About this Blog

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.  

I will start with the earliest time that I can personally remember, the 80's. Also this is what I was thinking about when I decided that it was worth trying to contrast different ideas from the past and other places, to now.

I was wearing an oversized pink shirt with a black line drawing on it I had mainly bought because it reminded me of something I used to have when I was 4. Some old eighties music was playing, like early Madonna tunes and that sort of thing, and there were some retro looking disco lights. It was strange being in a kind of recreation of something that didn't exist anymore, and made me also realise that the reason that it didn't exist anymore wasn't because the music or clothing wasn't around anymore. The music is overplayed, and the clothing is oversold because fashions are recycled and they have been really pushing sales of the eighties over the last few years. However this wasn't really the eighties (or otherwise you could say they are around way too much recently, and there would be no reason for anyone to miss them or say they had ever left). People experience a place or time as a philosophy more than as a material artefact like clothing or commercial music. By philosophy I am thinking of a mindset, way of social interaction, widely held opinions and so on.

The second problem I thought of was that the eighties seem inaccurately remembered by the media. The kind of "eighties clothing" they sell now are thick tights, over long fitted t-shirts, plastic hoop earrings. The same streamlined and self-conscious look that fits in with today's fashions in general. When the eighties philosophy is mentioned by the media, that seems even more inaccurate. Every time an article mentions an eighties mindset, words like "excess", "greed" come up.

Then there are the people that are enshrined forever in my mind in the time that they were young and beautiful and I was small and easily impressed. Their mindset seemed exceedingly carefree, glowing from coconut tan oil and wandering in small groups without seemingly any goal except to be present, with any disheaveled clothing thrown on, the more messed up the better. Back before people were endlessly programmed in prolonged education, they who had roamed at will since childhood had become adolescents with all the self-assurance of an adult and all the freedom of a child. Their golden years were endless. Jeans were torn, below the knee and along the thigh, but most crucially on the butt cheeks. To complete the look, ideally the hand of the partners walking side by side would be in each other's back pockets. This spoke for some of the important values at the time, such as that pleasure was more important than self-consciousness, and that being seen or noticed (no such thing as positively or negatively- there was no distinction) was an aspiration.

Some echo of some of these ideas exists in media interpretations of eighties mindsets, such as the tag of pleasure-seeking, although given a totally different meaning in the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Those were the ones who made it into the magazines and onto tv at the time- in later times, their contemporary equivalents warped even that original misinterpretation further. The idea of buying pleasure from purchase of luxury brands and jewellery and cruises- in more emotionally deprived times like today, these excesses might give rise to anger and indignation, but how could it have been anything but a sad and pathetic failed attempt back then to imitate what they could not even understand, chained to a status made vacuous by a population who did not respect it? The idols were the local teens that seemed forever locked in a time warp, esconced in a hedonist paradise from which they would never awake.

But who will praise the idols now, who automatically deserve praise for being idols, the inspiration for all that saw them including the powerful and rich who tried to emulate them, failed even to understand them, and then wrote their own incorrect version of events which the future generations are now subjected to consuming? What could ever be a more inaccurate depiction of them than that they desired economic status?

So what am I supposed to do when I am reading about a philosophy that is thousands of years old? Even where writings exist in close to their original form, isn't it likely that there was another, greater philosophy behind it, that was lived everyday by some groups of people but was never written down for their illiteracy or was written in bits but lost over time? A greater philosophy that inspired the scholars who are given the credit, but the true essence of which mainly eluded them?

I hope to give new life to ideas

This site is intended as a reference. My main hope is that some of the ideas from the past can be incorporated into people's lives. I also hope that the information on it can provide some interest and pleasure in understanding more about the world.