In thinking about the differences between ancient philosophy,
medieval and modern philosophy, the difference seems to be
in the complexity of the society/state being described…
let us think about it this way, I had a friend in High School
who owned an old Volkswagen beetle… He used to be able
to fix that thing with a bobby pin and a small hammer…
and that’s because as far as cars go, it was a fairly simple
car, and the explanations for very simple cars, are also very
simple…
The rule of thumb seems to be a simple object/idea requires
a simple explanation… the more complicated object/idea
the more complicated explanation is needed to describe that idea
or object… an old VW can be easily described/fixed because it was
a fairly simple car… my wife takes her prius in and it takes a mechanic
several machines to just to diagnose what is wrong with it…
and a computer science degree to work out all the electronics with
the old prius, a 2007…and with every new model coming out,
the car substantially becomes more and more complex, but that is
the nature of existence…
It looks like the world goes from simple to complex idea’s/objects
and as it does so, the means and ways to explain those idea’s
and objects become ever more complex…
so, let us explore this idea… Philosophy in ancient times, say the Greeks,
is relatively simple compared to today’s philosophy…
and the answer is because the ancient world’s objects/ideas were
fairly simple…because the world itself was fairly simple…
and that as the world becomes more and more complicated, the
explanations about the world become more and more complicated…
that is why a philosophy say, Husserl or Heidegger is far more
complicated then say Socrates or Plato… we live in far more
complicated times… not to say better or worse, just more complicated…
the ancient world could never have conceived our own science
of the Macro world, Quantum Physics, and its opposite,
classical physics… the world of the big… planets, stars,
solar systems… the ancient world was focused on finding
theories that unified, that united various aspects of existence,
and the modern world focus is on the lack of unity between the
various systems… how do we unify or connect the very large,
classical physics and the very small, Quantum Physics?
if an answer is possible, it will be a fairly complex answer…
as the systems are complex, the explanations must also be
complex…
and this explains the failure of conservatives politics…
they pine for living in a much simpler age which has
simpler explanations and answers… but going back to
a simpler time is just not possible… we cannot turn back the clock
and remove all the complex aspects of our lives… we are,
for better or worse, in an age where we must have explanations
that explain our complicated and complex world, we have
Einstein’s explanations about relativity, because that is the world
we live in, we don’t live in a world where the explanations
of Aristotle will work anymore…for they are simple explanations
for a simple world… and that is not us anymore…
as our world becomes more complicated, our answers/explanations
of that world must also become more complicated… we cannot have
simple answers for a complicated world…conservatives seem to
explain the world in simple past understanding of the world, whereas
liberals tend to use more complicated explanations because the world
is more complicated than conservatives understand…
we can no longer give simple explanations to a complicated world…
our explanations must match the world we are trying to explain,
and thus, we must offer up more and more complicated explanations
of the world we live in… and therein lies the problem for most people
around here… they are seeking simple explanations for a complicated
world… we cannot answer for our complicated lives with simple
answers like god, destiny, and ism’s that do not and cannot
help us to understand and explain the world… for our ism’s to
work, it must be complicated enough to actually describe and
move the world… that is why the isms of the past are failing
today… they are too simple to explain our complicated world today…
thus we must reject such simple isms/explanations like
religions like Christianity… and Islam… and even Judaism…
they are simple explanations of the past and life being much
simpler, whereas we live in a complicated world, where a
simple religions like Christianity and Islam fail too adequately
fail to understand or describe our modern world…
Ok, let us try this… let us take Christianity for instance,
how does the bible explain to us about our modern technological
world? Show me where in the bible does it explain how I am
to face the oncoming AI revolution? AI will undoubtedly
change the world, for better or worse, is the question,
but does the bible or any religious text help us to place
ourselves in some relationship with technology?
Put your faith in god… that’s nice meanwhile back at the
ranch, we have AI, nuclear bombs, the IQ45 crime family stealing
everything that’s not nailed down… and to mention any number
of problems, the middle east, inflation, overpopulation,
global climate change… there are no answers within
religions or god… the isms of the past are woefully inadedquate
for the needs of today… they are way to simple to answer the
complex problems of our own making BTW…
The bible says, thou shall not kill…
but the modern world has added on so many ‘‘ad hoc’’ of
the moment additions, that the biblical phrase ‘‘thou shall not kill’’
has become worthless… we have created so many exceptions to
that phrase, as it to become worthless… ‘‘thou shall not kill’’
has no meaning anymore because of those, quite numerous
exceptions… and why those ‘‘ad hoc’’ exceptions? because
the world has become very complicated and the bible’s injunction
of '‘thou shall not kill’ has simply not keep up with our modern world…
which is to say, the world has become more complicated than
the original commandment, and is thus outside of, or beyond
the original commandment… and the many ‘‘ad hoc’’ additions
to the bible show us that it is much too simple to work for us…
So, how are we to describe, explain the world in much simpler
terms? the bottom line answer is, we can’t… our explanations,
will become ever more complicated as our world becomes
ever more complicated…
Kropotkin
