Philosophy

Phenomenalism is the last conceptual precise I will write for now.  Out of all the precise I have written this one seems to be the closest to my overall belief system.  Phenomenalism is what we perceive to be real is real.

Perception is the key to understanding phenomenalism.  One way to look at it is sensory data; where unless you actually see what it is there is no conclusive evidence as to what is there is no way to determine an objects existence or nonexistence.  So anything I think that maybe can actually be.  There is no limit.

Phenomenalism coincides with my endless possibility belief system.  Possibilities are what keeps me the most motivated.  To know in my heart that anything is possible is what I find as the biggest motivation in my life.  If everything can be since I don’t know then it is.

When I asked my friends about phenomenalism they agreed with my view on it.  Phenomenalism is the unknown and by accepting this there is nothing that is known and therefore anything is possible.  We only know what we are able to see.

Phenomenalism doesn’t relate to anything I can think of that I have previously discussed which is kind of fitting in a way.  I think the only thing I can relate to is my philosophical framework I chose for this term which was “knowledge is negligible”.  There is no certainty in this framework and so we use whatever data we can accumulate to draw conclusions that are never fully conclusive but help us achieve answers that we can believe.  So there is no limits on what may or may not be.

For one of my last entries I decided to focus on naturalism which is in opposition to my own philosophies.  Naturalism pursues the knowledge of what does exist and what does not exist and proving this through a simple trial and error system.

If I were a contemporary writer I would follow this philosophy completely.  However my views on life are far beyond the scopes of normal measurement so I am unable to do so.  My methods of finding answers may follow this but I pursue more other worldly pursuits to be considered a naturalist, though I find insight from some most helpful.

Naturalism attempts to thwart my overall belief that this world has endless possibilities.  If we were to think logically the idea of God, or good and evil, would simply be nonexistent which is sad to think about.  Endless possibilities have no limitations and naturalism is the pursuit of knowing these limitations and closing them of further discussion, which I cannot agree with.

When I asked others about naturalism they seemed to agree with it.  They find naturalism far more valuable in daily pursuits than I do, but I believe this is society once again changing our essence so the pursuit of dreams becomes simply beyond our reach when it should be the complete opposite.  Without dreams we lose sight of our true pursuits and thus lead lives that fall under mediocre rather than exceptional.

Naturalism attempts to overshadow essence which was a previous post.  Your true persona goes beyond what we attempt to know and attempt to understand something far grander than what we previously have known.  We cannot lose sight of our essence or we lose ourselves and all the possibilities that we could have achieved.

Essence; the entirety of one’s existence revolves around this philosophical concept.  Without the essence, an individual lacks the very elements that make them who they are.

Essence is what I consider the pursuit of the true persona which is the basis of everything I pursue.  Essence is something very precious like a soul that you try your best to keep pure as you move through life.  I have attempted to keep the essence of my childlike nature as much as possible while still progressing through life which is a rather taxing challenge.  But I figure I can achieve all my childhood dreams and keep that innocence if I concentrate on keeping things as simple as possible.  With all the dilemmas I encounter I try to keep this frame of mind.

My belief of a true persona is totally dependent on this concept of essence.  Our true selves are constantly challenged everyday of our lives as we encounter changes both physically and mentally, and not to mention the social implications involved in trying to maintain one’s essence without losing it in the process.

People had little to say about essence other than what it is classically defined as, but once again I could count on my good friend Raj Forte to offer good discussion.  He views essence as not only the entirety of something but as the pursuit of an ideal, much like God or the soul which is how I view it as well.

I previously discussed a double consciousness, where there is your actual self and the self that others see you as.  It is this double consciousness that directly affects your essence or true persona.    The challenge is, as previously stated, to battle the double conscience and pursue the true self or your essence.  Successfully done I feel you can be much happier in the long run and pursue your dreams which are endless.  I guess you can say that by pursuing your true self you can do anything you want.

Double consciousness is something I have been aware of since my early childhood but I never knew what it was called.  We are all aware of two selves; the one we know inside ourselves and then how others see us.  It’s this multifaceted personality that creates problems in our society.

There are many examples of this type of consciousness.  I can remember many times where I didn’t think I was good enough to have someone I liked like me in return, and I found out on more than one occasion how wrong I was.  Apparently the self I saw inside was weaker than what others saw me as.

Not necessarily a part of my belief system, but maybe there is a facet of it that I incorporate into my own beliefs.  Rather than having a double conscience, one should move past it and see their true persona.  There may always be a double conscience, but the only conscience that matters is your own, not that of others.

When I asked my two best friends, Jacara and Raj Forte, they knew exactly what I meant.  My two best friends happen to be African Americans and they have had a long history of having a double conscience.  But by doing so it has made their true persona’s stronger since they were able to rise above it…which is exactly the kind of strength I apply to my own philosophy.

Double consciousness relates to an earlier post on consciousness that I have done.  As I previously stated, consciousness is awareness of one’s own reality.  Their perceptions make up the framework of their own world.  It is the pursuit of this particular consciousness that helps us overcome the double conscience, so it is important to understand the problem to pursue the correct course of action.

Only someone like me can see idealism as the reality.  Though it contradicts itself the reality is that my idealism of how the world should be encompasses my world.

Idealism is the concept of what could be; the glimmer of hope beyond the horizon.  It’s the world as it could be but is not.  Many people consider Star Trek the world that could be if only certain things were real but are not.  That is the best way I can explain idealism.

Idealism maybe the source of my endless possibility belief system.  Sure what I believe maybe very idealistic but it’s those beliefs, those ideals that make me who I am.  The endless possibilities are my ideas of what is and what isn’t yet.

When I asked others about what they think idealism is they said the exact meaning of the word is.  Idealism is simply what could be but is not si what they said.  But the way some people talked about it…as if idealism was a real thing.  That made me think that idealism can be reality if we believe our ideals to be the reality as it is.

This time I’ll discuss idealism alongside realism.  As I have probably reiterated over and over again in this post idealism isn’t reality but then again it is.  Realism is a system of beliefs that can contradict each other.  Idealism is the beliefs that aren’t real as of yet or may never be.  But if beliefs can contradict each other in realism than I believe that my belief of idealism is reality as it is though it may not be necessarily the way we might want to believe it is.  Confused?  So am I.  But the point is I believe in a ideal reality.  The reality can be an ideal if I believe it to be.  Most people once they meet me don’t believe I’m real, as if a kind soul like me could not exist.  It hurts when they say that but the fact is I believe in my true self so that false reality is who I am.  I am the ideal reality, if that makes any sense.

What is reality but what we see with our own eyes.  That is the best way to describe the philosophical idea of realism.  To determine what is real all one needs to know is what is most important to them.

Realism is a series of beliefs of what makes up reality and I can’t agree more.  They can be contradictory at times but what is real in an individual’s mind is what makes up reality.  Whether you believe in ultimate evil or whether people truly are good at heart that becomes reality and is therefore real in turn.

The philosophical tradition of reality coincides with my multiple belief system.  I know at this point it may sound repetitive saying everything is about the endless possibilities but it’s true.  Reality is what we believe it to be so if it holds endless possibilities it does.  I can remember too many times where this belief system annoyed my brother who tried to prove how nothing can exist at the same place at the same time.  He just couldn’t grasp that since I believe it to be so it simply is.  Nothing can convince me otherwise.

Many people I asked defined reality as its actual definition; as what is universally agreed as real.  Only a couple people including Raj Forte (my intellectual friend) see reality as what they know as real.  Others just see reality as black and white; what is real and what is not real.  It kind of depressed me to find out how many people view reality and taking it too literally can be depressing.

Realism goes along with my consciousness.  Consciousness is what I perceive overall and so that makes up my reality.  What is real to me is my consciousness since its what I believe.  Nothing more to it than that.

Finding meaning is one of the most important tasks of any individual’s life.  In Meaning is the search for the purpose of living life and how an individual can live life to the fullest.

The philosophical tradition of meaning is the definition of terms or the meaning of words but that isn’t the entire story.  Meaning is more than understanding a word and more than the pursuit of a perfect language.  Meaning is the understanding of everything.  To me meaning is the pursuit of the answers an individual needs to live their life.

Meaning relates to the belief of endless possibilities; in a world where everything has more than one set meaning.  I am able to see something bad as good and good as bad…which is why I also consider myself a Taoist.  A Taoist sees something as nothing and nothing as something so they are able to make something bad into something good, thus the double meaning.  But finding those meanings is everything to a Taoist.

Many think of meanings the same way I do though they could easily relate to it according to the philosophical tradition.  But it was mainly how it was worded that determined the result of the answer.  When asked for a definition they did their best to explain it more closely to the philosophical tradition.  But when asked what is meaning they described meaning as more of the pursuit of than the definition.  It was actually very interesting to see that come about.

Meaning helps define consciousness as I discussed in a previous post.  Consciousness is how an individual perceives reality and so the meaning behind everything is crucial to understanding that reality.  Without meaning the reality in which you perceive has no structure and can’t exist without it.  I find that most of my ideas and philosophies as I explore each of these posts cannot exist without the others.

Consciousness is the essence of reality.  Everything I see, feel, smell, touch, taste, and sense all makeup the mental frame of what I percieve as life.  Consciousness is important to understanding an individual’s perception of reality.  It defines the world that each person lives in; the reality that each calls his/her own.

Others might define consciousness as what defines existence of the waking world; where the individual is aware of their surroundings, but it’s far more than that.  To me, consciousness is how I perceive everything.  It’s the world as I see it through my eyes, where I am the hero of my own story.  Others might explain it as when they feel someone giving a lecture is looking at them.  It’s the exact same thing.

This idea of consciousness connects to my belief of reality holding endless possibilities.  Since my consciousness recognizes reality as holding many different forms, then nothing can alter that perception since reality is defined by how I see it.  If it’s true that consciousness is the entirety of existence to each particular individual than nothing can change how I see the world unless I choose to see it differently.

When I asked around I found many people view consciousness as simply being awake.  Rather than looking into the meaning of the word people simply leave it as being awake.  Only while discussing it with my friend Raj Forte did I find him seeing it very similarly to how I do, which I expected since we share so much in common.

This actually directly relates to the idea of relativism I have discussed before.  Whereas relativity is the idea of accepting that each individual has their own perceptions of reality consciousness is the act of applying this concept.  Relativity exists in the realm of consciousness.

Relativism is a second fundamental core of my philosophical belief system.    This concept applies to how we view others and how we view ourselves.  Whether I am smart or dumb, beautiful or sexy, strong or weak is all relative to me and me alone.

Relativism accepts that ideas, thoughts, and concepts are relative to the specific individual.    An individual has a unique collection fo experiences that make up their persona.  Every action from waking up to how or what they eat, the individual person experiences forma  sense of relativity unique to the individual.  Unlike other concepts, relativism has no wrong or right perspective in its framework but rather what is true for each individual.

My own personal beliefs involving energy and possibilities apply the rules of this concept which helps me better understand myself.  The people I have met, the stories of read, the things I have done all add to my experience which in turn makes up my own relative consciousness.  For example, since I glorfiy the lives of heroes through what I have read or what I have seen add to my belief that an individual can accomplish anything.

When I asked others about the idea of relativism the main thought on everyone’s mind was taking a physics class where the science of relativity is applied.  The first thought most had was the idea of objects in motion theory by Isaac Newton which, if you think about, his whole idea was that time is relative to the individual percieving it.  So the fundamental concept holds true.

So one might ask how this concept of relativism relates to my idea of Science besides the obvious scientific aspect?  Well the fact is that relativity is based off my experience and my reasoning is determined by my experience, so both end up relatiing to the individual journey one takes during the course of their life.  Since each individual takes a unique journey this opens up the idea that different concepts are plausible, or the idea that there are endless possibilities.

The conerstone of our knowledge of the world and the one tool we have constantly used for centuries is “Science”.  Though I am not a science major in the slightest fashion I know that I apply its methodology in every aspect of my life.  Its more than a tool I can use to explain how chemicals react or why things are the way they are.  To me science is the one true way I can attempt to explain the reality around me.

Science is a tool I use to explain why I’m wrong about something or why I’m right about something.  Unlike the common definition of the term as simply facts about life it’s more of a mental record of my theories on reality depicting what worked and what needs improving. 

Am I good or evil?  Am I strong or weak?  I use science as a way of testing my own beliefs on reality.  I start off by identifying the key concepts that I use to identify the two then I apply that to everyday reality to see whether or not it still holds true to me.  With this thought process I can keep learning from my own experiences and I can make conclusions that I can edit later on as I see fit.

When I turned towards others about the idea of science, they identified more with the scientific method rather than its definition.  It seems that science is now more or less the study of other things and seems to be shifting from facts to ideas and concepts.  This more closesly aligns with my own beliefs than the forementioned definition of the term.  Science seems to be and is in my case a crucial tool to identify the reality of the individual who percieves it; to test theories and test the limitations of one’s own psyche.