I am more aware of western philosophical ideas through the ages than I am of eastern philosophical ideas. Which leaves me with an incomplete history of philosophy for all of humankind. Yet even with just the western experience I can formulate a structure for living in my own life. Taking what all the great philosophers had to say and filtering in and out the best of those concepts one can begin to see a pattern of hope and justice evolve. This is what philosophy over time can do for us. It gives us individual glimpses in time as that continuum progresses. Being a benefactor like me is merely the luck of having been born later and 1000's of years of evolutionary thought to expand from.
Our minds are much more capable of focusing on the immediate and singular problems of the day, which allows many of us to perceive the best of what could be and making a case for it to be part of our growth. There are only a handful of us who can see far enough into the future to create a philosophical or any other paradigm structure that endures through time and space. So what most of us have to do is take the best of which we know about philosophy and merge it into itself over the span of its recorded history. This way we begin to take the steps of understanding our human nature and our path toward our futures. Who we are is what is being decided and many have taken to leaving that question alone and just accepted that we are and always will be just animals.
Philosophy though does not hold to that. We are more than just animals who have but one goal in life, to survive. We are humans who were once just animals but evolved beyond that in order to start utilizing our greater abilities. We are more like biological data processors who have the storage for memory while being able to compute with reason, analysis and conclusion. Our physical attributes are enhanced by our enlightenment through physics and other sciences. But most of all we can imagine a creation, innovate it and then produce with amazing accuracy and efficiency. Philosophy gets us to the place where we are more than our individual animal selves, instead we are the sum of what all of human life has offered to this point. Now to leave our legacy for the future.
Our minds are much more capable of focusing on the immediate and singular problems of the day, which allows many of us to perceive the best of what could be and making a case for it to be part of our growth. There are only a handful of us who can see far enough into the future to create a philosophical or any other paradigm structure that endures through time and space. So what most of us have to do is take the best of which we know about philosophy and merge it into itself over the span of its recorded history. This way we begin to take the steps of understanding our human nature and our path toward our futures. Who we are is what is being decided and many have taken to leaving that question alone and just accepted that we are and always will be just animals.
Philosophy though does not hold to that. We are more than just animals who have but one goal in life, to survive. We are humans who were once just animals but evolved beyond that in order to start utilizing our greater abilities. We are more like biological data processors who have the storage for memory while being able to compute with reason, analysis and conclusion. Our physical attributes are enhanced by our enlightenment through physics and other sciences. But most of all we can imagine a creation, innovate it and then produce with amazing accuracy and efficiency. Philosophy gets us to the place where we are more than our individual animal selves, instead we are the sum of what all of human life has offered to this point. Now to leave our legacy for the future.
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