what a philosopher should be seeking?

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

as I hold, as I have done so for a very long time,
that the questions of philosophy and of philosophers,
are the maxims of Socrates… ‘‘to know thyself’’
and “the unexamined life isn’t worth living”

every question begins with ‘‘who am I?’’

and we can ask this question in relations to the other questions,
‘‘who am I’’ in relations to the society… ''who am I" in relations to the
state, “who am I” in relations to the gods, “who am I” in relations to
the culture, ''who am I" in relations to concepts like love, hope,
success, freedom, justice among the thousands of concepts we
can work out our relations with…we can work out this in terms
of a general understanding of the conservative and liberal…

the liberal has a different mindset than the conservative…
for the liberal, the key concept is justice…‘‘who am I’’ in regard to
justice…am I engaging in justice or is my state/society engaging
in justice? In the ‘‘rights’’ movements of the last 122 years, civil rights,
gay rights, women rights and the battles against injustices perpetuated
by both state/society/individuals, who fought in the front lines?
It certainly wasn’t conservatives… it was liberals fighting for
our greatest beliefs, that of justice… even at great personal risk to
ourselves… if we put safety/security first, we wouldn’t have left our homes,
to put ourselves in danger fighting for what is right and JUST…

we can work this out better if we use real life concepts like fear…
the conservative is afraid, well of everything… I have previously listed
all the things a conservative is afraid of, and it is a long list…and using
this list, we can see that the conservative bases their entire understanding
of the universe base on their fear…hence this is why the Maslow’s pyramid
level of safety/security is the most important level to them…
that is what fear will do, it makes one’s safety/security as being the
paramount issue of their lives… not freedom, not justice, not peace or love
or hope, but safety/security…and UR being the useful idiot that he is,
he shows us time and time and time again, how he fears everything…
and that is shown in his violence of language to others… scum, commie,
“ILP nazi” he has dozens of insults from which he insults anyone who doesn’t
agree with him, lock, stock and barrel…but that show us his fear…
anyone who disagrees with him is wrong and insulted… there is no
middle ground with UR or with a conservative…
it is all or nothing… compromise is seen as weakness which threatens one’s
safety/security…and we can’t have that…

so what should a philosopher aim for, given these two ideals
as possibilities?

Philosophers should seek the positive in our existence…
we are human beings, let us act on that principle…
the conservative says, with Machiavelli, that change isn’t possible
within people…but change is not only possible, it is desirable…
the question becomes, what change should we engage with?

the conservative makes no attempt to become something more because
it violates one of their basic principles, that change is impossible in people,
and they include themselves in that avoidance of change…

but we change, we change every day to events, people, aging,
the environment…I am different today than I was 10 years ago,
because I am 10 years older…I am in a different place today then I
was 10 years ago…and I must change to adapt to that difference…

so what changes should I be making? that comes with the understanding
of the Socratic principle of “know thyself” and then an understanding of
what I ought to be…what goal is worth my effort to attempt?

the ancient Greeks would have said, to become a sage…
someone with wisdom…the Buddha says, to become “enlighten”
from where I sit, I can’t tell the difference between the two…
and the Nietzschean principle, to become who you are?
and how is that different then becoming a sage or
becoming “enlightened?” is the point to remain who one is,
all your life? from Birth to death, to remain the same?
I can’t see any point to a life like that…
growth, change, movement is what life, all life is about…

so as a philosopher, we seek change, growth, movement…
so, let us decide both individually and collectively, what
change, growth, movement we want and that we should
achieve, individually and together…

so it is not enough to seek out our own individual change,
but to seek out what changes we need to make
as a state/culture/society…

that what we should be seeking, as philosophers…
what changes should we be making, individually
and collectively…and why those changes?

Kropotkin

2

as I have pointed out, to seek is to be human…
we all seek something, some seek love, some seek trivial
matters like money, material goods, fame, titles…
some seek safety/security, and some seek freedom
and some seek justice…

so what do you seek?

to become, to become “enlightened” to become the sage,
to become human, to become spiritual… these “seekings”
requires us to change our viewpoint, our perspective…

and that is why we seek to follow the Socratic maxims,
“the unexamined life isn’t worth living”

for in our examination of life, we, if we are honest with it,
we will change our viewpoint, our perspective if we truly engage
in our examination of life, our own and all of life…

is seeking safety/security really the goal of existence?
that is pretty low-level human existence type stuff…
why not seek out higher level things like seeking esteem or
love or what it means to be human?

to rise to the highest level in which we no longer try for
what we are missing, like love or esteem, but we are full
of knowledge of what it means to be human and thus, we can,
like Goethe, or Shakespeare or even Jesus or Gandhi or MLK,
we are so overfilled with love and hope and charity,
that we can give ourselves to others… in the creation,
the creation of ARTS or literature or beauty, or to create
a better life for others instead of seeking such low goals as safety/security or
the lowest level of existence which is to feed ourselves or house or seeking
an education or health care…once we have fed the soul and fed the body,
we can aim for the next level stuff, to become the sage or to become
“enlightened” or to seek out what it means to be human…

existence has a point, and that point is to become something more
then just human who seeks to feed our body and souls…

to become human and rise above our evolutionary beginnings,
of mindless obedience to the needs of our evolution…instead of
obedience to our instincts, we rise above that and answer/ create
our next goals and beliefs… we are the authors of who we become,
not slaves to the evolutionary instincts that brought us here…

to rise above mere instincts is the next goal and to become,
to become something more than just animals who must answer
their instincts…and to seek out becoming the sage or to
become “enlightened” is just another way of saying, I am rising above
my instincts…and becoming human…

Kropotkin

3

how can we tell that someone like UR isn’t a philosopher?

UR is always going on about some insane conspiracy or another…
and yet pays no attention to who UR is… what changes in UR life
should he be engaging in? What does it mean to be human in UR life?
who knows, especially UR… who has no idea who he is… and until
UR become concerned with UR, he will never become a sage, enlightened
or even human… he will simply bleat out his conspiracy theories without
ever knowing what it means to become something more, something that
rises above being an animal…

Don’t be UR… investigate who you are and what it means to be human…

Kropotkin

4

to seek the “divine” is to seek something outside of oneself
and thus a waste of time… it isn’t about being “saved”
because what is it you are being “saved” from?

from being human… and that is the actual goal of existence,
to go from animal to animal/human to finally becoming human…

the goal of existence isn’t seeking out insane conspiracy theories or
trying to become more animal by the focus on getting the bodily
materials we need to survive… that isn’t being human, that is being
an animal, like dogs and cats and lions… to become human, we must rise
above mere seeking of those bodily instincts and seek something more…

we can do something no other animal can do; we can reflect on what
it means to be human and what changes we can make to make that happen…
and it is only by our working out the question of “knowing thyself”
and the “unexamined life isn’t worth living” can we move closer to
becoming human…

Kropotkin

5

we often see the disparagement of the body in religions like
Christianity… the question isn’t one of the “soul” vs the “body”

they aren’t two distinct and separate things, they are two sides
of the coin and then if we go/rise high enough, we see
that the soul is the body and the body is the soul…
they are one and the same…if we attack and disparage the body,
we are attacking what it means to be human… for we are body/soul
and until we learn to co-exist between, we cannot become something
more…so when I say, “to be” or “I am” I am both body and soul…
the question is not to deny the body or the soul, the question becomes
one of mastery…

when we see an “expert” we see one who is an expert in or a master
in their respective field…they have control over their respective
instruments… in other words, we see a master, an expert in Chess,
like Magnus Carlsen, we see someone who has mastered the
chosen instruments of his field, the chess pieces…
when we see another expert like in Basketball, say a Steph curry,
we see an expert, one who has control over his chosen instruments,
the game of basketball… or one who has control over body enough to
run the 100 in record time… an expert, is one who has control over
their respective field/body…thus we can also call Einstein an expert,
a master in their field…

thus to become an expert, one must gain control over their body/the field
of their chosen area… to become an expert in our own bodies,
we too must gain control over, have mastery over our own bodies…

that is true both physically and true mentally and psychologically
and emotionally…

the goal is to gain control over our bodies and soul… thus we
spend our days and nights, gaining control over our bodies and souls…

we can see someone like UR who has no control over their soul or body…
he is afraid of everything… that isn’t one who control their body or soul…
to gain mastery means to be in control over… so to be in control,
one must gain mastery over our instincts and our inborn evolutionary traits…
it isn’t about the fight or flight instinct, but to gain control over that evolutionary
instinct and make a choice based on something other than instincts…

we cannot be afraid of who we are and what our bodies might
“Make us do” no, we are in control over that and that means we are
human… to be human means to be in control over our souls and our bodies…
not to let instincts dominate our beliefs and our actions,
but to control our beliefs and our actions… to be master of
who we are and what we do and what we believe in…
to be in control…to have mastery of us… that is the path
to become human…to rise above mere instincts and make
choices as to what we do, what we believe in and who we are…

gain mastery over your beliefs and your body and your soul
and you will become human, fully human…

Kropotkin

6

reread the above and ask yourself the Kantian question,
“What am I to do?”

Kropotkin

7

The philosopher should seek to understand
who he or she is, and then be a catalyst of positive change…
and the first thing in which all of us as a state/culture/society should be
engaged in change? Education! And education is the
most useful tool we can have for further growth, change, movement,
in terms of our relations with other states/cultures/societies…
it is the tool that has the greatest effect on a people…
Since ancient Greek times, those like Socrates and Plato understood
that a primary service of the philosopher is as an educator of
the youth, and as an educator of the youth, he or she is not merely
a repository for culture, but a catalyst for change, and therefore, as
a catalyst for change and an educator of the youth, it is
understood that the philosopher is a critical part of the culture that has
produced him or her.