The value of truth.

Despondent of time, we build sandcastles out of our experiences only to watch them eroded and washed away by the sea of our destiny. Truth is whatever we cannot accept, we are not strong enough to hold up a truth that has not become grounded in us. But the price of security is the despair of watching all that we love waste away.

Can we not cultivate a more eternal desire and love? Is it possible that philosophy might learn to value its love as well as its knowledge, to seek its truth in love rather than merely to love knowledge?

Much of philosophy is concerned with ideas and with the exploration of ideas. This is noble to be sure. But in the end we are not our knowledge but the sum that moves beyond all knowing, and the utility to which our knowledge is applied, either intentionally or not. If philosophy could not only move our reason and our hearts but also show us how these ought to be used, how we might live our ideas rather than merely know them, I think this would represent a new kind of philosophy, something closer to poetry perhaps, the soul's recrudescence.

Is it possible for philosophy to also teach us how to live?

ChainOfBeing wrote:Despondent of time, we build sandcastles out of our experiences only to watch them eroded and washed away by the sea of our destiny. Truth is whatever we cannot accept, we are not strong enough to hold up a truth that has not become grounded in us. But the price of security is the despair of watching all that we love waste away.

Is not the erosion a fortune, for that we may be eternally learning?
Is not the wasting away of all that we love just as temporary?

Can we not cultivate a more eternal desire and love?

A more eternal desire and love for knowledge?

But in the end we are not our knowledge but the sum that moves beyond all knowing, and the utility to which our knowledge is applied, either intentionally or not.

sum of what?

If philosophy could not only move our reason and our hearts but also show us how these ought to be used, how we might live our ideas rather than merely know them, I think this would represent a new kind of philosophy, something closer to poetry perhaps, the soul's recrudescence.

Is it possible for philosophy to also teach us how to live?

I think it does teach us how to live, or at least it can. as Aristotle once said, "I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law."

Abstract wrote:

ChainOfBeing wrote:Despondent of time, we build sandcastles out of our experiences only to watch them eroded and washed away by the sea of our destiny. Truth is whatever we cannot accept, we are not strong enough to hold up a truth that has not become grounded in us. But the price of security is the despair of watching all that we love waste away.

Is not the erosion a fortune, for that we may be eternally learning?
Is not the wasting away of all that we love just as temporary?

Wherever we draw our lines of security, wherever we build our fortress, there is the limit of our knowledge and our living. The wasting away of love can be temporary only if it leads into a higher kind of loving, which is usually not the case. The exception would be, in some rare cases, the philosopher, the artist or the great writer who offers some of his love as a sacrifice, that he might come to know more love, and to love better.

Can we not cultivate a more eternal desire and love?

A more eternal desire and love for knowledge?

Philosophy loves wisdom, but does not love life. Philosophy does not love truth, it merely desires it.

But in the end we are not our knowledge but the sum that moves beyond all knowing, and the utility to which our knowledge is applied, either intentionally or not.

sum of what?

Sum of our being, of those great chains of being as the monumental tectonics of all our material causalities productive of the entire body of our consciousness, of our particular kind and degree of living.

If philosophy could not only move our reason and our hearts but also show us how these ought to be used, how we might live our ideas rather than merely know them, I think this would represent a new kind of philosophy, something closer to poetry perhaps, the soul's recrudescence.

Is it possible for philosophy to also teach us how to live?

I think it does teach us how to live, or at least it can. as Aristotle once said, "I have gained this by philosophy: that I do without being commanded what others do only from fear of the law."

Philosophy is far better at teaching us what not to do than it is at teaching us what to do. Telling someone not to touch fire is easy, telling them what they should do with that fire is another thing entirely.

Indeed, but what would you propose is the higher form of loving?

Knowledge. Compassion and good-will born of understanding. Intimate knowing.