September 26, 2001

Okay Aaron after reading your post once more I think that I ought to say something about truth... How I came to know it, what I know of it, and why you should drill that truth seeking part out of your head............... I started to become interested in truth after my first year of solid pure mathematics when I encountered something called
Symbolic logic, which I thought to be a codification of pure reasoning. You see, underneath pure mathematics is a language called set theory, which, is a combinatorial language used to build what is called the cumulative zermelo heirarchy, the universe of mathematics, the CZH. Mathematical truth may be defined as statements about the CZH, which can be proved by logical sequences of deductive reasoning, that is, truths about this universe which we have created. It was astounding to me that Symbolic logic and Set Theory are so intensly similar in nature, I.E. I saw a strict connection between the archaic art of logic "Aristotle" and the modern art of pure mathematics. This lead me to Frege,Russel, Godel, ... etc ...Symbolic logic is founded in the premise of real thruth, truth about the universe as such, about this reality. Frege,Russel,Godel investigated this apparent connection between mathematics and logic inorder to show, as we have believed for many years now, that mathematics is in fact composed of real truths, truths about this universe, not just about CZH.. I.E. they searched for truth in mathematics... This was at the beginning of a varitable renaissance in mathematics during the 1800's {for Russel/Godel any way...}... what was found, and what I learned/discovered, is that mathematical truths are truths as such, but vacuouse truths, that is... Mathematical truths are always of the form "either P or not P" tautology... This truth is vacuouse because it is nothing more than a word game in a highly sophisticated language, mathematics... Mathematics is the most complex and sophisticated language known to exist, and is used well in phyisics, even if the only valid statements are in the sense of english, quite emptied of meaning...
So that is mathematical truth, vacuouse truths about could-be universes... These are strikingly different in nature from the most profound yet simple truths known to me, such as, My own being existent... Which is not deduced or derived from any chain of reasoning.. It simply is without base or reason known to me and apparent.. and this I could call beliefe or faith, real truth is on par or equivalent to faith..Studying such thinkers led me inevitably to look into Aristotle and finally to fall into the worthless search for truth called philosophy. I realised after reading Descartes Meditations on first philosophy that real and profound truth is inexplicable, that I must search for truth in existence, that mathematics is an empty word game in a language which has more complex word structure than has ever been concieved before...And so I resigned myself to search for truth in this life, but just what is truth really ..?.. Truth is all that is real in as much as you can without doubt or question believe in it... Truth is that which is believed, what you have faith in, or what you do not have faith in...But it is there apparent in the nature of truth that my beliefes and convictions are not somehow bound by truth.. I can be wrong, can choose to be wrong, can faulter and act in a state of illusory understanding... and this is the problem with truth, for in the nature of truth I must realise that unlike a plant or stone or cloud... I am a being with free will.. my convictions are free to be what they may.. I am free to choose.. and I can be wrong in my beliefe. I am not bound to believe things... and that is truth
.. so I exist and have a free will ...{By the way, this is the meaning of a free will as given by Heidegger..}...
I know these things.........(1) I am .......(2) I am free ....... (3) I can feel emotion
But what of emotion... I feel and my feelings change.. but they change without my rationalizing them, without my thinking "this is a circumstance to feel exactly thus.."
My emotions are independent, changing, I think they must be some sensation... but sensing what ?... and thus I believe in something apart from me, different from me... I believe in an external objective reality which exists independantly of myself... because I can feel it and I do not control what I feel......
(4) there exists something other than myself ..
But then I must wonder... is all of this around me truth ?.. is this really real ?.. Is this, like a dream, some foggy dilusion
from which I may, at any moment, wake ?.. As I said, I do believe in an external objective reality, however, I am not certain that this is in fact that reality...... but, how can we save face and keep searching for truth.. can we live without knowning where tomorrow takes place ?... I have to ......
How can we doubt the truth of this reality ?.. I suppose this is because we can "daydream" different realities.. and hence can see they differ from our own... And this is me existing in a state of uncertainty about a world in which I must, as a free being, make choices .. then I am forced to realise, limiting the word reality to "this apparent reality"....(5) The world is not Ideal ! ... .. ehhh... this is getting long winded... There is pages and pages and pages to be written to fully enunciate my philosophical perspective, but any way........ Are you really ready to search for truth ?... To believe in something and let that guide you instead of what you have been told ?... are you ready for freedome of choice ?.. and to ask questions !!! and doubt .. and decide for yourself ?...

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