Philosophy Now Forum

this is not a history of philosophy, or a philosophy of history,
but philosophy in time/history idea....

one of the problems with philosophy is that it is always,
ALWAYS behind the times.... philosophy has yet to engage with
our modern times in any sort of meaningful way....for example,
our technological world, philosophy has yet to work out any sort
of philosophy that takes into account technology...
and we haven't any sort of philosophy that has taken into account
any of the scientific ideas of the last 140 years.... for example,
we have no philosophy of Einsteins ideas... what does it mean to
human beings in regard to Einstein ideas within a philosophical
context...or Quantum mechanics... how does that idea impact
us as human beings? who knows, no one has approached that idea
philosophically.....as a philosophical idea, what does the most
important scientific idea mean, E = mc2 to us, philosophically?
what does it mean to us philosophically that matter and energy are
the same thing? and what about space/time? How does that
impact us philosophically? Philosophy operates about a
120 years behind the times.... we act as if Nietzsche were the last
important philosophical idea around.... (one might say Heidegger or
Sartre, but they still engaged in philosophy without thought to the
scientific ideas being created around them)

this has been called a technological world, and yet, we still
haven't engaged with technology in any sort of meaningful way
within a philosophical context...

or we haven't engaged in philosophy in regards to historical events
of the 20th century.... for example, the Holocaust... what does
the Holocaust mean to us philosophically? or perhaps we could
engage in the two world wars and what that tells us about human beings?

or think about this.... the fact is that the so-called modern ideologies
were all thought of before Nietzsche... Communism, capitalism, socialism,
democracy... do those isms have any value in our modern technological world?
the isms certainly take advantage of the new technologies, but have
they adapted to the new technology? does the goal of a ''workers paradise''
make any sense in our new world of cars, airplanes, cell phones,
and space flight? we live in a totally different environment than
Marx did, does it make sense to still follow Marx, given the new
environment of technology?

does the goal of the declaration of Independence, actually now make
any sense? to quote the declaration....

''We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights,
that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

in this ''modern age" does the pursuit of ''life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness, make sense anymore? it is the pursuit of happiness
that has, in large part, created much of the problems of the world
today....as we have defined the pursuit of happiness, as being
the pursuit of the trinkets of existence... in the pursuit
of wealth or power, fame and titles and of material possessions...
it is the pursuit of these things that has contributed to dangerous
things as global warming and overpopulation and income inequality...

given our new environment today, we cannot allow ourselves to be
following the same things that has brought us into many of our
major problems of today.... we cannot depend on capitalism to
solve the problems of capitalism... or said another way...

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again,
and expecting a different result"

so, what exactly am I calling for?

An entire reevaluation of every ism, principle and reason
that we use today to justify our beliefs and actions...
to think about the last century actions and beliefs and
turn that into some sort of philosophy.... to take the
scientific and historical actions of the last 200 years
and give some real thought, otherwise known as philosophy,
and make sense of what has happened into a philosophy....

we cannot afford philosophy to be 100 years behind the facts on
the ground...for once in its history, philosophy must try and not only
catch up, but to be ahead of what is happening to us and by us....
philosophy must not only engage in what was, but also what is,
and what will be, philosophically...that is the new task of
philosophy... to actually stay in touch with what is currently
happening in the world and anticipate it.....
and engage in the world, historically, scientifically, technologically,
politically and philosophically, with what is and what could be...
to remain current with world's events as they happen...
that is going to be a tough task, but given where we are today,
we have no choice.... remain current or die as a subject matter..

the very future of philosophy hangs in the balance...
either we help in finding solutions or we pack our bags
and go home...and philosophy dies the
death it deserves....if philosophy is unable to provide answers,
what is the point of philosophy?

Kropotkin

when I look at the world today, what do I see?

I compare it to a sports team that is ok, but isn't going
to win the championship any time soon... it is stuck in a
quagmire of our own making...nothing very good happens,
nothing very bad happens... we just are... and for a country,
that is not a good place to be....and the rules of entropy
suggests that if you are not going forward, you are going backwards...
and as we are clearly not going forward, we are then going backwards...
and something dramatic has to happen to shake us up, to bring alive
the precarious situation we are in today..... in the sports world,
we would trade someone or fire the manger, but we have done that...
multiple times.... and with all our ''changes" nothing seems to have changed...
politically, socially, economically, and philosophically, we are in a rut,
just treading water...... and because we haven't made any changes or
even rethought what is really important, we are falling behind...
remember, if you aren't going forward, you are falling behind...
that is the rule of entropy... and the problem is that we are not
increasing our energy.... which is what overcomes entropy...
the way to bring a team that is just hanging around the middle,
to become better, is to jolt it, bring some energy into the
situation....

and let us look at the isms of today, are they infused with energy, is there
any energy going on in the isms and ideologies of the world today?
No, certainly not in capitalism.... capitalism is a corpse walking...
the only thing keeping capitalism alive is, what is to replace it?
any type of replacement comes along and its goodby capitalism...
the same goes true for communism and socialism and Buddhism
and Catholicism and even in our democracy... the energy needed
to keep democracy alive isn't there right now....witness the clamoring
for a dictatorship right now in America... but as with any false ism/ideology,
the energy for a dictatorship will fade fairly quickly....

we cannot keep trying the same thing and hoping for different results...
we must try something new to bring in new energy into both America and
the world....something that will bring people new hope and energy to
their lives.....

in terms of the isms today, we don't see religion as being the burst of
much needed energy we need right now...religions have played out because
''god is dead'' and what exactly does that mean? to keep any ism alive requires
constant replenishment of energy going into it.... where is the energy coming
from that is keeping religions alive? it isn't..... simple enough answer....

and politically is there a real burst of energy going into politics today?
there is far more energy against something, then for it... the left is against
IQ45, not as inspired by Biden or any real belief in the left...
and so goes the right, which is anti=liberal, more than pro-IQ45...
we can already see the end of the MAGA party.. it is slowly going the
way of the ''tea party'' and for much of the same reasons... it doesn't stand
for something, it stands against something....and the energy that goes
against something isn't the type of energy that will keep an ism or ideology
alive...and once the MAGA party dies, some other right wing fascism will
come alive and take its place...fascism never dies, it just changes it name...

as far as our world economically goes, it is no better... we can allready
see the dissatisfaction with capitalism that is going to get worse...
and why? because the pursuit of wealth and power and fame and titles
and material possessions leads us nowhere.... it has no goal, no other
purpose outside of itself... it is empty and barren of purpose and ideas...
the man who lives by capitalism, dies alone and hollow...
like the material possessions that he spent so much time and money on...
they fill no other purpose other than vanity and ego...and there
was a name for our modern age, I would name it ego... we are seriously ego
driven in capitalism for there is no other point to capitalism...

and politically, we have been driven from democracy into a corporatocracy....
which is government of the corporation, government by the corporation,
government for the corporation..... and as we have no more value
in a corporation that a fly does in our world, we have lost interest
and have move our energy elsewhere.. which is exactly what happens
in entropy...entropy is the removal of energy from an organization,
living or not, it is the loss of energy that allow an organization to
go from order to disorder... as we have seen disorder flourish in
our society today.. and that comes from the loss of energy that
would normally keep a society/organization flourishing...

how would I return energy to the people and thus preventing entropy
from flourishing in America today? this loss of energy is the reason we
in America are going from order to disorder....so, the question becomes,
how do we return energy into the American society, politically, socially,
economically and philosophically? the path is to get people excited about
the society, the state, our business and corporations.. and the way to do
that is to bring people back into having some say politically, socially,
economically and philosophically..... take power away from the mega
corporations and return it to people... today, Americans have no power
to influence their lives in any, way, shape or form... we have no power
socially, politically, economically or philosophically...
we have no impact in any aspect of our lives and that leads Americans
to put their energy elsewhere...and thus cause the death of isms and ideologies
like religions, politics, economics and socially...
why bother dealing with legal reform if it has no impact on our lives
or engage in political reform because we have no impact in politics
anymore.. our voices have been silenced.....and our political structure
invaded by corporations buying politicians... who only listen to those
who have paid for the politicians... we are silenced and left with
no recourse... in any aspect of our lives... we must gain our voice
back and one way is to increase our energy to the point we can't
be ignored any more...

Kropotkin