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Oct. 7, 2004 It is time for philosophers to renounce their endeavor toward establishing unsubstantiated truths. For those who find it unsatisfactory to live with the unbearable questions and disappointments of existence have resorted to common and predictable methods of inventing cosmetic, simple and ordered universals and absolutes. They also bear no difference to the primitive ideas of religion and faith in an absolute creator of all that is. Through out the history of existential contemplation there have been mainly two opposing modes of thinking: the one, which is Rationalism, and the other, Empiricism. These two forces have also very plainly been abstracted into their respective essences in order to be married into a brilliant, but nonetheless axiomatic, dishonest and utopian union of assumptive logic. This marriage was proudly done by the very optimistic Emmanuel Kant. Fundamentally, the rational inclination utilizes the exercise of reason towards obtaining an absolute description of Being, untainted by the dirty senses of experience. The empirical side, on the other hand, gains its knowledge by means of pure experience through the subject or knower. When these two bodies of thought were married, the birth of Transcendental Idealism, took place. The latter describes to kinds of knowledge: Analytic or a priori truths; and Synthetic, or a posteriori truths. The Analytic truths are innate, necessities or absolute truths independent of experience. The Synthetic are those truths derived by experience. Kant argued that only by combining these two could we arrive at real knowledge. The problem with these ideas is that they are hanging in the air suspended by their unfounded assumptions; they only make sense in terms of mirroring the seeming realm of dreaming appearance. In the case of Reason, it needs to be applied to something by something in order to be exercised. If there is no experiencing observer, how can exercise of reasoning be functional? If applied onto something, there need to be something external to the reasoned, but Leibniz, the leader of this line of thought argues that space and time, for instance, are intellectual constructs through which experience is made intelligible. This is in itself contradictory as he refers to the presence of experience, which in this case is dependent upon the mere intellectual construct of space and time, the very realm in which experience takes place! Furthermore, Leibniz also harbors the concept of innate ideas and absolute necessities – these are once again assumptions – clouds of thought formed by the rising damp of wishful, limited thinking! Hume, on the other side, represents to us the full-blown development of empirical thought. He holds that sensory impressions are all we have to prove our experience as being truth. He does, however recognize the subjectivity of it all: what is true is only true for a specific individual. We must, however accept that nothing can be accepted without doubt to be true in the absolute sense or in the subjective sense. The affecting factor here is the activity of doubt. Doubt is an omni-present disturbance in every instance of a claim to truth. One simply cannot say something is absolutely true, as there is no absolute proof external to the observer. Blind belief is not sufficient to substantiate a condition of reality. The same goes for subjective truth – nothing can be true even to an individual, because that individual cannot find a proof outside of himself, which will entirely appease his speculation. Validity fails in every instance of its event: there is always space enough for question and doubt. Meaning is the other thing that creates a problem: one can always ask what the meaning of the last conclusion is; if validity seems exhaustive in its objective, there is the question of its value and ultimately the meaning of that value. One can even advance to the extent that the meaning of meaning itself can be questioned. Doubt is indeed the one thing for which there is always room. Self-doubt fits into the void between the conclusion and its unconditional questionability. The cause of this doubt, if one can call it thus, is inseparability of the conceiving and the conceived: it is comparable to the mind using itself to think about itself. Being cannot be escaped, and it needs to be escaped in order to validate itself, but in the event of that happening, Being seizes to be at all. To know is simply to postulate an absolute and to hide doubt. One can only prove a proposition by implementing and adhering to a definition, but a definition is nothing more than fiction or invention. One can doubt the meaning of the definition in its application to reality. One can doubt reality proper, or any meaning we apply to reality. Any opinion is just that, even the theory I am compiling at the moment can be doubted – doubt applies to all conceptions and to all instances of anything! It is as absurd as that. All we can do is to accept the chaos and to live in eternal doubt. What is the meaning of our thoughts; what is the meaning that we apply to meaning? Like the madman, we are under obligation to doubt the meaning of every condition of our existence. We, what ever “we” means, are only really able to have questions – there cannot be any answers, as any answer can be doubted; nothing can be proved, not even to oneself(if something by this definition exists). The eye cannot see itself without looking– there is no sight without the eye; and with or without the eye, there is only chaos and doubt! The wise man is the one who is aware of the infinity of questions, rather than comfortable answers trying to wrap chaos into a square box as a gift to those who seek the truth. ------------ About the author Werner Reyneke: I am a 23 year old passionate writer/poet in my spare time and a computer programmer by proffession. Visit my website to see my first published book. I live in South Africa and have been published in a local newspaper (some poems in Haiku form) for the first time in February 2000. I have also been selected for publication in a VoicesNet Anthology (visit www.Voicesnet.org) and a Poetry.com (ILP Publishers) anthology called "Eternal Portraits"). Visit my website at: http://myweb.absa.co.za/wreyneke/Mybook.htm Email: wreyneke@absamail.co.za Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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