I have reached the part of my research where I must
begin my scientific aspect of my research into philosophy
because from the Renaissance to now, science drives
philosophy… scientific knowledge drives the philosophical
search… what is the meaning of reality in philosophy is driven
by what science tells us is reality…
let us look at science… I pick up a rock and wonder, what kind of rock
is this? I can examine the rock, weigh the rock, measure the rock in all kinds
of different ways… by research, I might even be able to find out where the rock came
from and what type of rock it is… but by myself without any resources, how do I
discover the “'facts” about this rock, how do I discover the “truth” about this rock…
as I said, I have done all the measuring I can with this rock… but unless I get some
outside information, I cannot discover the “facts” about this rock…
now let us say, I go to place that has rocks and in looking at the rock in this,
call it a rock show for identification purposes… I go to this show and find another
rock similar to my rock… I then find out the rock in question is a certain type of
rock from Italy… I can now compare my rock with the rock from Italy and see
what I can learn from it…I can compare and contrast my rock with the rock from
Italy and see what is the same and what is different…it is this comparing and
contrasting that allows me to better understand this rock and know the difference
between this rock and other rocks…as I couldn’t compare the rock to anything the
first time, because I had nothing to compare it to, I can now begin to compare my rock
with all kinds of rocks…especially with rocks from Italy…I find a different
rock from Italy and compare it to my rock and I discover that this second rock is
a different type of rock from my first Italian rock…and I can measure this rock in
all the possible ways and because I have knowledge gained from my first rock,
I can make some guesses about the second rock…the more rocks I can compare
and contrast, the more understanding about rocks I gain…the knowledge
I gain from these rocks come from comparing and contrasting them…after a while,
I can see a rock on the ground and know how that it is the same or different from the rocks
from Italy and how it is different…science to a great extent, is simply
comparing and contrasting things… you don’t know what an item is
in science until you can compare or contrast it to something, something similar
or something different…can you do a similar thing with philosophy?
I don’t know, let us compare and contrast and find out…
I declare that the purpose of human existence is happiness…
this is just like my first rock… I don’t have anything to compare or contrast with
it… I am not even sure I can measure it… how does one measure happiness?
so I find a second rock, a second idea… the declaration of independence in
which it is declared that the point is “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”…
well that second opinion is certainly certain… but as I compare and contrast,
I discover that some disagree with the notion that the “purpose of human existence
is happiness”… religious types for example, believe that the purpose of life is
finding salvation and redemption and then going to heaven…ummmmmmmmm…
I am now lead into another path as to the “purpose of human existence” so I
compare and contrast the two opposing opinions, is life about happiness or is
life about finding salvation…the religious types might argue that the two idea’s,
happiness and finding salvation are the exact same thing… another brick in the wall…
I compare and contrast the many different ways people find happiness and I compare
and contrast the many different ways people find salvation and redemption…
after much research and thinking, I reject both arguments… but I must now
present my alternative theory which means I must compare and contrast
other theories about the “purpose of human existence”… perhaps the purpose
of human existence is to eat cake and watch TV all day… after researching
that possibility, I see the flaws in just eating cake and watching TV all day…
I see I will grow obese and become sick, so I cannot honestly make that choice.
but it is only in comparing and contrasting these idea’s that I can make a
honest appraisal of my choices… so for philosophy to work, it must on
some level, engage in comparison and contrasting… you have the
prior work of philosophers and current works of philosophy and so you begin
to compare what philosophy you have with what has already been written
and by comparing and contrasting the two, you can better understand
philosophy and as with science, the more comparison and the more contrasting
with more philosophies and philosophers you have, the better understanding
you have of philosophy…so we have step one and what is step two?
Kropotkin