THE INTENTIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

The cynical belief that some people have that philosophy is an insoluble game that resolves nothing and goes around in circles like a game that cannot be won, must be rejected at the outset of this essay. My aim in describing the intentions of philosophy as an ongoing process of development, and also of how much use I think it has been to humanity since its conception, is inestimably great in the wealth of its ideas and deeds in my opinion. The first aspects of philosophy that I will point out as I begin to describe its development, is the well known fact that a lot of the concepts and theories of philosophers since its conception have either engendered or developed most of the subjects that we have today in our educational system and in the world in general, to put it bluntly, I would have to say that philosophy is the most creative and wealthy of all subjects! Philosophers have always been the most creative thinkers and their ideas have always been the most cutting edge and progressive. The concepts and theories of philosophers have usually been adopted by scientists, and psychologists as well as politicians and other thinkers also. In speaking of the intentions of philosophy I would have to say that if a philosophy is to produce a progressive affect on its readers and in the world in general, it has to be radical and extreme, rather than harmonious. During the middle ages the philosophy of Aristotle was considered as harmonious because it informed many people of the things that they wanted to hear, nobody bothered to question it, except for a few enlightened individuals; this feeling of harmony and comfort that some people get of only noticing and listening to what they wanted to hear, instead of listening to the truth on certain aspects of things which people had discovered at the time that Aristotle's philosophy did not cover that he revealed, produced a stagnation in thought amongst most of the thinkers of that period. The philosophy of Nietzsche was revolutionary and progressive because it was radical and extreme. There are many ways to be radical and extreme without being negative or saying undue things, for instance, Jesus was this way and so was Buddha and Gandhi. Nature creates harmony irrespective of whatever disturbances have occurred in the world by political or philosophical movements, but at least if you create a disturbance you are guaranteed to produce a proportional amount of progress for your disturbance. The ultimate aim of philosophy is to find questions concerning reality and then attempting to answer them. Philosophy always looks for a solution to all known phenomena in reality and it tries to create a possible truth to fit what we are unsure about concerning reality, one of the philosophers aims is to avoid not having an answer for most peoples questions. When it comes to the kinds of questions that philosophers ask themselves, it is important to know how to ask the right questions or be able to find the right questions and then make an effort to answer them to the best of one's ability. The right types of questions that philosophers should ask are the one's when answered lead to solutions or insights that resolve significant things concerning reality and existence generally. If a philosophy is to be "whole and complete" it must be able to embrace the rational and irrational aspects of reality and everything in between. Critical analysis in philosophy especially of older theories is a necessary and modern aspect of philosophy and any up and coming philosophers to the philosophical scene should examine what has been written and said before so as to judge and examine if it is still valid or not, all contemporary theories must be examined and judged also to see what they contain and they should also judge whether these theories have any validity as such. All critical analysis in philosophy is also radical and extreme and requires that one be as honest as possible in the revaluation of earlier and contemporary philosophies. Nothing aids the philosopher more than to have a set of progressive methods and techniques of different and varied kinds to attain to an understanding of the truth rather than sticking to a specific system. All the phenomena that exists in our surroundings and in the universe at large is an ongoing process, therefore all the methods and techniques that are employed by the philosopher to arrive at an understanding of the truth should also be a process that is progressive and this makes more sense than sticking to a specific system, most systems in philosophy and elsewhere are usually rigid, dishonest, limited and usually become outmoded and have to be replaced by some other more superior system and then has to be replaced by another and so on. If a philosophical system is to be progressive and genuine and able to grow and develop it would have to be a very loose system that can resolve itself fully in its expansion and in every step forward it takes in its development. The disadvantage to not having a system in philosopy is that particular information one propounds if not followed by progressions and connections will not lead anywhere, it will simply exists as loose information or knowledge; a good philosophical system is like a tree or a process in nature that actually leads somewhere as it works itself out fully and any eventual limitations that exist in it can be disgarded and replaced by new insights. A philosophical system should be allowed to grow organically and it should not be forced in any way to grow in an artificial manner, it should be allowed to grow like a tree. The concepts and theories of philosophical truth are progressive and the more one adds to them the more complete and absolute they become, one must eliminate all that was uncertain about them. Even though the truth cannot be figured out 100% within any theory or field of enquiry, it still becomes necessary to eliminate uncertainty in any theory if it is to progress as a theory and this method of eliminating doubt from theories must be conducted in a piecemeal way, also to make any theory more certain requires that you add new insights in a likewise manner. Philosophical theories and concepts must be progressive and "whole" and the philosopher must make them more and more certain and complete over time. All the identities of theories and concepts in philosophy must be relational and the philosopher must describe how concepts are part of processes within reality and how they relate to other concepts and so on. Forward progressions and original thinking is what counts in philosophy. The desire to create new ideas and make new insights about reality requires a lot of discipline and intention on the part of the philosopher, but is well worth the effort and should be pursued by every philosopher, for a philosopher new and original ideas should be like drops of rain during a monsoon period and as I have said elsewhere, our results are proportionate to our desires and effort, especially in wanting to uncover new insights about reality. All philosophers and thinkers and people in general should learn how to think for themselves first and then gradually and slowly permit other types of knowledge to influence them afterwards, the things which philosophers or thinkers should learn from other philosophers of the past which are the most useful for their own development as thinkers are the methods and techniques of reasoning that have been employed by philosophers for thousands of years. Any philosopher who cannot think for themself is a useless and worthless philosopher, because by thinking for yourself you create and discover new insights about reality, which adds to what is already known. Even though it is natural for a philosopher to simply have theories about the truth of reality in the form of knowledge, it is not knowledge itself which defines a philosopher as a "character" or influence on his or her readers, therefore I would suggest that if a philosopher is to affect a change in their readers, it would require that the philosopher is able to indicate possible truths with his or her words and suggest possibilities of a progressive and radical nature. A philosopher should also be a visionary and an advice giver of the kind that would benefit humanity. Just because a philosopher has interpreted the truth in his or her own way and that their theories are merely representations, does not mean that it is not the truth of a useful kind. A philosopher should be completely truthful to their own thoughts and feelings, because the "truth" is the most important of all things in this world. Anything unexperimental is not worthy of being called the truth. The greatest and hardest task for a philosopher is to reveal and figure out things about the universe that no one else has thought about before, philosophers should spend a lot of time thinking about new things and attempting to understand them. Philosophers should be attracted to unpredictable ways of thinking, they should think about things in reality that no one else has thought of in that particular way, this should be cultivated in the general make-up of philosophical thinking. Predictable lines of enquiry produce stagnation, the act of being unpredictable is a catalyst for new ways of thinking about reality and the cosmos, the predictable is worn out and incomplete, one should always ask why? To question and ask why is so and so this way or that way, is of more value to the philosopher than always having to develop opinions. For a child curiosity is a novelty, but for a philosopher it is an ongoing process of discovery, curiosity is a very active principle. Philosophers should never lay claim on the truth, the truth belongs to everyone, to worship other philosophers and thinkers should be avoided, "a philosophers mind, should be like a diamond of pure brilliance".
A philosopher should be able to eliminate all the doubt that exists within their own philosophy and their philosophy should be able to resolve itself, especially in the branch of ethics or morality, which is the most difficult to resolve. Most of the people in the world are natural philosophers and philosophizing it must be pointed out is a very natural and instinctual type of cognition, which is the mental act of wanting to attain to the truth of reality and experience, the same can be said about reason and logic, these are natural and instinctual types of cognitions within the consciousness of most people. The difference between the philosophizing of the average person who is living their life and that of people who call themselves philosophers is that the former are always talking about things they cannot fully explain, whereas a good philosopher can explain many things fully and a philosopher always attempts to understand reality more fully and completely, it is important for people to try and understand the truth of reality more fully because this process is one of the only things that makes human beings anything special at all and it is a process that aids their evolution, human beings truly evolve by applying their minds more to trying to understand reality more fully and adapting to what they have learned. The problem with a lot of peoples philosophizing is that they claim that they understand reality either because they have been brainwashed by society and culture and are too mentally lazy to think for themselves or because they are presumptuous and indifferent and mentally lazy also. Human beings cannot evolve into something greater unless they can understand reality more fully and also learn to think for themselves more. Philosophers should never consume drugs, alcohol, tobacco and coffee and the reason for this is because these things cloud and impair their judgement when they are philosophizing about things, it is impossible to be fully in touch with the truth under the influence of these substances. The certain attitude and opinion that some people have which makes them think that philosophy is a very limited game of word play and leads nowhere or on the other hand that philosophy does not tell you anything significant or important about the world and reality at large is an attitude that is like a disease or a poison and it is this way of thinking that makes these people anathema in the eyes of all the real and genuine philosophers of the world. As a lot of people know the word philosopher means lover of wisdom and truth and it does not mean lover of word play or games or delusions or insignificance or whatever other negative attachments some people attribute to philosophers and philosophy. How can one say that an understanding and description of the truth is just a limited play with words and nothing more significant than this, knowing and describing the truth and acting on this knowledge and information is a practical and useful thing in every aspect of one's life. Most of the people who call themselves philosophers are genuinely describing the truth of reality by whatever means and abilities they have, obviously there is going to be a small minority of people who call themselves philosophers who are not very serious about philosophy and who may discredit the rest of the philosophers in the world and also there is going to be other people who say, this is my philosophy!, etc., but they are not at all serious about what they are talking about and even if they are serious they may not have given the things they are talking about much thought beforehand and even if these people have thought about their own theories a lot they still may not have taken their theories very far or developed them properly. The world needs philosophers because the world is full of deluded and confused people and these people in the world need philosophers to guide them and indicate the truth to them and and also to remind them of it, in fact many people become philosophers because they get fed up of all the untruth, doubt and confusion that goes around in the world. In philosophy certain obvious and common sense things about reality do not need to be indicated because anyone can point them out, so it becomes necessary in the light of what I have just mentioned that all philosophers should think about the unobvious or the doubtful aspects of reality. It is important to try to explain and describe the reason why things in reality are the way they are, instead of just accepting that they are that way, which is what most people always do. In philosophy it is not the words, systems and philosophical movements that matter or count, it is the meanings, concepts, theories and good ideas that matter and which are of primary importance, these aspects of philosophy that matter must relate and agree with the objects of reality and they must also agree with the abstract aspects of reality also that you apply them to and only in this way can you be assured of their truth and validity. In philosophy descriptions of reality and truth are more important than so-called labels and key words, key words can be useful though and helps in categorization. Also in philosophy categorization aids description and one should be efficient and clear in how one categorizes concepts and theories. Philosophy can be viewed as being a group activity and so if it is not being debated and discussed then it is not active and alive. Philosophy by its very nature can be dangerous and subversive. New ideas and unobvious insights can challenge peoples long-held beliefs and opinions. It is in the nature of philosophy that enables us who follow it to challenge peoples long held beliefs and opinions, otherwise ideas and beliefs remain stagnant and dogmatic and so do most people in their way of thinking. I have encountered thinkers that have studied philosophy for a while and are more out of touch with the truth than people that are simply honest and straightforward and do not have much knowledge of philosophy, logic and science. Sometimes when some people study philosophy and its logic as well as its concepts, they end up, it seems, to complicate and confuse things further, either because they are not very intelligent or somehow because by studying these things they become sophistical and dishonest in their approach to matters; it could also be the case of the fact that studying these things has made them even more dishonest than they already were. The worst faults that I think that a philosopher can have, are, for example, a narrowness of vision and insight, a lack of ability to integrate opposing truths or contradictory knowledge; another fault in philosophers is to think that truths, concepts and ideals in philosophy are absolute and fixed and therefore are not adaptable to new situations. A philosopher has to be able to account for changes in perspective, situation as well as in all new circumstances (i.e., dogma is bad in philosophy). Adaptation and a sense of freedom are very important qualities for a philosopher to have generally. The faculty of philosophizing or the desire to philosophize has more or less always existed within people, it also seems to have developed as people have developed. Philosophy must of started off as a practical and superstitious type of philosophy, then it must of become more religious and mystical over a period of time, it then seems to have become more abstract and then afterwards became combined with the scientific method. We know think of philosophy as consisting of either the individual stages or parts of its development or as combinations of it. Sometimes normal everyday people display more wisdom in their behaviour and sayings than certain famous well known philosophers of the past have shown, it is just that these normal everyday people lack the desire or the time to develop their views in their everyday lives. What really counts in philosophy is the extreme joy, enjoyment, satisfaction and peace of mind that one gets from figuring things out for themselves and developing their conclusions in a systematic way. The worst philosophers either cannot think for themselves very well or they put vanity and self-ego worship before a love of the truth, these people simply want to win arguments or dogmatically feel as though they are correct all of the time without giving matters requisite thought and time. These bad philosophers that I mention have no real love and enjoyment for thinking and discussion, the truth does not really mean much to them, they do not value it much, they do not really care much about figuring things out and this general attitude of theirs is compounded by pride, ignorance, dogmatism and a stubborn demeanour generally, it seems as though this attitude is very characteristic of most postmodernist thinkers today. It is important for philosophers to make philosophy highly empirical, concrete, practical and real, otherwise philosophy does not have much to show for itself and becomes merely so many unverifiable words. Too many philosophers have allowed themselves to become too vague, wordy, abstract, self-indulgent and wishy-washy in their argumentation and theories. Most philosophers in the past have been sad people, yet a philosophy should be happy, positive and real, if it is to be of any use to anyone. Philosophy should not be a negative and sad affair. Apart from being used to figure out reality, philosophy should be used to improve peoples lives, it should be used to make them happier.