One Thousand Unanswered Questions

[The_Catto]

Can we really define what is real and what is not? Is it possible to depict just what is the truth and what is a lie? The soul, mind, brain; whatever you might call it is a truly wonderful and mysterious object. More powerful than a nuclear bomb, and more harmless then a drop of water, the mind is a tool that influences things in every day life, such as time, money, what you want to get done today, or what you want to hold off until tomorrow or next week.

 

But can we really control what our brain tells us? Of course not! It’s a completely separate entity in our body. It separates itself from our ears and eyes but yet it is able to remain joined with them.

 

Confusing, isn’t it?

 

Throw away all reason and logic, rip out your senses and just listen and try to find out at just what your mind, and body, and the breath of the air is trying to tell you. Forget all desires; forgive all demises, but hold on to what makes you as a person.

 

But then, what really makes up a person? Is it their ability to act normal, or to function as a human being should? Which also brings up the question: what can be truly defined as normal? Is it waking up at eight o clock in the morning, having a shower, eating breakfast and then going to work? Or is it waking up at twelve and doing nothing for the rest of the day, yet you go out and drink all night, waste your money on drugs and alcohol, then go home and sit on your couch and watch you and the night dwindle away into a state of nothingness?

 

Asking all of these questions, most can come to the conclusion that it is in fact impossible, to come up with an answer to such an issue. But yet we continue to strive forwards in hope to finally figure out that biggest question.

 

I’ve sat in corridors and I’ve watched shooting stars fly across that black canvas we humans like to call the night sky, and I’ve thought about things that I thought I would never think of. Is it true that you can wake up in the morning, forget what you did the night before, but remember what you did over ten years ago? Is that how the brain works? Is that what we think is happening, or is there indeed something much larger at work here?

 

Who knows? Who knows what types of supernatural things are out there, if there are any out there at all? Can we really define something what we are not used to as being ‘un-normal’? Normality, morals, goals, ideas and philosophy: all different things, yet they touch on the same subject. Do you even know what that subject is? Can anybody really answer that? All these questions are annoying aren’t they?

 

Still confused?

[Lord Spitfire]

Are you your soul or your mind? Or are they the same thing? Or are you your body?

 

What is the Universe? What is at the end of the Universe? Is it your mind? Are each and every one of us the Universe?

 

These I think are the most daunting questions - what is at the end of the Universe and what is you.

[jonathan7]

Can we really define what is real and what is not? Is it possible to depict just what is the truth and what is a lie? The soul, mind, brain; whatever you might call it is a truly wonderful and mysterious object. More powerful than a nuclear bomb, and more harmless then a drop of water, the mind is a tool that influences things in every day life, such as time, money, what you want to get done today, or what you want to hold off until tomorrow or next week.

 

The brain is the most complex thing we know of in science.

 

What is truth is a debate that has been raging for centuries; SD thinks Wittgenstein has answered it; having not reviewed I can't say. An interesting web link for you; http://www.iep.utm.edu/t/truth.htm

 

Even if everything before us is a lie, and we are living in a kind of 'Matrix' such thinking patterns are not inherrently useful; as their are real effects to things that happen in this exsistance; e.g. if you do not eat; your body will starve.

 

But can we really control what our brain tells us? Of course not! It’s a completely separate entity in our body. It separates itself from our ears and eyes but yet it is able to remain joined with them.

 

You've not really pointed out anything not mentioned before; a couple of links again; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Berkeley... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immaterialism and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_idealism

 

Confusing, isn’t it?

 

Why? Even if my perceptions are wrong, and even if there is no outside world, my interactions with it, still have very real consequences.

 

Throw away all reason and logic, rip out your senses and just listen and try to find out at just what your mind, and body, and the breath of the air is trying to tell you. Forget all desires; forgive all demises, but hold on to what makes you as a person.

 

Why throw them all away? Logic remains an absolute, in that 1 + 1 = 2 (or to phrase differently; * + * = **)

 

But then, what really makes up a person? Is it their ability to act normal, or to function as a human being should? Which also brings up the question: what can be truly defined as normal? Is it waking up at eight o clock in the morning, having a shower, eating breakfast and then going to work? Or is it waking up at twelve and doing nothing for the rest of the day, yet you go out and drink all night, waste your money on drugs and alcohol, then go home and sit on your couch and watch you and the night dwindle away into a state of nothingness?

 

What makes up a person; a combination of attoms; we are carbon based life-forms. Of course you could object to that saying its not real. Perhaps I could venture 'Cognito Ergo Sum' although Nietzsche mananged to undo that one.

 

The latter seems like a great waste to me; if time on earth is finite, should we not explore? The former could just be viewed as a lesson in conformity.

 

Asking all of these questions, most can come to the conclusion that it is in fact impossible, to come up with an answer to such an issue. But yet we continue to strive forwards in hope to finally figure out that biggest question.

 

I would suggest the biggest question is why are we here? Why is there something instead of nothing?

 

I’ve sat in corridors and I’ve watched shooting stars fly across that black canvas we humans like to call the night sky, and I’ve thought about things that I thought I would never think of. Is it true that you can wake up in the morning, forget what you did the night before, but remember what you did over ten years ago? Is that how the brain works? Is that what we think is happening, or is there indeed something much larger at work here?

 

Depends on an individual brain, lots of things go into remembering or not remembering certain events.

 

Who knows? Who knows what types of supernatural things are out there, if there are any out there at all? Can we really define something what we are not used to as being ‘un-normal’? Normality, morals, goals, ideas and philosophy: all different things, yet they touch on the same subject. Do you even know what that subject is? Can anybody really answer that? All these questions are annoying aren’t they?

 

Why are questions annoying?

 

My own personal saw on truth is it will answer all pertinant questions asked of it; if something is true it remains true; are human beings not just searching for truth?

 

Still confused?

 

Not really... you didn't confuse me in the first place but then I do have the advantage of having read a fair bit oh philosophy on the subject; I'd suggest if you haven't already reading Descartes.

[Samuel Dravis]

Asking all of these questions, most can come to the conclusion that it is in fact impossible, to come up with an answer to such an issue. But yet we continue to strive forwards in hope to finally figure out that biggest question.

It may be impossible to come up with a certain kind of answer, but that doesn't mean no other solution exists.

 

These questions you raise are interesting because they stem from taking certain words on analogy with, for example, physical objects, as if truth or a soul were to be found in the ether somewhere, that it can have properties, etc. But why should we suppose that? Those words don't function in language as names for things; they aren't used that way, except in the very cases which make them seem so mysterious.

 

Perhaps that which appears hidden is only so because we tend to look at it the wrong way, tend to ask these questions the wrong way.

 

In order to find the real artichoke, we divested it of its leaves.

Philosophy simply puts everything before us, and neither explains no deduces anything.---Since everything lies open to view there is nothing to explain.

The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity. (One is unable to notice something--because it is always before one's eyes.) The real foundation of his enquiry do not strike a man at all. Unless that fact has at some time struck him.--- And this means: we fail to be struck by what, once seen, is most striking and most powerful.

[The_Catto]

What I've posted is only what I was typing at the time. Does that make sense?

I didn't really even take notice of what I was typing until I sat back and actually took a look at the words. I hardly understood any of it. I have no idea why I wrote it nor any idea as to why I was thinking it.

 

I guess, when I take a good look at it all, I'm just trying to put my ideas and opinions across of how stupid and unnecessary the label of normal is in today's society. To label something, or someone as normal, isn't that some sort of discrimination, and that's bad isn't it?

 

Some of these questions, in my opinion, are completely meaningless. they pose no theory or answers. Only questions to a question.

 

The throw away the logic part I said was just expressing that nobody hardly ever seems to take time to just not care about absolutely anything anymore. Logic and reason are mostly all what consumes the daily life nowadays.

 

@Jonathon7: Thanks for the links. I'll have a look at them soon.

[jonathan7]

I guess, when I take a good look at it all, I'm just trying to put my ideas and opinions across of how stupid and unnecessary the label of normal is in today's society. To label something, or someone as normal, isn't that some sort of discrimination, and that's bad isn't it?

 

Well, descrimination isn't always a bad thing; I descriminate against say pedophiles, terrorists etc and feel they should be put in prison.

 

Normal? Point me to one human being who is normal? Everyone is unique, all messed upto a greater or less extent and trying to hide it under a veneer of respectability; the ones who do this the most effectivly are unaware that they are doing so.

 

Some of these questions, in my opinion, are completely meaningless. they pose no theory or answers. Only questions to a question.

 

I could say;

 

Its not the destination that matters but the route you take.

 

Although I don't actually agree with it. In his introduction to History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russel had the following to say;

 

“Philosophy, as I shall understand the word, is something intermediate between theology and science. Like theology, it consists of speculations on matters as to which definite knowledge has, so far, been unascertainable; but like science, it appeals to human reason rather than to authority, whether that of tradition or that of revelation. All definite knowledge — so I should contend — belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science there is a No Man's Land, exposed to attack from both sides; this No Man's Land is philosophy. Almost all the questions of a speculative minds are such as science cannot answer, and the confident answers of the theologians no longer seem so convincing as they did in previous centuries.”

 

Philosophy at least in my opinion is the subject which seeks after the most important questions in life; why am I here? whats the point of life? is there a God?

 

‘Science cannot answer the questions that philosophers – or children – ask: why are we here, what is the point in being alive, how ought we to behave? Genetics has almost nothing to say about what makes us more than machines driven by biology, about what makes us human. These questions maybe interesting, but scientists are no more qualified to comment on them than anyone else.’ Steve Jones, Language of the Genes, HarperCollins, p.xi.

 

@Jonathon7: Thanks for the links. I'll have a look at them soon.

 

No worries, it was my pleasure