I suspect we need to revisit philosophy in order to make
sense of it…
One: Philosophy… the very word itself has meaning, Philosophy
means ‘‘love of wisdom’’
and in the beginning was wonder… or so it is said… we philosophize
from wonder…
but both statements are in question… it is clear that very few around
here actually ‘‘love wisdom’’… around ILP, people operate within philosophy
as one of two things, one most people around here are engaged in philosophy
as a means of converting people into a certain viewpoint…
polemists… not philosophers… and the difference lies with polemists
have a viewpoint, and they are arguing from that viewpoint,
but not engaged in philosophy in which they would see if that
viewpoint of theirs is actually a valid, philosophical viewpoint,
they assume that their viewpoint is automatically the correct
viewpoint, without any examination of what that viewpoint entails…
that is what polemical means, beginning with a set viewpoint that
is no examined for its value…
the other common ILP user is a dilettante: a person who cultivates
an area of interest, such as the arts, without any real commitment
or knowledge…
Between these two viewpoints, dilettante and polemical,
that covers 99.9 % of everyone who uses ILP…
Very few, maybe 3 people on ILP, are actual philosophers…
So let us return to my first point, philosophers are people who
philosophize from wonder, but that is not true… we can philosophize
from any number of reasons… my own case is that I philosophize
from doubt…part of my questions is the Kantian questions,
''What am I to do?" ''What can I believe in?" ''What can I know?"
Kierkegaard once said about himself: "What I really must do is to
get clear about what I must do, not what I must know’’
but there are other reasons one may engage in philosophy…
that of wonder, that of doubt, that of love, the engagement with
knowledge as with Kierkegaard…
So, the beginning of philosophy begins with a word, why?
Why do we philosophize? Most people skip this part on their
way to their attempt to convert others to their viewpoint,
or to show off their ‘‘knowledge’’…
Philosophy isn’t about converting others to a viewpoint, as much
as it is about understanding our own viewpoint and is that
viewpoint really valid and worth pursuing… in other
words, philosophy is an engagement with our own
knowledge and understanding… which is why I quite
frequently say to reexamine your own values and beliefs…
engage with what you know and hold to be true…
That is philosophy… Now quite a few people will comment
on how wrong I am, but it is those same people who are
polemists, not philosophers… and they argue from a certain,
set viewpoint… instead of engaging in the question, is their
viewpoint valid and hold truths for who they are…
Or said another way, Philosophy is a private question,
not a public question… Are the truths I proclaim, actually
truths worth holding to? We can’t even understand our own
private truths, why do we engage in public truths, when
we can’t even know or understand our own private truths?
In the beginning: What truths are my truths… not the truths
I was indoctrinated in, nationalism, theology, philosophical
society/state truths, but what are my own truths? and are those
truths, truths worth having and holding? Can I live my life
with those truths? remember the Kantian question,
''What am I to do?" And can we apply our own truths to
the question of… '“What am I to do?”
We use our truths to guide us in this question of
''What am I to do?".. That is the point of having truths/values…
they are to guide us in this question of '“What am I to do?”
But philosophy also guides us in the second Kantian
question, ''What am I to believe in?"… What values/truths do
I believe in and why those truths/values instead of other truths/values…
How do I justify holding these truths/values? This can be our
private truths/values that we can turn into public values and truths…
I hold to what is called ‘‘WOKE’’ values and truths…
that we treat people with dignity, respect and with the opinion
that all people, ALL PEOPLE, deserve dignity, respect
and are treated with tolerence…
I hold that these values/truths are the right truths/values
because we live in a society/state… that we are social creatures
that must, MUST live within a state/society and the best way
for that state/society to grow and get better is by the fair
and equitable treatment of all its citizens… that the goal,
the real goal of the state/society isn’t the safety/security
of that state/society, but the real reason we can reside
within a state/society is through the equal application of
justice… the real reason for the state/society lies within
this idea that the state/society is responsible for the
application of justice for all its citizens, not the application
of safety/security of its citizens…
The Locken idea that the state exists for the protection of
private property is wrong…recall the Declaration of Independence,
‘‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their creator, with certain
unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of happiness’’…
that the phrase the Pursuit of happiness is another way of saying
the pursuit of property… and this clause has caused a great deal
of trouble and discontentment in the state and society…
for the fact is, we cannot guarantee that everyone in the state/
society will in fact, not be able to own property…
and therein lies part of the malaise and discontentment
in modern day society…that no matter how hard we try,
we cannot, under any circumstances, reach the point of
getting everyone in the state/society property…
we, not without a massive reorganization of the entire state/society,
we cannot get everyone who wants it, property…
but justice, that we can get everyone in the state/society
justice… which is simply the application of equality to
all, to everyone within that state… and it is under this
application of justice that we can use to justify the so called,
‘‘Welfare State’’ and the application of DEI rules… to remove
DEI rules means that we have rejected justice as a rule for
people…
For part of the problem we have, philosophically anyway,
is that we have no sense or understanding of the goal or
point of existence… and there is the omega of our
philosophical understanding, we have the beginning,
why do we philosophize, and the ending, for what goal
or purpose do we philosophize… what is the beginning
and what is the end of philosophy…
That we ‘‘hold these truths to be self-evident’’ is to suggest
what exactly? that there is an alpha and omega within
philosophy… and I have pointed out before, without a
proper beginning, we cannot get to a good end…
in other words, if we begin in the wrong place, we will
end up in the wrong place… that is the basic understanding
of travel… we can only end up in the right place if we first
understand where we are beginning from and having a clear
understanding of the goal we are trying to reach…
this is just as true about philosophy as it is about traveling…
So, we have at least three aspects of philosophy…
one, is the start, the beginning of philosophy,
two, is the journey we take and three, the final goal
of philosophy…
‘‘That we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men
are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator,
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’’
so, given our understanding of the alpha and omega of
philosophy, what is the beginning of this statement…
that we hold these truths to be self-evident…
but the statement about holding these truths to be self-evident,
leaves us without an Omega… what is the ending supposed to be?
to what end do we practice holding these truths to be self-evident?
What is the end goal of existence given this truth?
But we do hold that truths and the goals of existence are not,
not dependent on holding to a god or a religion… that we can
create our own goals and truths…
that goals and truths can come from within us, that we can
create and find our own truths and goals… we can also
apply those found goals and truths to a state/society…
that truths and goals are found within us and transferred to
the state/society, not the other way around, from the state/society
to us… so, we begin by examining what are our values and
truths… which is exactly where I started from…
and then apply those truths and values to the state/society…
once we understand what the goal or purpose of
existence we can apply those values/truths to everyday existence…
Kropotkin
