I had been thinking of this blog as a way to simply record various philosophies over time in the hope that people could find something inspiring from them or incorporate them into their lives in some way. Other ideas were to encourage others to explore their own philosophy and put into context that the expectations of normal thinking in today's world are just a very narrow portion of the great range of ideas that have existed in the world. And in addition simply to provide some information at the same time as finding out about things for my own interest in researching for the blog.
It was actually very similar to my aims in another blog Beauty Ideals which I was writing.
Even though the philosophy blog would be extremely fun and interesting for me to write, I didn't know what to do about some problems. I think the main one was along the lines of what I was describing in the previous post. It was impossible to know whether I was recording something correctly or not. First of all, there is my own bias and misunderstanding which could be a problem, as well as the some coming from the original recorder of the philosophy, the translator or the accepted interpretation currently of what they meant. But then there is also the thing that occured to me recently, that most likely those people credited as the originator of the idea are not the true creators of it at all.
Having realised that this is the case with most modern ideas, it seems inevitable that this would apply even more so to the ancient ideas. This is because of the class disparities in those societies most importantly the lack of literacy amongst most of the population. It seems almost obvious that when a writer traveled or met a person from another region, he would be immediately exposed to new philosophies because there was such a difference in customs, language, religion, even from town to town until recently. However, he may not be able to directly attribute his new knowledge to the source, as he may not understand some of the ideas he has subcousciously taken in until much later, or may be gradually introduced to it from a number of events which are disconnected. When he wrote them down, they were attributed to him.
When so much doubt comes into it, it seems difficult to know what it is I would really be writing about with the topic of philosophy. Would I simply be reciting many of my own views, perhaps slightly modified by these ancient ideas, and then labelling them by the name of a known philosopher? In the fashion blog this kind of problem didn't seem dominant, because there were always facts that I was describing, the information about how various people looked and chose to make themselves appear. The whys were much more subjective, but with firm physical facts in place, there was always something to refer the ideas back to, and some evidence in the way of photos and pictures the reader could always experience freshly for themselves, even if the analysis was sometimes off. With philosophy the only thing that exists is ideas.
But does anything really exist that it purely ideas? While nothing exists other than perception, how can it be real in this world without a physical form? I think that was a fairly direct interpretation of a Taoist quote, but couldn't I debate for hours, even just by myself before involving even a single other person, about whether that was a misquote or not? How many infinate hours of this possible debate if we consider all the people in the world who could read this? Maybe this is why philosophy has lost popularity in modern times, as the sheer endlessness of possibilities makes all of them individually mundane.
We couldn't truly experience anything as purely ideas, as we exist in a physical form. But something extraordinary existed and was recorded. We have turned philosophy into the pleasure of reading and thinking and possibly discussing intellectually, but despite the value of these things I think in the end philosophy is the thing beyond that. Sunsets and mother's cooking, dancing and a child's trust, are recorded in books, so inadequately. What could a description of them ever be to someone who had not experienced them off paper, except one thing a signpost to the life that has to be found? The philosophies which are recorded were these things too, and once were alive. They were enough to live for, enough to stop thinking right there.
It was actually very similar to my aims in another blog Beauty Ideals which I was writing.
Even though the philosophy blog would be extremely fun and interesting for me to write, I didn't know what to do about some problems. I think the main one was along the lines of what I was describing in the previous post. It was impossible to know whether I was recording something correctly or not. First of all, there is my own bias and misunderstanding which could be a problem, as well as the some coming from the original recorder of the philosophy, the translator or the accepted interpretation currently of what they meant. But then there is also the thing that occured to me recently, that most likely those people credited as the originator of the idea are not the true creators of it at all.
Having realised that this is the case with most modern ideas, it seems inevitable that this would apply even more so to the ancient ideas. This is because of the class disparities in those societies most importantly the lack of literacy amongst most of the population. It seems almost obvious that when a writer traveled or met a person from another region, he would be immediately exposed to new philosophies because there was such a difference in customs, language, religion, even from town to town until recently. However, he may not be able to directly attribute his new knowledge to the source, as he may not understand some of the ideas he has subcousciously taken in until much later, or may be gradually introduced to it from a number of events which are disconnected. When he wrote them down, they were attributed to him.
When so much doubt comes into it, it seems difficult to know what it is I would really be writing about with the topic of philosophy. Would I simply be reciting many of my own views, perhaps slightly modified by these ancient ideas, and then labelling them by the name of a known philosopher? In the fashion blog this kind of problem didn't seem dominant, because there were always facts that I was describing, the information about how various people looked and chose to make themselves appear. The whys were much more subjective, but with firm physical facts in place, there was always something to refer the ideas back to, and some evidence in the way of photos and pictures the reader could always experience freshly for themselves, even if the analysis was sometimes off. With philosophy the only thing that exists is ideas.
But does anything really exist that it purely ideas? While nothing exists other than perception, how can it be real in this world without a physical form? I think that was a fairly direct interpretation of a Taoist quote, but couldn't I debate for hours, even just by myself before involving even a single other person, about whether that was a misquote or not? How many infinate hours of this possible debate if we consider all the people in the world who could read this? Maybe this is why philosophy has lost popularity in modern times, as the sheer endlessness of possibilities makes all of them individually mundane.
We couldn't truly experience anything as purely ideas, as we exist in a physical form. But something extraordinary existed and was recorded. We have turned philosophy into the pleasure of reading and thinking and possibly discussing intellectually, but despite the value of these things I think in the end philosophy is the thing beyond that. Sunsets and mother's cooking, dancing and a child's trust, are recorded in books, so inadequately. What could a description of them ever be to someone who had not experienced them off paper, except one thing a signpost to the life that has to be found? The philosophies which are recorded were these things too, and once were alive. They were enough to live for, enough to stop thinking right there.
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