A Buddha Knock-Off

If a person does not aim for salvation, one lives one's life like a preoccupied child playing with toys in a house that is burning to the ground.

Illumination

Starting a blog on philosophy has definitly been a good thing. I have been doing a significant amount of writing on philosophy as a result of this blog. However, I have also realized that a Blog is not really the media format that I want to use for this topic. But, I like the blog name and of course the URL. So, I'll keep it around and use the blog for some other topic. In the mean time I think I will use it to post quotes from interesting sources.

Cheers!

Do I exist?

Well, if I don't, there isn't much to talk about is there. So, yes. I exist. As for the logic, I am going along with Rene Descartes concusion in his Meditations on First Philosophy. After much thought about existance, he concludes:

I am, however, a real thing, and really existent; but what thing? The answer was, a thinking thing.

But what is a thinking thing? It is a thing that doubts, understands, conceives, affirms, denies, wills, refuses; that imagines also, and perceives.

This thinking thing that Descartes describes is called a Soul by the English speaking world. It is a semi-imortal or immortal mind that exists separate from the physical body but it interacts with the physical body. Having a Soul is essential to the concept of the afterlife.

Rene Descartes was a Dualist. And I am right there with him. Although there are many, many, many, philosophical arguments agaisnt Duailsm, I think the arguments for it can withstand the onslaught.

Anti Ockham

While doing research, I ran accross Ockham's Razor - the Law of Succinctness (lex parsimoniae) - which is frequently attributed to William of Ockham. In english, the statement he made translates to:

entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity

The legend/myth comes along after his death with other philosophers applying this law and refering to it as Ockham's Razor. The manner in which they use it is such that with all things equal, the simplest explination is the correct explination.

I prefer quoting Fox Mulder on the X-Files and calling it: Ockham's Principle of Unimaginative Thinking

The Purpose

This purpose of this philosophy is not to determine some absolute universal truth, but instead to develop a worldview that supports an ethical, compassionate, practical, and consistant way of living. In a sense, it is a rationization: "I act this way because I believe ..." However, I have found that even my initial delvings into a philosophy have challenged my current beliefs and actions. So not so much as a rationization of my current beliefs, but a way to rationize my future beliefs.

I welcome any comments and suggestions!

Oracle

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.

Paul Valéry, 1895