chaz wyman wrote:SpheresOfBalance wrote:
chaz wyman wrote:
You mistake the purpose of philosophy.
Only ossified and moribund systems of philosophy have made the claim that they are seeking the ultimate truth; most of these we call religion. As time passes these philosophies get superseded and abandoned, leaving unanswered antinomies laden with the false assumptions of their apparent answers.
No, the purpose of philosophy gives us a range of question and challenges to the assumptions upon which those questions are asked; it gives us debating tools and the means to attack and undermine 'ultimate answers'; it demonstrates that ultimate truth is not ultimate but contingent on our timely and specific current paradigms.
Good philosophy has never been about the answers, but about the questions.
Did you take note that I was speaking from my perspective and not everyone's?
Please do not forget that I'm, or so it seems, Agnostic.
You are not the originator of philosophy, you like the rest of us study it and come to your own conclusions. Some that are rigid and some that are flexible, but all of which are yours. I speak for myself as you do for yourself. I agree with all that you are saying, and yet say that philosophy's aim is an attempt to find the absolute truth, what ever that might be. Which means that it could uncover what you say or what you do not say, and that the proof, either way, shall be found in the end, as 'the only thing we truly know, is that we do not know.'
You are no agnostic.
You accept the unacceptable: absolute truth - that is not agnosticism.
ag·nos·tic [ag-nos-tik]
noun
1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. Synonyms: disbeliever, nonbeliever, unbeliever; doubter, skeptic, secularist, empiricist; heathen, heretic, infidel, pagan.
2. a person who denies or doubts the possibility of ultimate knowledge in some area of study.
3. a person who holds neither of two opposing positions on a topic: Socrates was an agnostic on the subject of immortality.
adjective
4. of or pertaining to agnostics or agnosticism.
5. asserting the uncertainty of all claims to knowledge.
6. holding neither of two opposing positions: If you take an agnostic view of technology, then it becomes clear that your decisions to implement one solution or another should be driven by need.
-Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition 2009-
Incorrect, I see that while Absolute Truth definitely exists from a perspective, without bias or selfish agendas, much like a recording device of everything, everywhere, that spans the entirety of the universe, I have never claimed to be that entity, having any of that knowledge. I see it as purely a standard in which the hope of eventuality is contained. I see that one day, if the human race survives itself, and other cosmic catastrophes, that it shall know of this absolute truth. This includes whether there is or is not a sentient entity responsible for our reality. I say that it is much too early for the infant, humankind, to know of such things, such that anyone that says, with certainty, that either position is true, is premature and living in the past, incapable of theorizing the possibilities of the future.
And as I've said, I'm an Agnostic, or so it would seem. It is the best 'label' that one could use to describe my position. I have never said that I was wholly an Agnostic, verbatim, in the strictest sense of the definition, what ever that may be to you. I see that as to the question of a creator of the universe, no human could possibly know with certainty, either way. It is people that speak of the certainty, of the currently unknown, that I have issue with. I am not necessarily certain of any particular absolute truth, just that it's possible to be found, whether the infantile human race knows when they have done so or not is another concern. As Socrates said: I only know that mankind starts out as knowing nothing, how much of what he believes he knows, that is absolutely true, I see as yet to be determined, while I see some things as probably absolutely true.
I see that some people want to know so badly that they are quick to believe anything. You know what I mean, they "Fear the Unknown."