Modern
Philosophy
The
role of philosophy in the 20th Century has changed into one in which
philosophy must find a place for itself. Philosophy as a discipline
is always either escaping murder or rising again from it like an
intellectual revenant. Existentialism took up the mantle of virtue.
'Hardly was man free when he created new chains. Virtue dies but is
born again, ever again(Camus). 'Conquer yourself rather than the
world' (Descartes). Virtue is the unstated emphasis of
existentialism. Rorty says that the role of 'usher and judge' is too
big for philosophy and Habermas says it must withdraw from this. He
does not believe philosophy can be the arbiter of the sciences. Rorty
would say that existentialism is reactive when it makes you do
anything other think. Wittgenstein came to see philosophy as
therapy. The emphasis in Rorty's work on the 'edification' element
was strong. Rorty says science has no superiority. For him,
Existentialism is reactive. Though Sartre may have seen an
axiological possibility in nothingness, existentialism looks like a
philosophy of despair. It reacts to things discovered in the
sciences. The salvation of free-will was made possible by a notion of
freedom so vast it would seek to make every man a Spartacus in
opposition to determinism. It was the task of existentialism to free
man from his chains, even if they are chains fashioned by humanity
itself. It made man the sum of his choice and his only duty, action.
In the world that was freeing itself from duty, Sartre raised a new
one. That of being authentic. There was no reality except in action,
and this action mattered more than any justification. In Augustinian
fashion, it sought to give humanity freedom and the responsibility
that came with that freedom, across social structures and various
societies. In the world where philosophy had no moral justification,
it invented a revolutionary lexicon of deontological ethics.
Philosophy just makes us feel better about being alive, a far cry
from the hand-maiden of absolute certitude with that thrice-lettered
title god and the queen of the sciences. The attempts by Russell to
make philosophy the logical arbiter of scientific truth were like
grasping at straws. Metaphysics as typically conceived of became the
domain of physics. Psychology took up the task of describing the
action of the human senses. Philosophers attempted to proclaim the
logic of certain scientific ideas or to study linguistics.
The
analytic and continental divide opened when analytic philosophy
sought to reform the entire field by focusing it on logic and
tautological methods. It is always possible to bridge traditions and
thus bridge the analytic, continental divide. WVO Quine attempted
this in his work. He sought to undermine the distinction made between
analytic and synthetic statements. He was against the radical
reductionism of the analytic tradition. The opposition to definite
meaning was an attack on the tautological assumptions of the analytic
tradition. Physical concepts were innocent because they should not
violated of their basic use; they need not be interrogated. The
business of finding truth via epistemology in its traditional form is
declared dead at the scene. Empirical psychology has to take the
place of normative justifications. Quine defined the idea of
doctrinal studies being those concerned with truth. He broadly
outlines his position as the following. Epistemology deals with the
foundations of science. There were attempts to reduce math to logic
and in turn a reduction of mathematics to logic and set theory. Set
theory though does not have the tautological truths of logic. Studies
in the foundation of mathematics divide into conceptual studies
dealing with meaning, and doctrinal studies that seek truth. William
James or any pragmatist, whether Neo-Pragmatist or otherwise, would
likely not turn to linguistics as the arbiter of value in the vein of
the verification principle. The pragmatic theory of truth deals with
benefits for those that hold it. It rests on providing real results.
In the long term, it sees scientific truth as a process over time.
The pragmatic theory of truth would likely find no use for the
logical underpinnings of Quine's quest. Habermas says Kant's
transcendental is an inquiry into the a priori conditions of what
makes experience possible. Analytic philosophy appropriates Kant by
rejecting any claim to ultimate justification. They do not uncover
cognition but declare the processes of it.
What
are the consequences of getting rid of the subject-object dichotomy?
Large ones. Bad faith is a subject and object dichotomy gone wild in
the realm of a deliberate, cynical deception of oneself. Dennett
coins heterophenomenology and differentiates it from straight
phenomenology saying that assumes minds are the same, that is, the
cognitive aspect of the subject. He does not see all minds as capable
and defends this by saying that we see some as less than capable,
like the insane.
Depression
Depression
is the realization that all of life's problems carry a twenty cent
solution. It is a deep-seated feeling that life is the most vulgar of
four-letter words. It is the acceptance, or first beginnings of the
acceptance, of the philosopher Hegesias's wisdom.
But
depression differs from despair. Despair is deeper; akin to falling
into a pit. The highest of humans have learned to climb out of it.
Whether by fate or by misdirected will they have been swallowed into
it. Despair is so sharp that the decision to overcome it comes
quickly.
Instead
depression is a terrible baseline. It is a terrifying void in which
the roaring music of life becomes monotone. It is a sapper and killer
of strength. Depression conquers, bit by bit, the entire person.
Depression kills some literally, and others in a more figurative
sense- they lose who they are, their vision becomes dark with sorrow.
Where depression dwells pessimism beckons, where pessimism finds a
home there is borne the desperado, the man who cares nothing for his
destruction and often sows it.
But
who denies the dour destiny more than the victor? Some men, optimists
they are called, will find in every calamity a reason to rejoice, in
every razing of their most pristine dreams an open field of ash for a
new beginning. Victors are vexed at nothing. They view all sorrows as
cause for new joy and light up at the lessons offered by their
mistakes. But the man of failure calls fortune a whore and decries
the next day that the sun will bring more upon him. The individual of
failure is apt to curse with his first breath of morning air.
Failures have failed not to achieve, but to be happy.
As
for the question of how to solve depression, on one's own, if we see
this to be an option. First, there are no permanent balms. Nothing
will banish depression if one thinks clearly. When one sees the world
for what it is one is apt to curse it. It can feel like a challenge
to one's intellectual honesty in continuing to carry forward in it.
This has been the call of every prophet, political reformer and every
free-spirit. It is behind Christianity, anarchism, socialism and
every other world sweeping creed that might see the human molded
differently by molding the world differently, and first cursing its
current existence. Instead, we must seek temporary solutions. Drug
abuse is rather tempting and despite objections it is certainly true
that modern psychiatry follows the drug dealer in offering people a
temporary solution. Sex, alcohol, popularity, a hope of success
without actual achievement follow the same principle. Something else
is needed.
To
be absorbed in the now is key. Seek not the pleasures of life which
will dance right through your fingers and leave you nothing to grasp.
Instead learn an absorption in the now, a calm purposefulness that
fulfills its ends in many small steps. To find purpose is meaning of
life. To find purpose, the highest must find philosophy.
But
to speak of simpler means there are other ways around such pain. Some
find a purification in suffering, in physical suffering, in a
punishment of the body through striving. Music always exalts the
mood. Success is apt to enliven. Beauty helps the eyes perceive the
light and bring its warm glow into the gloomiest depths of the soul.
Art can be a passion; but for some it is also a possession, a dark
curse, a mistress that steals all energy and leaves little else. But
while enraptured in creativity, one may break free of the sack-cloth
and ashes. Altered states bring forth peaks of thought and
experience, but they also bring their descents. Money and freedom
from it can perhaps make things less gloomy. But most never escape
the class that they were born into. Caring less of money is then the
key. All debts are discharged with death; death is the inevitable, so
all debt will in the end be forgiven.
Each
day has to be faced on its own. Each ray of sun, a beauty, each
morning has to be seen as a beginning and perhaps hope. For while
depressed, seeing the end of the next day is challenge enough. Losing
the self is key. To lose oneself in something, anything, and break
free of the empty yearning that is the ego. Baruch Spinoza, "god,
intoxicated" as the poet Novalis was apt to call him, demanded
that to view things, sub specia aeterna, from the aspect of the
eternal, was what truth demanded. But in truth this was his freedom
from perturbing melancholy and darkness.
To
be truthful the black dog may never leave, and its bark may be worse
than its bite. Common solutions are for common and uncomplicated
people. Talking out one's problems may make them worse. Friends can
help, life is impossible without them. But often they will never
understand. Some people are like labyrinths, and they fail to find
the way out of themselves. Words fail, and where words fail
communication is impossible. Where communication is impossible,
silence and introversion will become the rule. Often a rut can only
be escaped by a total change- a coming of a spring hot wind to
announce the death of a cold winter. Depression can only be conquered
through a war of attrition. It is a war that has to be won- the cost
of losing is a negation of the will to live and a living death.
