Here is my best essay thus far. Hope you greatly have good enjoyment and learning in your peaceful and happy reading.

People-Action and The Biosphere: Ways of Being and Regenerating.pdf -- written by ben bussewitz

Here is a great presentation of a book, myself Ben Bussewitz, has on the way for you...

Here is a great presentation of a book, myself Ben Bussewitz, has on the way for you, entitled, Being, Nation-State, and Global Citizenship...

Here is the link to the .pdf file

- Ben Bussewitz

The Quest For A Happy Life by Ben Bussewitz

Below is a link to a .pdf of an essay I wrote called "The Quest For A Happy Life."  I hope it helps you toward achieving a life you feel great about.

The Quest For A Happy Life by Ben Bussewitz -- .pdf

American Democracy: The Dialectical Exchange of the Citizenry in Action

“American Democracy: The Dialectical Exchange of the Citizenry in Action”

Written by Ben Bussewitz

for a .pdf of this essay, click here

 

— The Meaning of American Democracy

The dialectical exchange of the citizenry in action involves all the citizens, and also, the governing representatives (who are also classed as equal citizens)— moreover, it involves all the people of the country, including non-natives and travelers, immigrants and those otherwise classed as non-American civilians.  The many, who the people in office represent, as those citizens of the country channel their will to the governing body. The people voice what they wish for the government to take part in and put into action, first, by talking in different mediums of communication amongst one another and throughout the platforms and mouthpieces of the socio-symbolic public arena.  Thereafter, the people are capable of channeling their directives and aspirations through various means, for instance, in phone calls directly, through petitions, at town-hall gatherings, etc. (the tools of democracy) to their representatives who carry forth their will into action.

In a democracy, the people are in charge of governing the country.  In the representative democracy of America, it is central and essential for the people of the nation to voice their will, their hopes, opinions, persuasions, ambitions, aspirations, so on, to the governing body.  With this kind of civic engagement in place, the U.S. government can then act to carry out the will of the U.S. people (those whom they represent).

— True Democracy In Action

Democracy entails the cultivation of a critical citizenry, what the ancient Greeks referred to as paideia—a body politic characterized by citizens who are inquisitive, who reach their own independent judgements on issues and ideas through thoughtful, evaluative reflection and processing of information, who do not conform to the stances or opinions of others, but rather, reach their own conclusions through autonomous analysis of variegated considerations, who think for themselves, trust themselves, and rely on themselves; moreover, the noble tradition of paideia incorporates the vital importance for the citizenry to exhibit upstanding moral character and virtue. This involves that fundamental concept of justice—valuing the dignity of all people, being open to cross-cultural perspectives, behaving with a cosmopolitan mentality, heeding and taking into consideration voices of difference, and most importantly, upholding the two greatest commandments. Democracy furthermore entails the utilization of courageous speech, what the ancient Greeks referred to as parrhesia, which can be characterized by standing up and boldly speaking the truth, even if it goes against the grain, mustering up the confidence to speak truth to power while staring in the face of corrupt, mendacious, and powerful political institutions, utilizing speech to burrow down to the heart of issues in order to expose truth, to disseminate knowledge and wisdom.

With an informed and critical citizenry (paideia) engaged in robust and meaningful democratic exchange (parrhesia), the totality of the polity (demos) can collectively carry out governance (kratos) in the mode of civic genius. Democracy comes from the Greek roots demos, the people, and kratos, govern.

Civic genius is the collaborative, collective democratic undertaking of forging the identity of who we are as a nation, as we the people—establishing with clarity the roots of our ideological creeds, outlining our long and complex shared history, celebrating our melting pot of ethnic and cultural heritages, conscientiously giving testimony to, working through, and mourning our nation’s traumas, determining our nation’s place in the international order, sharing pride in our nation’s virtues and accomplishments while also taking stock of the litany of our nation’s ills and woes... together as a people, engaging in constructive, respectful democratic discourse in which we flesh out and come to a mutual understanding in regards to our nation’s collective consciousness, in which, through inquiry, dialogue, reflection, and debate and compromise where debate and compromise are needed, we shed light on this communal phenomenon of what it means to be a U.S. citizen. The act of civic genius goes even farther than that venture. Through robust, respectful, constructive democratic exchange, we the people, come to identify our predominate values, our top priorities, our most paramount initiatives and endeavors. And we the people determine how we ought to function as a nation, as a cohesive unit, as a living machine of living parts—what kinds of policies we ought to endorse, what type of legislation is appropriate, how we can manage and overcome our nation's problems to ultimately develop into a more safe, prosperous, conscientious, and domestically and internationally responsible nation, how we can blossom in harmony and interconnectedness while learning from and empathizing with our fellow citizens, transforming into more fulfilled, ethical, and well-rounded citizens due to our democratic interactions, and how we can create a more peaceful, peace-oriented, and peace-centered human family, by opening our arms as a peoples to greater global cooperation, collaboration, and community, along with a greater global mentality and ethos, while cultivating more faithful peace of mind. All in all, in partaking in the act of civic genius, we, as a peoples, envision and create what U.S. life and U.S. society ought to entail.

In a nutshell, how democracy theoretically can straightforwardly be understood in the U.S. is a paideia utilizing parrhesia to collectively carry out civic genius.

Apology of Socrates

 

(photograph captured by Ben Bussewitz)

“Apology of Socrates”

by Ben Bussewitz

Socrates lived through the golden age of Athens, the deterioration of the city-state into a 25 year war with Sparta, the rise of an oligarchic regime, and the ultimate restoration of the Athenian democracy.

Socrates, great philosopher of the past, and defender of Athenian democracy.

At the age of 70 he was executed by the state for supposedly corrupting the youth and insulting the Hellenistic pantheon of gods.

Of both these charges, Socrates prevailed in innocence, however, an uninformed Athenian jury found him guilty and permitted Socrates to leave Athens or drink poison hemlock.  Knowing that either way, he would go on to the afterlife, as the surrounding areas of Athens were warring city-states, he chose to end his life among the fellows he helped so much and cared about so fondly in the city he loved so dearly and to which he had given his life, Athens.

The reason that Socrates had been charged for not paying homage to the Greek pantheon of gods, could be that Socrates subtlety purported to be a monotheist.

To illustrate, Socrates sometimes could be heard referring to the one true God who rules over heaven and earth. We see in Plato’s depiction of Socrates in the dialogue entitled, Euthyphro, that Socrates, while discussing holiness, states, “I mean to say that the holy has been acknowledged by us to be loved by God because it is holy, not to be holy because it is loved.” This passage illustrates that Socrates looked at the world as though there was only the one true God reigning over, which conflicted with the Greek polytheistic vision. And simply by bringing the youth to ask basic, essential questions about their station in life, questions that led people to think for themselves and reconsider the overall structure of society, he roused authorities into alleging he corrupted the youth. It can be expected by a democracy to find offense to the thoughtfulness of questioning basic truths, as democracies function according to group dynamics, and the more individuals question themselves and others, social structures, social norms, widely entrenched principles-- the less likely they are to immediately get along with authority unless they respectfully cooperate, like Socrates always did, as he patiently doled out his time and kindness to people of Athens from all different walks of life. When citizens differ in their attitudes and stances from authority in a way that is at odds with each other, even in democracies, where the government is ruled by the people (in Athens, citizens were chosen for the city counsel from a lottery to contribute to a direct democracy), the peoples' will can create havoc with the powers that be, as the state apparatus yields tremendous authority. Socrates lived most of his life in Athens, besides a brief stint fighting alongside the Athenian military in the Peloponnesian War. In Athens, the people of the city could find him strolling about the streets, engaging in conversations with those who took interest where he probed underlying Truths about the world and inquired into the heart of various Truths such as, "What is virtue? What is beauty? What is piety?" It defends democracy to question, as it is by questioning, individuals expose Truths about the world and uncover and discover universal Truths. The Greek people followed two central traditions of a democracy: paeidia and parresia, the former indicating an upstanding, morally-grounded, informed, politically constructive citizenry, and the latter representing bold, courageous speech that gets to the heart of political matters and burrows beneath them, even when unjust power dynamics embedded in society have to be confronted. Socrates, by asking thought-provoking, truth-pervading questions, and searching for answers to those questions with the individuals he met on the city streets--even when the inquirer and the interlocutor were left simply facing for themselves a confrontation with the fact that they are in ignorance with regard to the matter at hand, and the individual whom Socrates talked to comes to understand that he is not as wise as he had previously thought, as was so often the case when Socrates' conversed in Athens--by asking those questions, Socrates furthered Athens tradition of both paeidia and parresia. Individuals he spoke with became more accustomed to truth, more enlightened, and more virtuous as they came to understand just how little they knew. This improved the broad structure of the citizenry, as it made the citizens more knowledgeable, and brought them to be more equipped to be effective Athenian citizens. In terms of parresia, Socrates' conversations cut right to the heart of important contingent Truths and universal Truths. By educating the youth and all the people with whom he spoke, Socrates contributed to a stronger democracy and a more fully functioning government where citizens could contribute more meaningfully to the power apparatuses.

Socrates is considered the founder of Western philosophy and the greatest philosopher of all time. The impact of his thought is still resounding in town halls, the halls of academia, and city streets until this day.

The Magnanimous Philosopher

(photograph captured by Ben Bussewitz)

"The Magnanimous Philosopher"

by Ben Bussewitz

The man of ethical action, that is, the political man, and the man of ethical contemplation, that is, the philosophical man, are seen as two differing archetypes of virtuous lives that a person of reflection is capable of carrying out and achieving, according to Aristotle.  The former of the two can be characterized as a life of “magnanimity,” a lifetime spent implementing good actions on a grand scale during which one does not consider the fruits of those actions, either to bring about honor or to elevate status or material wealth, but rather, in engendering meaningful, beneficial change and betterment in itself, he arrives at greater joy as a response to the good of acting according to virtue.  The philosopher, on the other hand, can be seen as a person of “wonder,” as Aristotle maintains that philosophy begins in wonder and continues in wonder; in Ancient Athens, when the city-state had its festivals, we could see all types of people conglomerating together for different purposes: the players in the theater acted on stage, often to accomplish more success, the officials of the city, often to show that they are well-to-do and helping substantially with the order of the city-state, etc.  And the philosopher would also head there, more selflessly though, immersing herself or himself in deep wonder and amazement and awe and all, without privileging or even paying mind to how the social opportunities there might spark a more successful life.  The festivals in Ancient Greece were a great place for wondering. Ultimately, one wonders, where does wondering lead?  What is the aim?  What is the strategy and results of all this pondering?   Socrates famously said: “The unexamined life is not worth living.”  When we philosophize, which starts in wonder, continues in imagination, amps up in reflecting and introspection, and ultimately leads to synthesis and great understanding of life and wisdom— when we philosophize, we are heading toward “an examined life,” a life of meaning, value, truth, and love. The philosopher virtuously abides by a lifetime of enjoying the goodness and joyfulness inherent in attaining knowledge and wisdom and accompanying its accrual.  Now, I have presented the two archetypal figures that Socrates states are the best kinds of lives.  One can see that these two types of lives, the ethically-driven, magnanimous man who contributes widely to society and the contemplative man who is a philosopher, these are not mutually exclusive.  To solve the seeming contradiction: one can both build upon, grow from and pursue the ways of being characteristic of each, and, in fact, perhaps “the magnanimous philosopher” is the best way to be, the politically-driven and successful man who also wonders and cherishes his or her values, meaning, ideas, spiritual insights, wisdom, and so on.  This idea that putting together a philosopher and some type of charity-driven, kindness-laden politician or ruler is central in Plato’s The Republic, as Plato shines light on what it means to be a philosopher-king, and rule over the city wisely, beneficially, and for the good of the whole body-politic.

Aristotle purports that the magnanimous man—the virtuous political man— he responds in the proper way to doing good deeds, that he attains a wholesome and enjoyable emotional response for doing the right thing.  This can be brought about by attaining the prudence of ethical action— seeing why a certain action opposed to another decision can be perceived as a good, proper way of acting in its terms of its ethics.  Also, it can be brought about by quite regularly carrying out ethical behaviors, as this creates a sense of ease in committing to those actions and a greater happiness that results from acting for the benefit of other people as doing so becomes defined by a sense of habit.  In both these senses—prudence of ethical action and a sense of habit accompanying these actions that aims toward a wholesome, meaningful goodness—knowledge, wisdom, and discipline are key.  We can see from this analysis that the centerfold consideration for the way one acts who is the ethical-man, according to Aristotle, is based on selfless goodness, rather that driven by self-gain.  This hearkens back to the most renowned Hindu literature, the Bhagavat Gita, when the Hindu god Krishna, who is considered to be the Preserver God, according to most practitioners of the Hindu faith, consoles a young warrior, Arjuna, and coaxes him along the insights for how best to act in his difficult, trying situation.  The kingdom was divided and Arjuna had to fight against his own family in battle or surrender to an unjust cause.  He was torn and did not know what to do.  During this dialogue, Krishna maintains, “Be intent on action, not on the fruits of action; avoid attraction to the fruits and attachment to inaction!”  Throughout the dialogue, indeed, Krishna, as is shown here, indicates to Arjuna not to get lost in what is “in it for him” or how the results of his actions spell good or bad consequences for him, but instead, focus on the selflessness of action.  This understanding of being in an impossible situation in terms of how complex, grave, and earnest it is, yet searching for one’s higher moral-truth and being submissive to that which she or he holds sacred and carrying forth wisely and prudently and piously— the magnanimous man, as we see, does not attend to the fruits of the action, but embarks on the actions for the best of his co-citizens and according to his selfless mentality.  In this interpretation of the magnanimous man, we see he is confronted with difficult decisions, which he acts upon with reason and kindness and benevolence, and moreover, in difficult situations, when the cards are even twisted against him, he is able to maintain good momentum forth in his goodness of ways and days.  But to delve deeper into this archetype that Aristotle lays out of the political man driven by ethical action, one can see that the philosopher has a keen insight into and inclination for the abstract kinds of good that are characteristic and necessary for the magnanimous man, both in terms of choosing and acting on a decision while facing hard choices, and in terms of running across complex and convoluted and strange events and being able to fulfill the wisest course of action.  Would we not all agree that the philosopher’s love and knack for wisdom would assist the magnanimous, ethical character according to his pedigree?

The philosopher is a lover of beautiful things.  As one that wonders, the philosopher falls upon great ideas, and extends and works with these ideas to come to even greater ones.  These beautiful things that the philosopher loves, such as beauty in itself, goodness in itself, and love in itself, he is able to discern through active, thoughtful contemplation, during which he thinks about what it is these ideas, objects, and actions entail and takes hold of such meaning.  During his trial in the city-state of Athens in which he was accused of corrupting the youth and insulting the Greek pantheon of gods and goddesses, Socrates, in his defense, showed he was wiser than his fellow citizens.  In The Trial and Death of Socrates, Plato depicts Socrates as stating:

“For my aim is to persuade you all, young and old alike, not to think about your lives or your properties, but first and foremost to care about your inner self. I tell you that wealth does not make you good within, but that from inner goodness comes wealth and every other benefit to man.”

During the trial, Socrates argues that Athenian citizens take up refuge from the hardships in life by their social status, wealth, reputation, but, as he says, these are all fleeting and investing in them, he continues on to indicate, is indicative of an “unexamined life.”  Socrates extorts the Athenians to “care about [their] inner self,” and in this way, Socrates shows that he is “wealthy” on the inside, as “goodness” translates to more inner-beauty, more inner-knowledge, a greater ethical-drive.  With the knowledge of such beautiful things one can carry out beautiful means and beautiful ends.  In this way, armed with this kind knowledge and wisdom, both the philosopher and the virtuous political man, the “magnanimous” man, are able better to hone their action and to be insightfully and intuitively discerning about how they carry out that action.

There is a tension here in that Aristotle claims both that the magnanimous man leads the best life and that ‘he does not take to wondering’— as we can see that the philosopher tends to take to wondering, and as we can see that Aristotle is a philosopher, totally in control of his own fate, his own torch-bearer; and furthermore we can see that Aristotle considers the act of philosophy to be a good in itself and to have a sense of purpose, and due the fact that in another passage in Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle names the contemplative life as the greatest life.  How can we reconcile this tension?  Philosophy—it is indisputable—begins in wonder, but perhaps the great philosopher can find fulfillment in the objects, the ideas, that result from such wondering, and no longer “take” to wondering, no longer be distracted and diverted to his motley ruminations, and rather, feel fulfillment in what his wondering has already brought him to possess, the great knowledge and wisdom he has at his disposal to continue to contemplate, share while conversing or writing, and use to guide his other various, actions—and just at particular times, in his leisure, continue to endlessly wonder.  When one finds the meaning of life, the Persian carpet or the purple pen, one has sufficiently wondered for wondering to have taken hold of holding him steady in happiness and fulfillment, all her or his days.  It is the Ultimate Good that sows a seed in us, within our very human nature, to discern the Ultimate Good and to act in accordance with the Ultimate Good, which is the ultimate end goal of all philosophy that begins in wonder and responds according to wonder—the Ultimate Good being God, and the ultimate good being deep and wise knowledge of God along with the response to this knowledge that brings about an reconstruction of the self internally and in how one behaves.  With this deep and wise knowledge of God seated within the constituent self, the great philosopher is able to attain fulfillment by the joyful tree his virtuous wonder and the Pure Spirit has tended to and cultivated, with fruits to share and harvest that will bring about life-changing spirit and attitude and love.  With this at hand, the philosopher can become “the magnanimous philosopher” by imbuing much greater goodness in both his contemplation and actions, by means of his deep, wise knowledge and love for God, bringing his contemplation and actions to greater, more beautiful means for greater, more beautiful ends.

Everyone has a basic understanding that they want to be a good person, whether that is in carrying out good, virtuous actions, or it is in a more self-interested idea of attaining power, or the more innocuous pursuit of achieving ‘happiness,’ which might be conceived of according to the concept of attaining the ‘good life.’  The concept of ‘good life’ which she or he comes to might be in response to various environmental stimuli and responses along with the person’s personal analysis, value-judgements, and conclusions, insightful or myopic, superficial or wise, based on such.  Understanding of the ‘good life’ might also be in line with Immanuel Kant’s idea of the a priori element of reason, giving light to what he calls the Categorical Imperative, which can then guide noble action and experience.  Whatever the case may be, it is clear that wise, deep knowledge of the good and of God can bring about actions that are more prudent, wise, and thoughtful.  Therefore, the basic dispositions 1) of a philosophic mind and personhood and 2) to not attend to the fruits of action, but rather, to attend to joy engendered by implementing noble ideals— requisite to the ability to carry out the extent of the beauty, goodness, and love, both in means and in ends, that the “magnanimous philosopher” is capable of bringing about.

Philosophy as a Way of Life

“Philosophy as a Way of Life”

 

by Ben Bussewitz

to download a .pdf of this essay, click here

In our life, we are presented with certain circumstances, environments, ways of understanding the meanings of life (i.e. religious beliefs, local customs, national ideologies, family stories), historical narratives, in-group belonging with underlying philosophical bases, ethical dispositions, and so on, and it is up to us to make sense of these different lenses and ways to trod forth on the path of life and see clearly.  It is up to us to take these kinds of situations and phenomena, and to come to our own convictions and worldviews, take accountability for those ways of seeing and doing, and to live life well and within these capacities, one who is a master of her own fate (a forger of her own bearing; the one navigator of the life she leads).  It is important to hone in on and take responsibility for the good way in which we understand and approach and take on experience.  Insofar as we have our own ways of seeing and being, and that is up to us and us alone, it is with the help of philosophy that we can take up good and meaningful ideas to help us navigate our bearing that brings about our best fate; it is up to us to have good, truth-laden, practical, prudent, and virtuous ways with which we understand ourselves and our world and our life and ways with which we walk forth in experience and bring in how we present ourselves and act according to, in our life that we navigate and create the path that brings us to our ultimate fates, the fates of our own creation (Matthew 7:3-5; Matthew 6:22,23).

In our life, we engage in our actions with certain intentions and ways with which we have it we would like our endeavors and plans bring about good results.  In this light, it is good to employ good ideas to how we approach these ventures and a thought-out schemata for where our actions will lead us.  This way, we have a good understanding and clarity in the how and the why.  This way, we create positive virtue and positive futures and positive constructs and positive ways of being.

Take the artist’s craft, for example.  When employing the pen, her instrument, the artist has different mentalities and possibilities to contemplate.  The artwork she seeks to put into beauty of form and beauty of content, she regards through thoughtful understanding and contemplation.  She sees her poems that she puts into the world, for one, the reader, to come across and spend some time face-to-face with, as having the potentiality to entreat and engender, 1) one to act with greater empathy, 2) to have better ethical standpoints, and 3) to see nature with a higher lens of beauty.  To me, these are the three most important, cardinal virtues of that which all great art is able to convey and accomplish and bring into fruition.

Therefore, the artist knows these three cardinal virtues she is aiming to bring about in the reader, and pens the poem in the hopes that good enaction in this molding and fold will come about.  We see here, the artist has an approach and understanding which guides and insightfully informs her experience, her experience of creating.

We come to have our own beliefs, our own philosophy and worldview, with which we live by, with which we come to all the unwinding seats of experience.  By taking ownership in what we are intending to accomplish, why we hope to garner these certain means to these certain ends, and the overall and microcosmic meanings we hope to attain, we are able to come to ideas and systems of ideas that help us navigate the world and bring our best selves to all the earth upon which we trod with kindness and virtue, mastery and love.

The Beautiful People

“The Beautiful People”

 

by Ben Bussewitz

to download a .pdf of this essay, click here

 

When one applies a true vision of what is entailed in the beauty of one’s selfhood, that image is not sequestered or apart from the mode in which the individual strives to obtain and carries forth in ethical action.  Though, many might associate the beauty of an individual with a primary aesthetical way of constructing as such, without good and moral actions equipping one’s way of life down life’s paths, roads, rivers, and seas, there is not the affinity or draw to designate that person’s life as beautiful, and so on, what have you— enchanting, wonderfully great, outstanding in caliber and excellence…; to be a beautiful person, one must, in the way she lives life, act as a brilliantly good person in terms of moral consideration.

When we take into thought who we find to be beautiful, we do not look at a still-life portrait or photograph or statuette.  Otherwise, we associate all people with the lives they live and the lives we know them as.  In our hearts and minds, then, when we see an aesthetically-pleasing good looking person live a meaningfully and brilliantly good walk in life, with moral virtue, kindness, and overflowing love, then we see this person is somewhat with the ethical caliber to apply the label, “beautiful person.”  One is a beautiful person when one looks great and lives her life carrying forth good and beautiful actions.

Therefore, we see that people are not just still-life frames, but they are equipped with and associated besides the actions with which they carry their way through life.  When we see a person be kind, loving, and inviting in one’s speech or tone, then we see, this is a kind and good person, who is doing a beautiful action.  Additionally, we see one commit a good part of her life to serving the community, through community service or other lines of community helping responsibilities and roles, and we see this is the person’s beautiful action.

We see all people in the ways of their action (as, it is a truth, in all of life, one is always walking according to the actions in which she is embedded throughout), in the ways of action people do good and beautiful things or, on the contrary side, malicious and unbecoming things.  When one is living a good life and is pretty to the eyesight, then, her beautiful actions bespeak her beauty.  The more beautiful the life she leads, the more beautiful the person is, in truth, and verily.

the philosophical aesthete (the ethical aesthete)

 “the philosophical aesthete”

 

by ben bussewitz

for a .pdf of this essay, click here

 

The way in which one is able to call into the situation of his or her surroundings true light of which is the good sight of truth, beauty, and life: the omnipresent monad is the vivaciousness of endless love, in every direction.  One finds her love in the world when one looks into the eyes of the soulmate, or in the flock of geese fluttering and flying highly in the wind, the dripping of icicles as the snow passes into Spring day, the sunrise and shine when the light fills up the atmosphere of this beautiful planet.  Where one looks, where one shines her eyes, there is beauty (if only it is in the view of her eyes).  There is endless beauty, infinitely understood, there is infinite beauty, endless streams of music, novels, poetry, and good people.  In our song of life, with the happy days in our fate, we share the goodness of each other, the human family.

 

Therefore: what is our ethical authority of the philosophical aesthete?  The way in which one has good happiness in the noble vision is to see the beauty in one’s eyes.  The way in which to frame any situation, we are in the goodness of God’s prize for us, Mother Earth, with her perfect weather, with her endless praises, with her happy days, and sometimes the days may be trying or difficult to maintain, but, as we can all relate to— there is always happiness on the way.

The way of ethical action shows the best way to treat another person.  We shall show good morals, kind responsibility, good manners, good actions.  Share good speech, share good ideas, oblige by one another’s well-timed and responsible plans, and do that with the vision of good life.

 

We have good happiness in all of our days.  Even those of us who are often in sadness find moments of catharsis, peace, deep meaning, tranquility.  We look hard to find our ways, and it is good to search deeper, find more meaning, find deeper peace, find more answers, dig deeper into life’s most meaningful questions.  Will we walk our path beside God?  Will we walk our path in striving for the best for our friends, neighbors, family?  Will we offer more than mere personal responsibilities, and truly reach out, be a good community member who strives for the best for all people?  This is within our capabilities.  This allows us to see our own beauty.  This allows us to see our own beauty in our own ethical strivings and good lives.

 

The way in which we see this good blossoming and goodness in who we are enables us to be happy for others, for the people we are blessed to live beside, for loving, perfect, and beautiful Mother Earth.

Ideas as Tools

(Athens, June 28, 2011: 48 hour strike)

Ideas as Tools

 

essay written by ben bussewitz

 

Philosophy is a great tool in which we systematize structures of understandings and beliefs to provide a basis for our overall ways of looking at the world, particularly the window with which we see fundamental and central aspects of life.

In this regard, could we not say that our philosophies are edifices of ideas, or thought, by which we sift through our perception, conceptualization, and interconnection with people, places, and things?

Why, alas, I think it could be done.

Therefore, we see, our vantage point of all our reality is processed through our ideas about philosophy.  Philosophy, in its ancient roots unto our present times is used to give us a basis for looking at and understanding the central, most important questions we have about life: What is life's meaning?  Where do we come from?  Is there an afterlife?  Does God exist?  What defines our actions or thoughts good ones?  For that matter, what is the basis of ethical decision-making?  What does it mean to achieve happiness?  What is the meaning of love?  What is the meaning of our transactions with various individuals besides ourselves, alternative earthlings?  What does it mean to merit a successful life?  What are the qualities and aspects of life that retain importance despite our aging and into elderly adulthood, like an old wine that is crisp and vintage?

I see I have all these answers in a way that makes sense inside my head and fits comfortably and stylishly for myself, and I hope you do too.  Either way, though, I entreat you to read on, as I discuss the meaning of ideas as tools.

To set aside philosophy for a minute, we see that architecture is considered one of the fine arts.  When someone consults books and professors studying to construct beautiful and durable buildings, the person familiarizes himself with the ideas of architecture that provide a basis for her or him to build.  The basic and complex ideas consisting the discipline of architecture allow the person to be knowledgeable and learned in the process of making buildings, bridges, dams, houses, tree-houses, dog-houses, government compounds, what have you, in the architects kit.  These canonical ideas are utilized, then, as the tools, that enable the architect to be a good creator of structures that withstand wear and tear.  And once they learn these studied ideas, the person who creates structures can use his own wit and creative functions to bring about creations that are classically hers or his.

Indeed, God created man in his image; this is a central piece of Christian wisdom.  There are different ways to interpret this idea that is based on Scripture, and one of those ways of understanding, is that God, who is the Creator, made man and woman to be able to create.  As God creates everything from the universe to the beautiful sunrise, so does man create a poem to interpretations of Socrates the Gadfly to windows from where to wait for the day to take off and take shape to houses to his personality to his meaning to his fate.  Humankind creates shoes and horseshoes and leather boots and goloshes.  Humankind creates music and painting and sculpture and novellas;

It is the kind wisdom bequeathed to the aspirers of the skill of painting artwork from the masters that it is important to study the technique involved and the history of artwork prior to aiming to achieve a good or great artwork oneself.  Indeed, without this basic knowledge of the ways the professional and master painters utilize their brushes, good artwork is verily not possible.  The techniques of painting and the history of artwork are both matters that are composed of: ideas.  And then with virtue, attentiveness, practice, and hard-work, one is able to be herself a painter of a good artwork.  Thus, the individual will have the ideas that enable to bring about into the creation a great painting herself.  Therefore, the ideas paramount to painting (along with the practice and all the good work the artist does) are the available means to put to work the creative gene, i.e. provide the tools that make the painting come alive with vivaciousness, beauty, aura, and life;

With these two examples that are a couple of the classical examples of the fine arts, we see that ideas can be understood as central to the tools toward accomplishing an endeavor, even great feats.  It applies to poetry, sculpture, and plays as well.  We study the ideas (the rudiments, the history, the craft, the application— the art and the technique) and with our toolkit we bring our good and great works to life.

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Doesn't the idea of "ideas" seem especially important and paramount to philosophy?

Well, why not?

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The way in which ideas are thought about and brought forth is in the mind and also in the mind’s central apparatus within the person and within the person’s place in the world.  The person sees something that is engaged upon, important to his thought apparatus, and adjust accordingly in his mental faculties.  He sees the way it is going, he sees the way it is, he says the way he understands we are.  He is presented with circumstance, in a window of his understanding of his scenario and scenarios, and he is facing, either presently or vaguely, his ultimate fates.  These are important.  And they are thought in a way that is unique and essential to the person, in the lens of his philosophies.

This is then, important to study philosophy, for all people.  Although it is not essentially necessary to find a meaning in that which is meant, it is better to do it in a way, usually, that is derivative of the best philosophers ways of looking, ways at constructing, ways of conceptualizing, ways of  compartmentalizing, and ways of understanding meaning.

The noble and beautiful channel of the river of faith, that by which we have streamed upon our justification, the compartment of being that makes us centrally happy and peaceful and useful and paramountly understood is in our beautiful happiness that is that we have come upon the joy that Jesus lives in us, with us, and has taken our sin away through his beautiful feat of our understanding in the eyes of his fate, and then upon which he resurrects from the grave, lives again, and he has ascended into heaven.  We rest in peace that on the Last Day, we will be entered, embarked upon a blissful time in an endless place, in the perfect unity of God, we are justified.  We have the peace of grace.  This happiness, this joy, this undying and eternal window of gratitude for that we shall live eternally, in peace and grace and beautiful happy, is that what we are most founded upon, our home-abode edifice that is built on the solid ground of the blood of Jesus.  He has suffered greatly, that we shall live, and for him, for his love of us, we are eternally and gratefully thankful in halleluiahs of endless praise.  ..  Upon this understanding, this window by which we see our time on earth and the thereafter, this way of happiness in our being, as we enjoy the streets, the fountains of glory, the happy river, the fragrant pasture, the joy of earth, this is the foundation of our worldview, which is the outgrowth of our philosophies, the mode in of which we find grace in ourselves and happiness and our world.

The key zealous life of joy, the unfelt inside of a empty stocking on Christmas Eve,  the tidings of preening the farm, that which we upkeep: this is the time that we have.  This is the time that we are thankful.  This is the time that we sing.

And we are happy endlessly.

Ideas, these show us the way.  We never walk the way we intend without one.  We never walk a way we intend without one.  The way we walk is decided by our fate and our connection to it.  And our mind helps us navigate and direct.

We see, then, tools, help us understand.

We see, then, tools, the tools of philosophy, help us make sense.

And we clearly ascertain in our perception that philosophy is a vehicle to make sense of the best parts of life, the parts and the whole.

- B.J.B.

Rationalism and Empiricism: Two Main Schools of Epistemology

"Experience and Reason: Epistemological Vantage Points"

written by ben bussewitz

The earth contains the means to come to have knowledge of beautiful ideas.  Everything is an idea.  For instance, the word "cat" is a concept that conjures up an idea, namely a pussy cat who licks your hand and wants you to pet her, some of the time, anyway.  Cats also enjoy time spent alone, in their peaceful home.  Well, how did we domesticate them so well?

The earth contains lots of ideas.  Here is an experiment for you to try out in thought.  Think of lots of words and the concepts they conjure up, each word.  Check a dictionary, in case you need a reference.

The earth has lots of ideas and in any good idea there is "knowledge."  Hence, epistemology is the field of philosophy which is rightly understood as "the study of knowledge."

If you do not know how to apply epistemology to ascertain and store true knowledge, good knowledge in your mind, have no fear, alas, epistemology is here, one of the services provided in epistemology, "the theory of knowledge," is by looking into this philosophical school, one is able to find more ways to obtain truths, or "true knowledge." Knowledge, according to the predominate understanding of epistemology in the cannon, is able to be equated to "true, justified beliefs."  In this sense, we can see that we have a true idea that is justified, a true justified belief of what one of these are, when we conjure up the word, that is a concept and an idea, "car."  We picture them.  We do not have true justified belief that cars are like tanks that miniature army men use while kids play with them, well employed.  But we can recall, rather, in the earth we have been astounded by, and remember the way in which cars presented to our person, the way we saw them or understood the way in which they drove the street in nonchalance and peace to bring the driver and the passengers to the place those persons wish to be!  So now, thinking of the concept "car" shows us that we know what cars are, what that word means, what that idea means, and as such, "we have the knowledge of what cars are," or, in other words, "we have true justified belief of the meaning of cars."

Where does rationalism and empiricism fall into all this.  The truest way to understand these two competing schools of epistemology, "epistemology" being a branch of "philosophy," "the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge," is to see the way in which within this school of philosophy, epistemology, these are historically important two beautiful ways to look at epistemology, and that we can utilize in "the system we construct to understand and ascertain knowledge," our epistemologies, one could add.  Empiricism states, on the one hand, "all knowledge is derivative of experience."  Rationalism, on the other, argues that "all knowledge comes from reason."

We see here, to extend our understanding of these two schools of "the study of knowledge," we can see by formulating the understanding differently, in a way that is more elucidating: empiricism relies on the senses as the basis of knowledge claims (ears, eyes, nose, mouth, feeling) and rationalism depends on thought based in rationality, or good reason.

So, which do you choose: rationalism, or empiricism?

This was a hotly debated topic during the Enlightenment, which of these epistemologies people ought to choose, with debates from left and right field.

Why not be both a rationalist and an empiricist?

I say, we shall come to knowledge from reason and our senses, both, rather than saying one is not a worthwhile means by which to attain "truths" or pieces of knowledge, or knowledge claims, or propositional truths, or knowledge propositions (these are five synonymous modes by which to refer to "a truth that one knows.")

Alas, I am an empiricist and a rationalist.  I see that knowledge comes from the fountain of experience and the fountain of reason, both.

John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rosseau, David Hume, and Aristotle were each empiricists, in that they looked at experience as the fountain of all knowledge.

Rene Descartes and Plato were rationalists, in that they looked at the fountain of all knowledge to be reason.

Why ponder the either or about where we place the derivative fountain of our truths, our knowledge propositions.  We can say all is game, empiricism, rationalism, or whatever else helps us come to "knowledge claims," or truths.  Both empirical means of finding knowledge and rationalisms means of finding knowledge are beyond merit.

The way in which it is understood all well, the ways of the philosophical schools of the Enlightenment Period, is, primarily, there were two competing schools: the epistemic school of rationalism and the epistemic school of empiricism.  These were, as the idea suggests, divided by those who determined that as people they were able to obtain knowledge by means of experience, and those who determined that as people they were able to obtain knowledge by means of the faculty of reason.

I have shown a more advanced picture.  (I have shown that both of these fields is accessible, one may obtain knowledge by means of his faculty of reason and also one may obtain knowledge by means of his experiences.)