With renewed verve, I strike out on the path...

In the last few posts, and in the last few weeks, the need for making things explicit has taken over my world. Not in the creepy way that most people allow things to take over their lives, but I have realized a growing need in this era of spin and ambiguity. That need, my friends is the system of philosophy.

The field of philosophy, although laying claim to being the alpha of rational thought, is still one of the most poorly understood disclipines in academia. Even philosophers suffer from the problem of definition, as one man's philosophy is another man's opinion. One thing remains certain as we take a philosophical eye towards the world, and that is that there are in fact ways of reasoning and argument which are superior to others. Whether from Mars or Venus, there is a way in which we might all agree on what a valid option is and one that is not; a difference between conjecture and idea, in the sense that I really hope to be able to use it.

The fact is, the philosophical method is one that when done right, seems to come to an end of indubitability. It is through this method that the modern sciences arose, as well as the social sciences: even today, such fields as cognitive psychology rely heavily on philosophy, if for no other reason than the lack of empirical science to explain the problems being raised.This mehod seems to be in in decline, if the opinions and ideas that I see on the news, read in my favorite magazines are taken to be some sort of truth telling mechanism.

For in no small way it is the business of philosophy to make progress towards truth, towards clearing up false or unsound ideas and turning them into the fodder for intelectuals and reasonable layfolk alike. While philosophy is a difficult discipline, it is not impossible, especially when one pauses to consider the rewards to be found from the study of argument and clarification. Think for a second of a conversation in which double entendres are kept to minimum, when the words "and thus..." are backed not by opinion but by the finest tools that the human mind has to offer. To be honest we may never find perfect reason (a claim that holds more and more weight by the day) and thus we will never be able to address 'truth' in the way that most sentients wish too (we aren't computers, what is right and wrong is not intrinsically programmed into us and thus we are left with "true for now" and "as close as we can get to...", contestable I know, but we will fight about this sometime in December) but what is possible is the addition of complete thought to conversation. Think of how brilliant it would be to be able to say what you mean, rather than what you hope comes across.

So as a goal to refocus my mental efforts, in the coming weeks and months I hope and intend to spread the glory of philosophy and the philosophical method and turn it into a way of thought that all people can embrace. For philosophy is ideally not suited merely for old white men sitting their ivory tower, or abstractly minded intelligent people who can't put down the pipe: it is a way of thought that operates with cold-blooded efficiency. With philosophical tools we can cut larger swaths from troubling hidden implications to fallacies of reason that are engrained in us from a young age in almost all of our verbal interactions in an attempt to see that truth often cannot take a purely black and white form; for even the strongest of theories will have to defend against reasonable obections.

So look forward to no small change in format. Although these musings will be the same stream of conciousness postings as always, their focus will shift to the study of thought, and the ways that we might improve it - to take one of our most unconcious social activites and turn it into something that we might all be proud to participate in. There will of course be contradictions and grammatical mistakes and misinterpretations: in these cases I truly wish for comment and input: one mind isn't bad, but there could be no heartfelt acknowledgements if there weren't other brilliant minds to keep one slightly clever one from overstepping his (or her) bounds. If these little musings turn out to be fruitful, they might one day (sonner rather than later) be refined into something that will find binding and the printed page, so I must call intellectual property on these new ideas, if there are any, and note that ideas that are not mine will be properly accredited to the person or persons whose property they are. For one of the worst crimes one can intellectually commit is the sin of plagerism. While this seems like a mountain out of molehill, I must say that in the vein of responsibility, take credit for what you think and nothing more: we have enough to worry about people stealing that we should be able to at least keep our brain droppings in our own yard. This is in no way to say that these ideas should not be bandied about in conversation, in fact please do: let's raise the discussion level to collegate. If you see somone who you wish to impress at some drinking establishment or another, please do: if I can play wingman from a distance, you have my full support. But there is an arrogance that comes with the American life, and we all suffer from it to varying degrees, so let your plumage ruffling moments be yours and yours alone, through both glory and the gauntlet.

So here we go. While there will still be interjections which will remove us from this purpose, we will always return. Think of these digressions du jour as an opportunity to take a break from the world of the abstract and theoretical and take a moment or two in a similar yet slightly different genere: hey, cross training isn't just for the body. To all you philosophobes, I hope to be of some therapy. To the curious of mind: I hope I can give new fodder to you thought, and to all those who have no clue; it was Mustard in the Study with the Lead Pipe. I would like to thank in advance all those people who have inspired me in their own way just to sit down and waste a my life at a keyboard hoping to help someone else, at least one, yea? If there is one word of advice that I could give the world (hey I could hit by a bus tomorrow) it would be this: Life is like a horizontal escalator, if you stop moving you will start moving backwards, so do something that is challenging everyday; keep making some steps along the journey. I think that you will find that even when you could not see the progress, you will get the point in the long run. No thing is profoundly important in itself, yet any thing is potentailly crucially significant, so keep the gears turning. Hurrah!