"I think, therefore I am." -Descartes

Descartes was a very smart man.  He decided to start at zero, and to forget everything he’d been told, to just start thinking for himself and forming his own philosophy, which must’ve been difficult. 

I know from my perspective it would be hard.  I used to be very, very easily influenced.  It wasn’t until recently that I found the confidence in myself to realize I could think for myself and make my own decisions.  I don’t always have to listen to others.  But Descartes, he completely disregarded everything he’d been told, and doubted it. 

He wanted to know what he knew…confusing right?  He wanted to understand what he could figure out with his reason without relying on anything else.  

Anyway, that’s not actually what I wanted to talk about.  I just think it’s crazy and impressive that he found a way to do that.  But one of the other things that Descartes tried to figure out was how the mind and body were connected.  It seems pretty obvious that they are, because humans have both…but how?

It was pretty well accepted at the time that the body is like a machine.  Like a computer, it doesn’t do anything it isn’t programmed to do.  So, because of that idea, some people believed the mind was a machine too.  They believed that everything we did and thought was predetermined. 

Well, I find that a little hard to swallow.  I don’t like thinking that I’m just some sort of puppet with no control over my own decisions, and maybe that’s a pride issue.  But what’s the point of spending our time trying to take control of our own lives just to be told we aren’t in control at all? 

I’m not denying the existence of God in this statement, just to clarify.  Some say that God controls us but I don’t feel that’s the case.  My personal belief is that we do have free will, and our minds are capable of making decisions.  God may know what we are going to choose but he doesn’t do it for us.  And that is why I have such a hard time believing that our mind is just a mechanical thing.

Descartes didn’t believe that either.  In a way, he completely separated mind from body because they are different…but here’s the catch.  How can they be separate but connected?  Because a lot of what our body does is programmed by our mind, but they are obviously different.  Descartes said that the mind was stronger than the body, which I think is true.  In many ways, an army of powerful thinkers is more dangerous than one made up of body builders.  Both are effective, but the army of thinkers will probably leave an even more powerful impression, because they have the capability to make you question things.

 In history, violence never seems to get us anywhere, and violent revolts are usually crushed by the government anyways.  But people who think, who speak about their thoughts, and make others think…those are the people that are seen as the most dangerous.

So if the mind is stronger, does that just make our bodies the puppets?  Do we only have a body to house our minds?  But in that case, what is the point of having a body at all? Why not just have minds floating around?  But if we didn’t have things of substance in the world, then what would our minds have to question?  What would we think about if there was nothing solid around us? 

The way I see it, a mind without a body is lost.  And a body without a mind is lost.  They need each other, and maybe that necessity is what connects them and keeps them together.  

STOP and Reflect: How Has Philosophy Changed My Life?

It’s about halfway through the semester, so I’ve been studying philosophy for awhile.  The question is, has this study really changed me at all?   What’s been different since I started studying philosophy? 

First of all, there’s the learning aspect in general.  I’ve learned a lot about history and even things about science and religion.  One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that everything is more or less connected to philosophy.  Learning that has helped shape the way I think.  I’ve begun to connect different subject s and ideas together instead of everything being so defined.  There’s a lot of overlap, and sometimes I feel like it’s easier to learn things when you can approach it from many different angles, so approaching the same idea through many different subjects has actually improved the way I learn things.

Not only that, but the way I think has changed.  I’ve always had a mind that went a million miles a minute.   Trust me, my brain does not like to shut up.  But it used to be about trivial things like the next biology test or what I was going to eat when I got home from school.

 Now I find myself struck with random thoughts about life, and about the future.  I’ve been writing a lot more too.  I feel like I suddenly have all these thoughts in my head, and if I don’t find a way to get them out, to put them somewhere outside my mind, I’ll just explode. 

I’ve always loved writing, needed it even, but now it’s as if I can’t live without it.  I can’t survive simply going through the motions anymore.   I have ideas, and a desperate need to explore them.  It’s like something has awakened inside me… a curiosity,  a thirst for adventure and creativity, a hunger to do more with my life than just live the same routine I’ve been following for months.  I almost feel like everything about my life has suddenly been magnified in me.  I feel things more strongly than I used to, allowing myself to open up to vulnerability.

 It’s like all the walls I’ve built around myself to protect from pain, from yearning for more, or for dreaming too big are knocked down.  It’s not an obvious change.  It’s not anything that anyone could really notice, but it’s there.   It’s like there’s some part of me trying to break out of my body.  I’m stir crazy and frankly bored with this life and all the things that used to be so important.  It’s terrifying and riveting all at the same time.  It’s like reading about these big ideas has made my life feel smaller somehow, and I yearn for growth, for a way to break out of this box that I might have built around myself.  There has to be more out there, right?

 Philosophy has shown me that there’s just so much that we don’t know.  How can we sit here and live our happy little lives not searching for the truth?  Not asking questions and really opening ourselves up to answers?  I don’t want to be a shadow of a life.  I want to explore and dream and learn beyond the walls of school.  I don’t even know what I want.  I just know I’m searching for more than this.   

Learning about philosophy has been a crazy ride, and it surely isn’t over.  But it hasn’t been easy.  In a way, I’m completely rethinking the way I live and the way I see things.  Part of me is scared of the change.  What if this yearning is a bad thing and I’m losing part of myself?  But what if what I gain is worth more than I lose?  It’s like giving your heart to God.  You feel as if you’re losing control, but you know it’s worth it.   That’s how I feel.  I’m losing control.  I just pray to God it’s worth it.

Heart Vs. Reason

 

Philosophy is the study of problems, of things that perplex us and make us question.  Here’s a question for you.  Why do we put ourselves in the position to be hurt even when we’ve been hurt before?  Why do we give others the chance to get beneath our skin or have access to our heart?  We know it won’t end well, and yet we hope.  We hope that this time will be different, that things will turn out “happily ever after” and all our worries will vanish.  We ignore all logic, relying on our feelings.  Is that why Plato said reason could not be found in our senses?  I used to have a hard time believing reason only came with logic, but in reality, how can our senses be logical when they usually lead us to repeat our mistakes?  What is it that we are doing wrong?  Why is it that we decide to stand close to the fire even when we’ve been burned?  Do we yearn to feel something?  Do we believe the fire will be kinder the second time around, and simply warm us?  Are we simply naïve?  But it seems that we know what we are doing… our logic tells us to back up and forget about it.  But we ignore that logic.  We follow what we want, what we feel.  Is that our downfall?  And yet, even as I write this, I know I won’t follow my own advice.  I won’t stop listening to my heart… the question is why? I guess for me, it’s about being vulnerable and living life to the fullest.  Sometimes I feel too much, but it’s in the moments when I feel true pain or true joy that I know I am giving life everything that I have.  I surrender to these feelings because they make me feel like my life means something.  It’s hard to explain why we set ourselves up for failure, why we follow our hearts instead of our minds.  But if we were always cautious, always thought about the effects of the things we do before we do them, would we be living our life for all it’s worth?  If we aren’t following our feelings, are we somehow failing?  But if we aren’t listening to our reason, are we also failing?  There’s a line in a Lauren Alaina song that says “There aint no greater distance than the 18 inches from your head to your heart,” and she couldn’t be more right.  When we follow our hearts, we are taking a risk.  Maybe that’s why we do it.  Do we get a rush or a thrill from taking a chance?  There isn’t much chance in following reason.  We also make mistakes when we follow our hearts, but that gives us the chance to learn and grow from those mistakes. If we use reason, we are less likely to mess up, to do something childish.  But does that then make us less likely to grow?  What is the point of our existence if not to grow and become better? The funny thing about questions like this is that you can ponder them for hours, and yet you still don’t find a concrete answer.  You form ideas about it, but you can’t say anything for sure.  And that, my friends, is why there are philosophers: to take on the daunting task of pondering those questions, and attempting to formulate solutions.