Well my friends, for a long time now I have been feeling a void in me, which some people may ascribe to absence of faith or recursive self contemplation. Whatever the cause for this troubling feeling may be, I will seek the remedy in writing. Since I don't know when, I've always felt an almost whimsical urge to write something and express my thoughts. Evidently I was never brave or stout enough to take on such a task, until today. However, a pessimistic and self-scorning person as I am, it completely passes beyond my comprehension as for whatever reason you may be interested to read what I will put down, or even worse; what you may gain in the slightest possibility from my reflections. Nevertheless, apart from drawing your pity and solace, it will be a reward enough for me if I can incite you to think over the topics or ideas I will aim to cover in this blog.
I suppose, I have overstrained you with petty self-bickering (funny enough, I am keeping on with it), so I will cut to the chase and unravel the essence of what I am going to write in this entry of my blog. Since it is a special occasion; being the first entry, I would like to tell you more about myself... (Narcism is a talent!) Well, to put it more clearly, for those of you who haven't closed the page yet, grasping this opportunity, I would like to start writing by honoring the people; historical figures, thinkers, authors and scientists, who one way or another had an impact on me by shaping my thoughts, lifestyle, perspective on life and pretty much everything that adds up to constitute what you know as me to this day... (I know I am not a very impressive work of art but deal with it) Further, I hope I may draw your attention to these prominent minds in history, giving a nudge for you to delve further in order to learn more about them.
Hence, I will start my quest with a figure who I believe had the foremost influence in shaping my thinking and perception of the world; Arthur Schopenhauer.
Considering the fact that I presented myself (above somewhere) as being pessimistic, therefore I believe it will be more appropriate to talk about Mr. Schopenhauer first; for himself being the vanguard of pessimism. He believed that the life is a continuous strife, suffering, desperation and noxious lust for satisfaction which according to him leads nowhere but to oblivion. Although he lived his life of considerable wealth and conspicuous merrymaking, he greatly admired asceticism and saintliness. Hence postulating that happiness in life can only be achieved by complete withdrawal from everything mundane; encompassing pleasures, desires and material possession. At first glance his standing point disposes itself as mere rhetoric which can be undermined as words from a man who was exhausted by his flamboyant life. Nonetheless, once you start to familiarize yourself with his philosophical premises then you get to see the underpinning axioms and predicates which serves as an intelligible foundation to his pessimistic view of life.
The world, seen by Schopenhauer as "Will" and "Representation" (which was also designated in his principal treatise "The World as Will and Representation") constitutes the fundamental drives of his philosophy. He believed that what Kant described as "Thing-in-itself" has a uniform existence in whole universe, which he attested as Will. Normatively, this Will had to underpin all the occurrences in the universe which according to Schopenhauer is purposeless, irrational and seeking self-perpetuation. Hereby we have the main maxim of Schopenhauer from which we can draw on his thoughts. Firstly, seeing the universe as purposeless and irrational; Schopenhauer is the first philosopher to deny the existence of God or any Divine being. Secondly, his view of Will as aiming for self-perpetuation accentuates the notion of strife for survival (mark that the Theory of Evolution wasn't present at his time), therefore conceptualizing all human action as resulting from and leading to the Will of procreation, survival and satisfaction of desires. This preposition may be helpful to explicate his perfunctory view of "Love" which according to him was the result of biological dynamics that cannot be surmounted. Besides, to him it is the superfluous Will to satisfy our desires that distracts human beings from seeing into the essence of being. Only if we can gain an insight to the nature of Will and its purposelessness, then according to Schopenhauer we may be able to experience salvation to some extend; yet this cannot be achieved voluntarily. Only those of artists and saints (not in religious conception) with their innate higher conscious (conversely with Nietzsche's übermensch) may be able to grasp the reality of Will and resign themselves from earthly desires. Consequently Schopenhauer demonstrates a great admiration for artists. He values art and music as only mediums to transcend the ephemeral occupations of life.
If we move forward from this point on, arriving to, which I believe to be his most inspirational work; "Essay on the Freedom of the Will", I would assert that the ideas he drew here to be so simple yet fascinating at the same time. Firstly I should distinguish what is meant by "Will" in this essay is the will of human beings, different from the Will mentioned above which is the underlying driver of whole universe. Reaching to the conclusion of human beings can have no Freedom of Will, he draws a distinction between physical freedom and freedom of conscious. According to him, human beings are bound to act upon external stimuli, and their actions are determined by past experiences, characteristic attributes and finally by the Kantian Concept of Ordering Mechanisms (time, space and causality).
"Let us imagine a man who, while standing on the street, would say to himself: "It is six o'clock in the evening, the work day is over. Now I can go for a walk, or I can go to the club; I can also climb up the tower to see the sun set; I can go to the theater; I can visit this friend or that one; indeed, I also can run out of the gate, into the wide world, and never return. All of this is strictly up to me, in this I have complete freedom. But still I shall do none of these things now, but with just as free a will I shall go home to my wife." - Schopenhauer, On the Freedom of the Will
As you can see in the example above, men are restrained by causal relations of their actions. What you call as free will is actually you reasoning, in a statistical way,on the best consequences of your various choices. Substantially this reasoning process will be guided by primal fear, anticipated benefits or extend of your capacity depending on the situation. Henceforth it is not you as an independent individual that decides on what to do, it is the constraints of your environment and context which you act upon, whereas you may enjoy the physical freedom to execute your decisions. Even if we imagine that you being able to strip yourself off any imposition posited, you will be still subject to the spatial and temporal qualities of the universe you exist in. If this last sentence seemed all to complicated , just ask yourself if you can imagine an existence which doesn't involve linear time, 3d spatial qualities and causality. I tried and I still believe it is impossible... This is what it is called in a Kantian sense, a priori, that is innate to our existence.
Reading Schopenhauer I think had an immense effect on how I conceive the world and act upon it. Although his "Metaphysics of Love" didn't render me immune to falling in love desperately, his thoughts on free will and world as we perceive it gave a lot of insights which I believe still underpins most of my actions and ideas.
Eventually, for those of you who painfully could make it to the end of the page, I should express my sympathies and gratitude. I certainly hope that I provided some interesting insight to this eccentric yet influential figure of philosophy, whom hopefully you may continue to get acquainted further yourselves. I will try to continue posting on several issues and figures of my interest and will be very glad to receive comments on whatever topic you may like. Next post will hopefully be about Julius Caesar and Charles Darwin.
I suppose, I have overstrained you with petty self-bickering (funny enough, I am keeping on with it), so I will cut to the chase and unravel the essence of what I am going to write in this entry of my blog. Since it is a special occasion; being the first entry, I would like to tell you more about myself... (Narcism is a talent!) Well, to put it more clearly, for those of you who haven't closed the page yet, grasping this opportunity, I would like to start writing by honoring the people; historical figures, thinkers, authors and scientists, who one way or another had an impact on me by shaping my thoughts, lifestyle, perspective on life and pretty much everything that adds up to constitute what you know as me to this day... (I know I am not a very impressive work of art but deal with it) Further, I hope I may draw your attention to these prominent minds in history, giving a nudge for you to delve further in order to learn more about them.
Hence, I will start my quest with a figure who I believe had the foremost influence in shaping my thinking and perception of the world; Arthur Schopenhauer.
Considering the fact that I presented myself (above somewhere) as being pessimistic, therefore I believe it will be more appropriate to talk about Mr. Schopenhauer first; for himself being the vanguard of pessimism. He believed that the life is a continuous strife, suffering, desperation and noxious lust for satisfaction which according to him leads nowhere but to oblivion. Although he lived his life of considerable wealth and conspicuous merrymaking, he greatly admired asceticism and saintliness. Hence postulating that happiness in life can only be achieved by complete withdrawal from everything mundane; encompassing pleasures, desires and material possession. At first glance his standing point disposes itself as mere rhetoric which can be undermined as words from a man who was exhausted by his flamboyant life. Nonetheless, once you start to familiarize yourself with his philosophical premises then you get to see the underpinning axioms and predicates which serves as an intelligible foundation to his pessimistic view of life.
The world, seen by Schopenhauer as "Will" and "Representation" (which was also designated in his principal treatise "The World as Will and Representation") constitutes the fundamental drives of his philosophy. He believed that what Kant described as "Thing-in-itself" has a uniform existence in whole universe, which he attested as Will. Normatively, this Will had to underpin all the occurrences in the universe which according to Schopenhauer is purposeless, irrational and seeking self-perpetuation. Hereby we have the main maxim of Schopenhauer from which we can draw on his thoughts. Firstly, seeing the universe as purposeless and irrational; Schopenhauer is the first philosopher to deny the existence of God or any Divine being. Secondly, his view of Will as aiming for self-perpetuation accentuates the notion of strife for survival (mark that the Theory of Evolution wasn't present at his time), therefore conceptualizing all human action as resulting from and leading to the Will of procreation, survival and satisfaction of desires. This preposition may be helpful to explicate his perfunctory view of "Love" which according to him was the result of biological dynamics that cannot be surmounted. Besides, to him it is the superfluous Will to satisfy our desires that distracts human beings from seeing into the essence of being. Only if we can gain an insight to the nature of Will and its purposelessness, then according to Schopenhauer we may be able to experience salvation to some extend; yet this cannot be achieved voluntarily. Only those of artists and saints (not in religious conception) with their innate higher conscious (conversely with Nietzsche's übermensch) may be able to grasp the reality of Will and resign themselves from earthly desires. Consequently Schopenhauer demonstrates a great admiration for artists. He values art and music as only mediums to transcend the ephemeral occupations of life.
If we move forward from this point on, arriving to, which I believe to be his most inspirational work; "Essay on the Freedom of the Will", I would assert that the ideas he drew here to be so simple yet fascinating at the same time. Firstly I should distinguish what is meant by "Will" in this essay is the will of human beings, different from the Will mentioned above which is the underlying driver of whole universe. Reaching to the conclusion of human beings can have no Freedom of Will, he draws a distinction between physical freedom and freedom of conscious. According to him, human beings are bound to act upon external stimuli, and their actions are determined by past experiences, characteristic attributes and finally by the Kantian Concept of Ordering Mechanisms (time, space and causality).
"Let us imagine a man who, while standing on the street, would say to himself: "It is six o'clock in the evening, the work day is over. Now I can go for a walk, or I can go to the club; I can also climb up the tower to see the sun set; I can go to the theater; I can visit this friend or that one; indeed, I also can run out of the gate, into the wide world, and never return. All of this is strictly up to me, in this I have complete freedom. But still I shall do none of these things now, but with just as free a will I shall go home to my wife." - Schopenhauer, On the Freedom of the Will
As you can see in the example above, men are restrained by causal relations of their actions. What you call as free will is actually you reasoning, in a statistical way,on the best consequences of your various choices. Substantially this reasoning process will be guided by primal fear, anticipated benefits or extend of your capacity depending on the situation. Henceforth it is not you as an independent individual that decides on what to do, it is the constraints of your environment and context which you act upon, whereas you may enjoy the physical freedom to execute your decisions. Even if we imagine that you being able to strip yourself off any imposition posited, you will be still subject to the spatial and temporal qualities of the universe you exist in. If this last sentence seemed all to complicated , just ask yourself if you can imagine an existence which doesn't involve linear time, 3d spatial qualities and causality. I tried and I still believe it is impossible... This is what it is called in a Kantian sense, a priori, that is innate to our existence.
Reading Schopenhauer I think had an immense effect on how I conceive the world and act upon it. Although his "Metaphysics of Love" didn't render me immune to falling in love desperately, his thoughts on free will and world as we perceive it gave a lot of insights which I believe still underpins most of my actions and ideas.
Eventually, for those of you who painfully could make it to the end of the page, I should express my sympathies and gratitude. I certainly hope that I provided some interesting insight to this eccentric yet influential figure of philosophy, whom hopefully you may continue to get acquainted further yourselves. I will try to continue posting on several issues and figures of my interest and will be very glad to receive comments on whatever topic you may like. Next post will hopefully be about Julius Caesar and Charles Darwin.
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