Conditional understanding of the world

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
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I’m still engaged in my science and philosophy research…
both science and philosophy engage in the search for the ‘‘truth’’..
whatever that means… and there are two camps in this search
for the ‘‘truth’’… one camp believes that there is a thing as
‘‘objective’’ truth and the other camp holds that the ‘‘truth’’
is subjective…and there is a third camp in this mix,
and they hold to what I would call ‘‘conditional truth’’’
an example of this ‘‘conditional truth’’ is the statement,
‘‘I am alive’’ that is a conditional truth because I am alive
today… but that is no promise or guarantee of me being alive
tomorrow…or even within the hour… the vast majority of what
we might call ‘‘the truth’’ lies within this area of ‘‘conditional truth’’
it might be true today but that is just a picture of this and only this
moment… and a whole lot of what we think of as scientific truth,
falls under the category of ‘‘conditional truths’’…
the earth is 93 million miles from the earth… (not actually true, as
that number changes from 92 million to 94 million depending on the
year) anyway, that number, 93 million miles is a conditional number…
as it is true, right here and right now, but it can change, it is not a fix,
set in stone number… a planet from outer space can enter the solar
system and because of gravity, change our distance from the sun…
perhaps a little less, say 85 million miles or further out, say 95 million
miles… that the moon is known to drift away from the earth,
inches a year, that at some point, the moon will possibly go so far
away from the earth as to lose contact with it… the moon could drift
away… I’m not saying that it will happen, but that it could happen
and that idea of could happen, is a conditional thought… the moon
average distance, notice the word average, the average distance
of the moon from the earth is about 238,855 miles from earth…
so, that number of 238,855 is conditional… it changes… at times
the moon is 225,623 miles from earth and at other times, it is
252,088 miles from earth… and most of science is also
conditional… as long as this is true, then this is true…
that one says, gravity is a rule of the universe…
but is that conditional? as long as there are no changes,
then gravity does seem to be a rule within the universe…
the idea that gravity is a universal, absolute rule, is subject
to the current conditions remaining the same…
has the force of gravity changed over the many billions of
years since the big bang? I saw a report once that suggested
that gravity itself is weakening, that it is not as strong as it
once was… and I have no way of knowing if this is true, but if it
is, then even gravity is a conditional truth… virtually everything
we hold to be true, is a ‘‘conditional truth’’… I am alive, is conditional
because at some point in time, which is unknown, I will no longer be
alive… now this question of how long a conditional truth lasts,
depends on the truth in question… I am alive is true as of this moment,
it could change within the next 10 seconds… but the conditional truth
that the earth is 93 million miles from earth could change today or more
likely, far in the future… the only question becomes the scale of time
needed to make a truth conditional…

Now one of the questions we face, is a question of morals
and ethics… for example, being gay is morally wrong…
but that is based on other conditional truths, such as the bible
and other such religious text…the statement that ‘‘there is
a god’’ is another conditional truth… as we know from any
modest study of history, that the very nature of god,
has changed over history… that the Romans, the Greeks,
and the Babylonians all prayed to very different gods…
this fact alone suggests that even god and their worship is
conditional…if one people pray to one god and another pray
to another god, that is not praying to a universal, applicable to
all, god… that would suggest that the idea of who we pray to,
depends largely on where we were born and live… that if I
am born and live in the U.S, then the god I pray to will be different
than one born in Egypt or China or India… that makes religion
conditional on where one was born… that the only religion
I was offered, were the Christian based religions…
there was no attempt to offer me say, Hinduism or Buddhism…
those religions belong to another land, if the religions offer
to one are locally based, then religions are conditional…
Which is to say, a conditional god/religion cannot be taken
as the ‘‘one and true’’ religion… the very changing nature of
religions in America for example, that the number of those
who are Atheist, has dramatically risen in America… or the rise
of non-native religions, such as Hinduism or Islam, has again
dramatically risen in America…

and we approach the conditional nature of religions,
again, within the modern context… the fastest rising
‘‘religion’’ in America today is what is called, ‘‘Masculine Christianity’’
which in fact denies practically everything Jesus proclaimed…
that those who practice ‘‘Masculine Christianity’’ embrace
power and strength, not the pathway to heaven which was
peace and love… this notion of ‘‘Masculine Christianity’’ is
also conditional… if something changes to meet the changing
conditions or environment, then it is conditional…

and within philosophy itself, it too is conditional…
at one point in time, I too was a Nietzschean, and I held
that I was, of course, an Ubermensch’'… destined to
rule and conquer…ahhh, nothing rivels the ego of the
young… after a year to two, I gave up that idea…
reality has a tendency to smack the shit out of those
who need it… Philosophy is the game of conditional beliefs…
beliefs that sound good at the time, but later upon reflection,
reality smacks with a 2 by 4…

So, within philosophy itself, it has chased the permanent,
and has attacked the conditional… see Plato for an
permanent idea, one that is not conditional…
But in fact, Plato was wrong…What we think of as permanent,
is really conditional…

Now given this, what does this lead us in terms of seeking out
a one and only philosophy/religion/guide to life that denies
the conditional nature of reality… we can reject many ideas
that currently hold place within our own beliefs…
for example, the idea that Capitalism is the final goal
and objective in terms of the economic sytems…
Capitalism itself is conditional, it has come, and it will
go away… for economic systems such as Capitalism are
a function of the current status or nature of that society/state…
as long as the conditions, the environment remains the same,
capitalism has a home, once the conditions change, as they are
at this very moment, then capitalism itself becomes conditional…
I’ll be willing to bet, that within a hundred years, capitalism
as we know it today, will be on its way out and another economic
system will take over… probably a variation of socialism/communism…
and that will be the dominant system until it too fails and needs to
be replaced…

The idea of the ‘‘TRUTH’’, that it is conditional, will someday,
(or not) become the philosophy of the day… that our
idea’s, philosophies, ideologies, gospels, and dogmas are
conditional, will/should replace what we hold to be true today…
which is of course, conditional…

Kropotkin

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Now one of the things/ideas that people like to engage
with is this idea of meaning and purpose…for example,
what is the meaning of life? or what is the purpose of life?

Now if we properly understand the concept of the
conditional life, then we can deny a universal, applicable
to all ‘‘meaning of life’’…If one says, the meaning of life is
to go to heaven and contemplate god forever, that is conditional
because there are other possibilities… for some say, it is the
acquisition of wealth that is the meaning/purpose of life,
and some say, it is the acquisition of knowledge that is the purpose
or meaning of life… and some say, eat.. drink, and be merry because
tomorrow, we die…all of these beliefs as to the meaning of life,
are clearly conditional… and if we look to science, as to the
question of the meaning of life, it is clear from the open nature
of science, that life, from a scientific standpoint, has no meaning
or purpose… that is one of the ‘‘failures’’ of science is that it
has no clearly defined meaning or purpose… given evolution
for example, where in the story of evolution, does the meaning of
life come from? or the big bang, is there any meaning to be found
in the big bang? And the end of existence, which, at this point,
seems to be the loss of energy in the universe where it turns dark
and cold… with no more energy sources like stars and matter
(planets and other sources of energy) are gone… where or even how
does one find meaning and purpose in that final ending of the universe?
There is nothing in science that would suggest some sort of meaning
or purpose of existence, especially human existence… the existence
of humans is clearly quite conditional… without any meaning or
purpose…we can certainly have various different meaning of life,
meaning of purpose, but those are also conditional…
the question now arises, if life, meaning and purpose are all
conditional, where does that leave us, exactly?

Kropotkin

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I think life is a fluid dynamic, and arises because the environment is fluid and dynamic. If the dynamics are fluid enough, and the conditions are right, then why not life?

I think we’re a bit special, because we have a huge capacity to make the imagined real, much more than any other living creature on this planet.

Our Moon gets less credit than it deserves, in my opinion. It generates fluid dynamics here on Earth, certainly can’t hurt for helping to incite life, I would say.

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Yes, the Earth’s and the Moon’s orbits change according to the influence of other bodies in the Solar System. It’s a dynamic system. We just had the most southern moorise in a very long time. The orbits of the Earth and the Moon wobble a little. Sometimes the Earth is a little closer to the Sun and sometimes further, but all within the laws of motion and are predictable.

The moon is moving away from the Earth because tidal forces transfer energy to it, causing it to enter a higher orbit at about an inch and a half per year. Again, all predictable.

Truth is contextual and objective. Truth is a conformal relationship between a proposition and reality in which reality sets the terms. That’s what makes truth objective.

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Meaning applies to concepts and symbols. The purpose of life is life. Life is the only purpose that is an end in itself. Biology is inherently purposeful. It is a goal-directed activity. And yes, life is conditional. If those conditions aren’t met, death results.

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‘I am alive’ is not a conditional truth. Conditional does not mean temporary in philosophy in this context. This essay treats Logic, if P then Q, temporality - later I may not be alive, epistemology - our knowledge is provisional, and scientific revisability as all be one thing they are not.

‘I am alive’ is an empirical claim.

I think the underlying idea is that we can be wrong, that there can be problems with absolutism, and there is a lack of certainty in empiricism. All legitimate positions. The (time or spatially) limited nature of a truth does not mean it is conditional, and not in science. ‘I am alive’ is a contingent truth, but not a conditional one.

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