Why We Need Philosophy To Stem Our Steemian Desires For Certainty.
Certainty is an illusion
We all love certainty in life and Steemit is a place where we can find that certainty on the blockchain. But can we really? A great philosophy Professor once told me that philosophers protect us from our deep-rooted convictions about who we are and what we want to be.
Like in life, we all seek certainty on Steemit, but philosophy is more primarily an instrument of our doubts which counters the anxious certainty that we place upon our beloved platform.
Steemit progress
Many ask "Why Is There Not More Progress On Steemit?" Philosophers can then come along and knock down erecting truths that many pray to on Steemit. It could almost be called a "negative progress", and there are many great critical thinkers on Steemit who do exactly that. They remove our certainty of the platform from us. Those people seek deep into the truth of Steemit itself.
So are the philsophers of Steemit mere wrecking balls that teach us that like life, there is no certainty on Steemit? I would say so. Toppling Steemit could almost be seen to be a noble cause to get to the heart of its truths. Many play this game on a daily basis here.
Socratic thinking
Socrates was indeed the man who invented negative philosophy and why we need it on platforms like Steemit. We all know the parable of the cave, and no one want to be a prisoner of their own delusions on Steemit.
But as I've discussed with @baah in the past, the old know nothing is really a know it all. They believe having escaped the cave themselves and seen the greater good and the bright sun, that all others can see it too.
This negative philosophy can indeed lead us all towards enlightenment Negative philosophy can indeed save us from our saviours as well as from our need for certainty.
Steem on - but not with too much certainty!
P.S. Philosophy book suggested for all philosophy newbies: 'The Consolations Of Philosophy' by Alain de Botton.
If I may suggest: closely followed by A History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, even though it is too heavy in many ways to read in bed.
You may indeed suggest it. A little heavy in places, but it's still a great book.
When you really want to change something for the better, you can't do without a bit of critical thinking. Many a good invention was made out of annoyance with how things stood. The "happy, happy, joy, joy" posts of True Believers are nice to hear, will bring a few people here, (and get upvoted well), but they do little to improve Steemit or the acceptance of Steem, which would bring far more people here, ironically bringing more certainty.
What a lovely little nugget of Socratic thinking there @ocrdu! AGREED! Comment upvoted! Enjoy the $0.01 ;)
It's a bit Popperian as well.
I will share my thoughts on the delusion of the good people which is affecting the whole world far more than anything else and which is alive and well here on Steemit.
Exactly what is the problem with thinking oneself as wholly good? I used to suffer from the delusion as well, and until I was faced with the fact that I am sheltered by my mind from accepting the reality, which is hard to welcome, I would postulate that everyone simply does what they think is best, which is exactly what it sounds like, an excuse for immorality and wickedness. I wasn't wrong, everyone still does what they think is best, but I didn't understand why that was, and what I did understand was equally another excuse but this time it wasn't excusing actions, it was excusing causation and it's origins. I thought that there is a reason people are evil, someone did something to that person, that set them on such path, and they are simply doing what they think is best.
That isn't the case, it cannot be, because from my experience having horrible things happen does not turn one into an actor of horror. It does trouble the mind and makes it dart around from wicked thought to wicked thought, but it doesn't change ones convictions, it doesn't change ones virtues and it certainly doesn't dictate one's actions. So, what caused this wickedness, what makes people evil?
There is only one answers and always has been a singular answer: themselves, in their delusion they chose wickedness and reasoned wickedness, which has and will always be an option because of the duality we live in. There was no original sin, there couldn't have been such a fairy tale, (that's all the references for the biblical nutjobs) people wouldn't know the contrast of paradise without hell, their paradise couldn't have been without misery.
Why do people chose wickedness? It's banal first of all, to ask why people are wicked and think about it past their choices and the reasons that they give/had, to peg them egots and nonemots, to categorize them and alienate yourself as much as possible is the wickedness of delusion.
Wait what?
Exactly, there's no dna bullshit that will make you less of a psychopath, there is no heredity or environment, because there are countless cases that deify those categorically alienating delusional mind bubbles people glee from. Yes, there still are feral children, yes there still are people that sell off their kid to be someone's meal or even worse to live a life of torture, and eventually a life without much contrast to torture will adopt torture as normal, normal being the utmost contrast.
It is unfortunate, people chose evil, sow evil and reap evil. It's equally unfortunate to base your normal onto the delusional "I am a good person", which is nothing short of saying "I cannot do evil". All the goodie twoshoes right now would nod in mass agreement and the whole world would skip a beat were they to read it out loud at the same time, and none would be the wiser to what I'm saying.
Its a delusion to remove yourself from the duality we are all under. That's all folks. Those that think themselves "I cannot do evil" are lying to the reality they are living in, they are gladly looking the other way every time you circumnavigate their person and face them with this uncomfortable fact. How did I come to accept this truth, you ask, why did I chose to look at my capacity to do evil?
I don't know, maybe it was the situation at the time. Maybe the demented teacher I found, maybe she was valuable as a teacher after all, but I doubt it. She got booted out of every motel she was in. When I finally met her this must have been number 20 or so. She couldn't be bothered to clean at all, at ALL. Her relation to reality and the dual nature we live in was that as she sought fun and relaxation so much so, that she would not let the maids even in, on account that her meditation through facebook might be disturbed. She was Kurt Cobaining for over a year from motel to motel and she suffered from dementia. When I got there and this was after a long ride, she couldn't remember the basic facts about me, after we had been talking at that point for over 6 months, phone, skype and numerous messages. She was desperate to find a follower, and I was equally desperate for a teacher, but her nature was driving people away, with a thorough history of being kicked out of every place she was in for years, many stories of friends and family divorcing her, and she would give herself the due consideration, or so she claimed, of listening to other's criticism, and always came to the same conclusion: she was messiah and everyone else was the devil himself, especially me and my good looking very understanding self, the true gentleman she called me when we parted after accusing me of hating women, calling me a hick and lucifer himself for 3 days and nights(keep your bibles close, they are your comfort, don't reason or logic, just faith it up through revelations). So I doubt that it was that, but hearing it for the first time made me question, so in the end my narcissistic self takes the cake. I was intrigued, and sought to recall my life and the wickedness I have done, both consciously and unconsciously. And I was cured, I realized that as much as I believed myself a saint that wasn't the case, I was the same as before but with a new perspective I saw the world a lot clearer, I could recognize evil and not simply excuse it, I could understand it as evil and wickedness because I could relate it to me and how that person made some pretty bad choices.
There are many now that say that they can recognize evil and not excuse it, I am sure the delusion is deep, but ask yourselves this: could you put yourself in that person shoes? Not for empathy sake, they don't need your mushy emots, but to relate to them, and maybe have a new perspective that doesn't damn them to hell, nor to causation, but to recognize the free will which resides in everything. You cannot accept their wickedness because it means accepting that about yourself. You might have been affected by just thoughts, and those were quickly repressed out of fear, and that is the problem. Out of utility, as right thought makes right action you could see them as both worthless and invaluable, since you now have the contrast of wrong thought to see the opposite ever more clearly, of right thought and worthless as they obviously take up time and mental space.
Where the delusional are, is in a perpetual echo chamber of their values and perceptions and there is neither reality, nor sanity. They have covered their eyes, ears and mouths and crossed their arms to evil. They cannot recognize it in themselves and alienate themselves by categories from those they call psychopaths and sociopaths and in their safety they are the perfect victims for those predators. They will reason "they mean well" or "someone has done something bad to them, so I must correct that or try at least", when the psychopath or sociopath takes them for fools, and all the traps are set in their bubble as they are doing the mariachi.
Ahhhh...my comment of the day is now sealed @baah! Thank you for allowing me into your nightmare world where your Socratic mind was forged!! Your the better man for it too!
Philosophers have labored mightily to inoculate us against religious dogmatism. Spinoza, Voltaire and Kant argued for an impersonal God consistent with science and reason, and Nietzsche pronounced God dead. Today, science is our dominant mode of knowledge, with good reason, because it has given us deep insights into and power over nature.
But some scientists, intoxicated by success, claim that science is revealing the Truth about, well, everything. They also overstate religion’s evils and downplay the damage done in the name of “reason.” Over the past century faith in pseudo-scientific ideologies—from Marxism and eugenics to free-market capitalism—has caused far more destruction than religious zealotry.
Some philosophers have reacted to science’s ascendancy by denying that science achieves durable truth. Others have gone to the opposite extreme, becoming public-relations shills for science and denigrating alternate modes of knowledge. While avoiding either excessive skepticism or servility, philosophers should call out scientists for overreaching, especially when they promote simplistic, deterministic theories of human nature. GRRRRRRRR!
The love of wisdom is what reveals human nature. God, the phantom of God as Bakunin says has even helped the great Leo Tolstoy, without it he might have never wrote The Awakening, his best most wonderful work.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/06/03/tolstoy-confession/
Philosophy can help rescue us from the crushing if we so choose, and if so we can go on to write classics - or we can choose to die in the mires. Everything begins with choice.