Before the WHAT, there is a WHY.
There was a time in my life where I took great joy in developing my personal philosophy and/or complete bullshit. I would often write all of these ides, mostly stolen of course, down as if I was trying to convince people that I was all-knowing and of a higher intelligence. Well... clearly that never fucking happened. I realized that I myself really have no idea what I am saying when I begin on a philisophical rant, and that I write in that manner, not to convince others, but to convince myself of a certain point. (Side note... a man in an all pink suit just walked out of the McLean post office)
Anyways, I am not trying to find the meaning to life, because that is just not gonna happen. Rather, I wnat to examine very minute details of the world and disect them, drawing into question the very essence of our existence through that. Doing something so absurd makes it very difficult for one to argue against it =).
Moving on. I recognize that in writing about my personal thoughts as if the world was anxiously awaiting this published peice I am, necessarily, an egotistical prick. I have come to terms with that. I will tone it down, however, and refrain from tagging every single one of my facebook friends in this just to get attention. This is my contribution to the world for 19 years of life (life got screwed on this deal)
Oh, one last thing. God. Okay, I do not discuss my personal views on religion with anyone. Not my mother. Not my father. Not my brother. I do not advocate or look down upon anyone who is devout or atheist. My opinion is that philosophies of life are just that, on life. My life.
Okay, now for the goods!
I am sure you have heard the very popular philosophical argument about our vision. It goes something like: "How do we really know that what I see as blue is what you see is blue?" Since we learn colors by putting what we see with what we say or read, there really is no way to determine if our brains are interpreting the light waves the same way. How interesting.
However, you do not often hear this type of argument when it comes to language. It seems like half of the stand-up comedians have some kind of joke about men and women speaking completely different languages... so what if we do? Is it possible for words convey knowledge? What is true knowledge anyways? What follows is a condensed version of this very elaborate train of thought.
Before I can make any kind of argument, it is important to set a base. This base will be Plato's definition of knowledge. From this, we will be able to judge everything on a level playing field. The great, or possibly not so great depending on who you ask, thinker Plato laid out a three part definition to help all of our feeble minds grasp what knowledge really is. To clarify, he initiated his definition with the assumption that knowledge must be propositional. This means that you must be able to assert it, or say it to somebody. Under this assumption, all knowledge must possess the ability either be read or spoken. Remember this. Now, the three parts to qualifying as propositional knowledge are as follows. One, it must be true. Two, you must believe it's true. Three, it must be justified.
Don't you just love examples!? If you say there are 5 girls in the other room, it cannot be knowledge unless there are really 5 girls in the room. However, if you are simply guessing how many girls are in the room and don't know, that doesn't make you possess any real knowledge. Lastly, even if it is true, and you truly believe you are right, you have to have some justification. You could have just came from that room and counted while you were there, but you cannot simply know it in your heart that it is the answer. This obviously contains some implications when it comes to religious belief, and I do not plan to talk about any of that today. Remember, this is Plato's definition, not mine.
There are obviously problems when it comes to this definition. One very basic one is that truth is ever changing. Not to say that everything you know today will be thought of as obsolete and silly tomorrow, but there are certainly basic constructs of our world that have changed throughout the history of human thought. Remember the days when we thought the world was flat? Well, you shouldn't unless you have been reincarnated, but that was the generally accepted theory across the world for many years. Now thought of as stupid, it is what our ancestors truly believed. That was the "truth" of their time. What's to say that all basic fundamental theories of human life won't be different by the end of this century? Despite it's problems, we must labor on using this definition because it is in fact the best one for the job.
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Now, here's the crazy thing. Based on this definition and my argument to come, it will appear as if knowledge doesn't exist, ever. WOW! If I happen to shatter your world of thought and make you believe that everything you have ever learned is shit, calm down. Yes, that would make me look pretty damn good, but there is an important element to all of my philosophical arguments. No matter how life changing a thought can be, we still exist in a world where others still play by the rules. We can bend what is around us, but please, no existential suicides. There is also a decent chance I am completely full of shit.
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FINALLY, we can begin! It starts with the very creation of language. Back in the days of cavemen, verbal communication was very limited. Since their survival depended on them working together, they began to create sounds to represent different sounds or urgencies. Grunting one way would mean you're thirsty, while grunting another way would imply that you are about to get eaten by a lion. This system is surprisingly useful when it comes to concrete examples, but becomes rather limited when one moves passed that.
As we became more civilized and began to live within the protection of villages and cities, our language grew. Survival from day to day was no longer the challenge that it used to be, so we naturally had time to think and develop philosophies. Humans began contemplating the abstract, and in turn came up with words for these ideas. Love, Freedom, Hate. We attempted to use the same form of language that was meant for concrete items and transform it to represent abstract ideas. It's the modern day equivalent to trying to save a MS Vista document onto a 15 year old Mac. Don't believe me? Look up the definitions of these words in different dictionaries and you will get different definitions in each one. The problem with abstract terms is that they mean different things to every single person. The meanings are based on experiences, not a concrete object that we can all look at and identify. So, as we talk about one of these terms, and try to express our combined knowledge on the subject, it's simply bullshit. None of these truths are held equally from person to person. The language of abstract ideas is dead.
"Oh, but Scott, we can still communicate about concrete things! Right?"
Sorry, but you are fucked here as well. Even with a concrete object, how do you know that what you are seeing is what your friend is seeing? We grow up and learn colors individually but have no way of verifying it with each other. Why can this principle not be applied to the objects around us. What if every single brain exists in it's own parallel universe where the laws operate completely separate from one another? Is it so hard to believe? The human mind desires so much to exist in peace in harmony with the environment around us that it has the ability to simply erase unpleasant aspects of our memory. Is it so hard to believe that it could cover up such a difference in thought? It wouldn't have to work that hard because like vision, language is based off of learning a definition for what you interpret. Interesting, huh?
Don't get me started on translations. Not only are you going from one flawed language to another, but some words don't even have equivalents in another language. So, now you must rely on an interpretation by a human that must pass through their own personal experiences and then to a different language that doesn't have a word for what the hell you are trying to say.
Now, of course this argument is a lot less detailed then it needs to be, but you can get the general idea. It is impossible to verify if what one person says is the same as what you are hearing. So, are we really talking to each other? Can I ever pass my knowledge on to you?
Good Enough for now,
Scotty
These thoughts all started when I saw Waking Life
for the first time. I took it and ran with it, maybe you can do the same... If you have seen that, take it one step further with What the Bleep Do We Know!?
... Good shit!"Rock your head back and blow your breath up high. Don't forget to smile when your lips kiss the sky."
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