences – has the redeeming quality of being exact, but is never complete and never ultimate. It does not suffice unto itself. It needs philosophical, that is more fundamental, grounding. It originates in many assumptions which are without much scrutiny accepted as good. Scientific truth does not stand on its own feet and is not fundamental enough. It must be integrated and rooted in more complete and final kind of truth, which may be considered neither “scientific” (in a sense described above) nor directly demonstrable by senses. No scientific theory is in any way ultimate for each one can be – and historically often had been – replaced by another one. Where science ends the problems do not end, neither does the search for meaning. It must be noted also that special sciences give us only piecemeal insight into very limited a narrowly specified aspects of the world:  by no means exhaustive or complete. The scientist himself within his field of specialization, as a human being needs truth which is whole and complete. Whether he likes it or not, by the very make-up of his human mind, he must form a total concept of the universe and find his place in it. The philosophic truth is more general thus less exact but more basic. It is truth of higher rank not only because its horizon is broader and deeper, but also as a type of knowledge. The inexact philosophic truth is true truth and indispensable. A truth may be very exact and yet very small and almost devoid of deeper meaning altogether. Special sciences alone cannot ever completely satisfy the imperative need for a meaning-vision of the totality of human experience as human. As Sidney Hook remarked, “Philosophy concerns itself with the place of man in the universe from the point of view of certain -large and perennial questions which all reflective men at some time or another ask. These questions are not asked or answered in any of the special sciences, but to answer them intelligently one must be familiar with the best science and theology of the day.” Sidney Hook, The Uses of Philosophy).
This then is Philosophy as the quest for wisdom. Wisdom is concerned with meaning, values and value judgments. It is knowledge of what is good or better, bad or worse, what is meaningful and what is not. It is knowledge which throws in the concreteness of human existence a certain illuminating light at the questions:  Who am I? What is the universe around me? What can I know? What I can hope for? What should I do? Does the universe show a design or not? Is there a God or Friend beyond phenomena or are we alone? Are human beings destined for immortal existence or perchance only complicated sparks of chemical elements?
This of course, is only a random selection of philosophical problems. There is a host of other problems. All are interrelated and mutually trigger one another and thus throw light at one another forming gradually a more meaningful pattern of vision.
We are in the position now to put together the answer to the question:  Why should we study Philosophy? Philosophy provides
(a) purpose in life. It enables a person to attain a coherent system of ideas and beliefs leading towards a more satisfactory mode of living;
(b) tremendous enrichment of human knowledge because it organizes the best of sciences and  draws conclusions relevant for the search for the meaning of life;
(c) contact with the greatest minds in the history of mankind. The problems of Philosophy are by their very nature perennial. Mankind has been wrestling with these problems through the ages and will continue in future. In each generation there are geniuses of insight and depth who have left their answers to be pondered and examined.
(d) a sense of worth and meaning of life. An unexamined life is not worthy of man. An exclusive preoccupation with everyday concerns without a more comprehensive view limits and impoverishes life robbing it almost completely of its value and import;
(e) social evaluation. In our modern rapidly changing world of mass civilizations a mass destruction becomes more and more probable. The study of Philosophy helps towards an intelligent evaluation of the political scene and to constructive use of one’s freedom for the interests of civilization. It augments the sense of meaning of each person’s individual existence.
To quote Jacques Maritain, Philosophy reminds men “of the supreme utility of those things which do not deal with means, but with ends. For men do not live only by bread, vitamins and technological discoveries. They live by values and realities which are above time and are worth knowing for their own sake.” (Jacques Maritain, On the Use of Philosophy).

he Courage To
Think For Yourself

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Tuesday, May 15, 2018

The book “Finality and Intelligence” Leszek Figurski


Introductory

The second edition of the book “Finality and Intelligence” belongs to the elucidation of the problem and analysis of existence of God. The fact of writing on God’s existence in our times maybe surprising to a number of people who are under the spell of the existential confusion in philosophy, literature and art of our times. Frankly speaking, very many people, some of them known scientists in different branches of modern science consider such a topic simply very much out of date. One can hear from many sources statements to the effect of complete lack of interest in such questions. Did not science settle this problem once and for all. Did not even some existential theologians after Nietzsche, Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, Arthur Schopenhauer acknowledge the death of God? Is not the matter settled for good? We also have to mention here the very aggressive group of scientists who openly stress the fact that they are scientists but draw conclusions which are metaphysical in nature. And of course the conclusion whether God exists or not is metaphysical. Metaphysics is also the generally accepted way of analysis of the Universe and God’s existence until the very Modern Times. Philosophy whether for the Ancients or as a matter of fact any attempt to answer the fundamental origin of existence is metaphysical in nature. On this level the mind moves from existence to another existence as the necessary condition explaining the present observation of the universe and it’s intrinsic structure. There are some phenomena immediately experienced, which can only be explained in terms of existence of God. To such belong (1) the rationality implicit in our experience of the world . Human rationality discovers the possibility of knowledge because of the presence of rationality in the structure of the universe. When it comes to higher levels of phenomena we would have to mention (2) life, (3) consciousness, (4) conceptual thought, the power to articulate and understand symbols and meaning of language, and finally (5) the human self. Some atheists claim the existence and necessity of so called scientific reductionism, the evolution of the cosmos, the evolution of life including humans as “arguments “ against existence of God.
On the contrary the book is one of some other books to follow about a serious reconsideration of the problem of God’s existence. No matter how much progress has been made in many areas of our life and no matter how scientific investigations modified our view of man’s position in the cosmos , the nature of the vast immensity of billions of galaxies forming themselves in the vastness of the surrounding world, and no matter how the human life and situation has been apparently dwarfed, the thirst and desire for discovery of some meaning of life is not only not belittled but in the chaos of different views and opinions intensified for the average man today. The problem of God’s existence will be amply analyzed in the forthcoming book by Leszek Figurski “God or no God”.
The present book is an evaluation and analysis of the last Way of the known Five Ways leading the human mind to the existence of God elaborated by Saint Thomas Aquinas. The Fifth Way will be considered within general context of Thomistic philosophy. It is not the intention to analyze all Five Ways of Thomas but center on the ascent of the mind from the orderliness of the finite beings observed in this world towards final infinite intelligence of the First Mover and the First Creative Cause of the world.
The analysis is done on the metaphysical level; it acknowledges the right of the human mind to complete intelligibility of being as such and the power of the mind to answer the ultimate questions to which of course belongs the problem of the existence of God.
Thomas Aquinas was not the first to elaborate the argument from finality and its relationship to the mind, but he developed it and put it on the strictly ontological level .
All the Five Ways of Thomas Aquinas have very similar structure of argumentation. They begin with existing facts which are directly observable and then they attempt to discover the ultimate presuppositions of the observable phenomena . This is why Thomas Aquinas does not use the word arguments or proofs of existence of God , instead he prefers the word ways of reaching the ultimate presuppositions of what is already in experience directly given to man. The Fifth Way is very important for the whole Thomistic philosophy. It points to personal intelligence as a necessary presupposition of the orderly activities of finite causes in the world. The fact that observable entities are goal oriented in their activity must have some explanation. Thomas does not mean here the teleological action of say human beings or even the small degree of teleological behavior of lower forms of life; he is pointing to the fact that in- animate structured beings because of their structured natures contain a presupposition in their activity towards definite goals or ends.
This is why the universe is telos-oriented, this is why human rationality meets the cosmic rationality, this is why science and any kind of knowledge is possible at all , this is why the harmonious orderly world must be finally grounded
in some cosmic intelligence. After all the world did not have to be the way it is ; it could be a forceless chaos, not in any way open to the human mind ; or perhaps it could consist only of photons and electrons. But it is not a chaos but an orderly cosmos as the Greeks noticed and called it at the beginning of philosophical reflection.
To the objection of the evolutionists, the scientific reductionism and some other possible objections Thomas would if he lived in our age simply answer : “re-think the problem carefully and without prejudice and you will realize that there is no other valid solution but mine.” How the argument will be accepted and understood as valid and sound or not is up to the judgments of the reader.

Irene Ciszewska Saunder

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Monday, May 14, 2018

Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man

Diogenes Searching for an Honest Man by Johann Tischbein
One of the strangest philosophers ever to live. Diogenes was the epitome of the classical philosopher as a man who practiced what they taught. Diogenes founded the Cynical school of philosophy, a school dedicated to simple living and virtue. Advocating a simple, disciplined, self-sufficient life, Diogenes lived in a large jar and owned nothing but a cloak and staff. He begged for food and avoided luxuries like the plague.  He is said to have written a few (lost) essays but is better known for using actions to educate. He would walk down the street backward in an attempt to make people question why they walked forwards and begged from statues to show that he was not concerned with rejection. When he was presented with Zeno’s paradox demonstrating that movement was impossible, he is said to have stood up and walked away.
A famous story relates that Alexander the Great visited him in his pot before setting out to conquer the world. When Alexander asked what the cynic might want from the King of Greece, Diogenes asked him to get out of his sunlight. His teachings would ultimately inspire the Stoic school of philosophy long after the Cynics had vanished.

Life with a Purpose 2(10)

The Uses of Philosophy - The Incompleteness of Science. 7(10) PL101
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Arguing God from Consciousness (Closer to Truth - Season 8, Episode 4)

Sunday, May 13, 2018

John Polkinghorne - What is Time?

The Symposium by Plato - FULL Audio Book - Ancient Greek Philosophy.mp4

The Courage to Think for Yourself

The Search for Truth and the Meaning of Human Life

LESZEK FIGURSKI


This book was written with the purpose of proclaiming the duty of each individual to search for truth and the meaning of existence. The twentieth century produced such monsters as Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot who revealed the deadly drive of people who blindly followed these tyrants. Ignorance, passivity, and sheepish readiness to sell one’s life into the hands of self-made political “saviors” have created the sad reality of our times. Our world today is characterized by a growing cult of political power. There is an almost complete neglect of the individual person and of moral values in general. We should always remember that those who neglect reflection sentence themselves to repeat the same catastrophes and mistakes. Thinking requires determination and endurance. It is not easy. It demands courage to question the most fundamental convictions that may be accepted by others without any reflection or evaluation. Thinking requires courage because it involves a certain risk and may lead to unexpected conclusions. Above all, passion for truth is necessary for every honest seeker. The Socratic saying, “an unexamined life is not worth living,” is as true today as it ever was before. «

The Problem of God’s Existence continued (2 /2) 3/4 (PL101)

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