a new understanding of today, time and space.

philosophy is the search for knowledge…
this is called epistemology: the theory of knowledge,
especially with regards to its methods, validity, and scope.

From Descartes to Kant, the major problem in philosophy was
questions of knowledge… how do we know what we know?

the famous Descartes body/mind problem is a result of
Descartes trying to find certainty in our knowledge…

However, David Hume once said: Reason is and ought to be
the slave of the passions" meaning reason is below the passions…

Philosophers work to understand the world rationally… through
rational methods and techniques…

the methods are rational, the questions are rational, the answers are rational…

but what about the most famous dichotomy in life,
not the body/mind problem of Descartes…
but the dichotomy between emotions/feelings
and rational/logical thought………

we men, we leave to women the question of emotions and feelings…
I know I do…we have philosophy which focuses on the rational thought…
but what discipline focuses on emotions and feelings? why, Psychology…

Psychology as a scientific study of the human mind has only existed for
less then 200 years…and a great deal of psychology deals with
the how does one handle and deal with emotions and feelings and behavior…
given what we know so far, psychology has not done a great job so far…

what we need is a topology of human emotions/feelings/behavior…
in other words, just as we have done for knowledge, we need to do
for emotions/feelings/behavior……… we have epistemology:
the theory of knowledge, especially with regards to its methods, validity,
and scope……

we need to study, perhaps using this word, Pathosology: the theory of emotions
especially with regards to its methods, validity, and scope……

we need to turn a study of emotions into a science………
not in regard to the study of the mind, but in regards to emotions itself…

now why this emphasis on emotions/feelings? because if we only study
reason/rationality, we are only studying half the human equation……
we are much more creatures of emotions and feelings then we are
creatures of reason and rationality………

if we are to understand, truly understand the human being, we must
begin to study and understand emotions and feelings……

we have seen, I have seen anger take over my entire being…
I have been so angry that that there was nothing outside of my anger…
it was the only thing I was……. and I was out of control with anger……

I have seen and I have been, so in love, I lost myself entirely to that emotion
of love… there was nothing outside of my being in love……

we must begin by placing emotions and feelings in context, which is a word
for experience, we must put emotions into context and that means
historical context which is evolutionary pathosology… the evolutionary study
of emotions and feelings……why did we keep emotions and feelings
in a evolutionary context? what does emotions and feelings bring to us
in an evolutionary context that allows us to survive? how does being angry
allow us to survive evolutionary? or hate or love or pity?

we have a second field of study which is behavior… how do the emotions and
feelings impact our behavior? now we know that love is an value and values
give our lives meaning…… but so what is the connection between values and
emotions/feelings? what about justice? is that an emotion?
do the virtues we take as values really exists as emotions/feelings?

I have on occasion listed values… are those really a listing of emotions?
and behavior created by those values/emotions?

we can never be successful as human beings until we come to terms with,
not only our reason and rationality but with our emotions and feelings……

and this is another problem of existence… our emotions and feelings…

Kropotkin

another problem of existence……

I exist and you exist and anyone who reads this, exist…

now what?

why do we exist? what is the point of existence?

what are we to do in this existence? is this existence without meaning?

or can we find the meaning of existence in our values or in our emotions
or in our reason?

reason is just a tool… it seems to me, that emotions are nothing
more then a tool……… a way to help human beings to connect with
each other… for we do connect by emotions/feelings……

for emotions/feelings are just another means of communication between
people…think of emotions/feelings as another communication means…

and oftentimes the communication is between a human being and themselves…

we communicate with ourselves by emotions and feelings…

and emotions/feelings drive our actions and behavior…
in fact, emotions drive actions and behavior far too much…

but we cannot ignore or pretend the emotions aren’t there…
the inability to understand or enact emotions are considered
a illness of sorts… Autism is one such inability…
if we don’t have emotions, we are quite often unable
to adjust or be able to handle/cope with society………

so much of what we communicate is through emotions and
if you unable to process or deal with emotions, you are unable
to communicate with others…

so what came first? this communication tool or did we develop
this tool, emotions/feelings in response to living in society?

we are clearly born with feelings, as we see animals with feelings…

but what came first, emotions or our social setting…
and were emotions a response to our social settings?

Kropotkin

I think emotions are originally instinctual
The very basic emotion is based on the existential fear of other animals.

To learn which animal is the more threatening , the basis of fight or flight. So fear is the basic emotion

However that goes along with the earliest appearance of social settings , so it’s hard to say which came before which

Meno: I think emotions are originally instinctual
The very basic emotion is based on the existential fear of other animals.

To learn which animal is the more threatening , the basis of fight or flight. So fear is the basic emotion

However that goes along with the earliest appearance of social settings , so it’s hard to say which came before which"

K: I agree with you… that emotions are originally instinctual…and with
the basic emotion being fear… Hobbes called himself a “fearful philosopher”
meaning for him, fear was a driving factor in his philosophy…and if you look
at his philosophy, security was the driving goal of his philosophy… not freedom or
justice but security… and those driven to security as the goal of life, are driven
by fear…look around you… read the news… it is quite clear that American’s
are being driven by fear and that fear is being stoked by the GOP…for
political purposes…

the problem with being fear driven is that once it takes hold, that fear
drives absolutly everything…

all thought, all goals, all purposes… become fear driven…and from
fear, a man will kill his family and destroy everything in some vain attempt
to be safe…fear is easily the most destructive emotion we have…
so then the question becomes, how do we overcome fear?
how do we rise above this base and dangerous emotion?

fear is a limitation that must be overcome…
so how do we overcome?

Kropotkin

with the idea that emotions are, in one sense, a means
of communications… we look for examples of someone
with a lack of emotions and the difficulty of communication…

the best example I could find was actually a fictional one…
Data, on Star Trek, The next Generation…

if you recall, Data had a problem with communications if
it was emotional in nature… logical or command types
of communication, he had no problem with… but understanding
the often subtle aspect of emotions, required much work…
things a human being will often “get” without much effort…

the emotion of love is not a logical, rational communication…
words often play a small role in the communication of love…
actions play a much larger role in the emotion of love……

this communication of emotions allows us to communicate
in ways that mere words would not allow us to communicate…

a simple touch of a man to a women or a women for a man, can
communicate far more then just using words…….

we can lie with words… that is true of any words… the words, “I love you”
can be a lie… but actions are much harder to fake…………
it can be done… but we can often tell the sincerity of words as
well as actions with great deal of accuracy… this is done with
our emotions/feelings rather then our rational/logical side of our
human nature…

we can interpret others actions and words via our own emotions…
something that Autistic people have a hard time doing because
of their failure to properly comprehend emotions…

Autistic people will miss the clues that we can see because
we are “in touch” with our emotions/feelings…

now because I am hearing impaired, I often miss vocal clues
offered by speech, clues that hearing people will catch…

but I often catch physical actions that hearing people miss because
I must “read” people without the benefit of hearing them…….

but that is done on an emotional level, not on a rational, logical level……

quite often, I have to fill in the blanks in conversations because I miss
something someone said…… so I will fill in words or concepts without
really knowing what someone said… and I miss as often as I connect…
but in either case, it is done from a emotional/feeling standpoint…

after reading some material about philosophy and emotions…
I suspect that philosophers tend to overthink the entire aspect of
philosophy and emotions/feelings…

but overthinking is something we philosophers do as matter of course…

I think it is far more straightforward then people want to
make it…………

Kropotkin

we often make decisions based on emotions/feelings…
not on logic or rational thinking…
personally, I have more then once made a decision with
the words, fuck it…now if you are saying fuck it, in regards to a
decision, you aren’t being logical or rational…

the problem becomes, we cannot tell the difference between
our rational/logical decisions from our “fuck it” decisions…

we make so many of our choices and decisions based on emotions/feelings…
because it is so ingrained within us to make our decisions, based on emotions or based
on feelings……

now in regards to decisions, should we make our decisions based on
such emotionalism or on rational/logical thought?

as usual, it depends on the situation… love is not a rational/logical
choice… love is an entirely emotional, irrational decision…

now one of the problems with, or issues with emotional/irrational decisions is
the fact that emotions are often dictated by the initial teaching or training
done in childhood where we are indoctrinated with the myths and habits
and prejudices and superstitions of the society or culture……

these indoctrination’s of childhood are not rational/logical affairs,
no, we are indoctrinated with the emotionalism of the society/culture…
to be indoctrinated against blacks, to become prejudice… is not an rational/logical matter…
it is emotionalism carried into our lives…to be prejudice is to be limited…
limitations are to be overcome… if we want to become human, fully human…

we can depend on emotions…for they are the means of communication
between people and they are the way we understand ourselves…

but rationally/logical thinking has its place too……

we must come to some understanding of when it is time to
engage in rational thinking and thinking or saying, fuck it…

Kropotkin

if there is one thing driving America today, it is fear…

White people are calling 911 on black people who are just
doing things like a BBQ or sitting in Starbucks…

this fear is being driven by the media arm of the GOP, Fox news…

IQ45 acceptance speech at the GOP convention was a fear driven
speech… meant to frighten people into voting for IQ45…
and it worked… people were/are frighten enough to vote for that
pinhead……….

this is one example of where emotions are overwhelming
any rationality of thought process………

ask yourself, what emotion drives me?

for most people, it is the negative, lower emotions of
fear, hate, anger, greed, lust, violence………

blessed be the peacemakers… and who are the peacemakers of today?

blessed be the man who turns his cheek… and who does that today?

blessed be the man who loves his neighbors… and who does that today?

Kropotkin

and what other myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions,
do we follow till the bitter end?

the religious feeling… the one that promises ever eternal life…
allowing us to forsake this life…this time and this place…

it is easy to negate other humans and their values if we think
that there is some eternal life awaiting them and us……

to kill… to punish one for believing in a different heaven or
a different hell is a negation of life and human values……

and what feelings allow us this type of negation?

the need to be “saved”………

the need to be “saved” is a myth, habit, prejudice and superstition
that we carry from our childhood, from the myths we are taught when young…

to negate this world in favor of the next is nihilism…
and any church or religion that favors the next world over this world
practices nihilism…………

to escape into being “saved” or in negation of today has damaged
the world in untold ways……. it has made life less worth living and less
worth saving………

to focus on the here and now… creates value in our lives…
if all you have is the here and now… nothing more…
would you waste your days?

it doesn’t matter if another worships a different god or
praises allah because all we have is today, the here and now…

and the here and now doesn’t care about metaphysical matters…
it is enough to enjoy the warmth of the sun…
for that is what happens when all you have is the here and now…
the immediate moment is the most important moment…
and worthy of worship…….

another reevaluation of values… when the eternal life doesn’t matter
and the immediate moment becomes the most important moment…

Kropotkin

a problem of existence

we have ism’s and ideologies and myths and prejudices…
that take the place of experience……

in other words, we don’t experience life… as we should…
we take our interpretations as experience…instead of
being interpretations…….

we say, life is thus… this is an interpretation…

instead we should just experience life and leave the
interpretations to later

we see a play and we ask ourselves, what does the play mean?

and all the while we miss the artistry of the play and the acting
and the writing because we are so busy looking for meaning, interpretations
of the play…………

this is the beauty of comedy… it doesn’t require interpretations…
it just is………

and the very power of comedy leads us to a better understanding of the world…
without the process of interpretations…

Kropotkin

what is the problem of interpretation?

it is based on the myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions of
childhood… we interpret based on a child basis of understanding which
is the myths and habits we are taught as children…

in other words, we judge life at a certain age, mine is 59, based
on things we were taught as children… if you haven’t overcome
that limitation of our childhood training, then you judge the world
on a child’s indoctrination…you interpret with a child’s understanding
of the world if you haven’t overcome your limitations…
a reevaluation of values means just that… you reevaluate (overcome)
your childhood biases and indoctrination and then you can interpret the
world from an adult basis… and you can understand experiences, not
from childhood biases or indoctrination but based on the experiences
themselves…the problem of interpretation comes from whither if you have
overcome your childhood indoctrination or not…if you have overcome,
then experiences become something different…….

Kropotkin

to judge the world, to act upon the world with fear…
that is a child’s emotion… it is a good and valuable emotion when
one is a child…it helps one to survive by fleeing dangers…

but as an adult, being in fear is a dangerous emotion…
it leads one to irrational and rather stupid decisions…
Hello IQ45…

as an adult, we cannot face the world based on the emotion of fear…
we must overcome, reevaluate, who we are as adults…not based
on our childhood indoctrination…

we do not need to be a victim to or an accomplice to our childhood
myths and habits and prejudices…our indoctrination…

we can make a choice…
and we can choose to be adults with an adult attitutude and understanding
of the world… or we can be held hostage by our childhood indoctrination…

this is the freedom of existentialism… you can choose to be who you are…

by overcoming your limitations and your indoctrinations…

but the path as with all paths, begins with awareness…

you must be aware of where you are and where you want to be, to
successfully engage in any type of journey…

to say it another way… a vote for IQ45 was a vote for the lowest base
emotions of the human experience…fear, hate, anger, greed, lust…
to vote for such is to admit you are still held hostage by your childhood
myths, habits, prejudices and superstions, your indoctrinations…

you haven’t overcome…you haven’t begun the process of a reevaluation of
values… you have just accepted the values you were taught as a child…
without any understanding of what they are or what they mean…

as a child, you exist with the base values because you don’t know any better…

as an adult, you do know better and yet, many still hold those childhood
fears and values…

it is easy to claim traditional values are the best… because it means you don’t
have to think or wonder or understand what “traditional values” mean…

thus you don’t or can’t understand the problem of existence because
your “traditional values” don’t allow or accept that there is even a problem
of existence…

the traditional problems of philosophy was god, freedom and immortality…
this is wrong…… the problem of philosophy is simple, how do we become
who we are… and this means an overcoming or reevaluation of our childhood
indoctrination………

Kropotkin

Where does fear place the rexpgnition of it? Sis the latest election found a fearful Trumpian rhetoric the spark that resulted in am improbable outcome of the election, or were people voted as a result of finding an intolerably fearful situation they saw themselves in?

This does , of it can be answered, solve Your initial doubt as to whether the social structure , or the instinctual fear which brought violence about? Or can they, must they be deduced tangentially?

most people miss the point…

you don’t find yourself in a “intolerable fearful situation”…

you mentally create an “intolerable fearful situation”……

I have traveled all over and I’ve never encountered a situation
that required me to fight or need a weapon or even be afraid of…
my wife has done some traveling and she has encountered, with me,
situations she found fearful… I didn’t find them so…

so was the situation actually fearful or was it mentally created?

I suggest that we create or interpret situations from our myths, habits,
prejudices and superstions that we are indoctrinated with, and
thus we create or mentally create “intolerable fearful situations”

it is the fear that drives our understanding of the situation, not
the situation itself… that is why white people call the police on
black people who are BBQing or just sitting in starbucks…

they interpret the situation as being dangerous because they
have not overcome or reevaluated their childhood biases, myths,
habits…

to say a black man or two, quietly sitting in a Starbucks is
dangerous is to confirm those prejudices and superstions and
indoctrinations of childhood…

this is fear driving our actions and behavoir…
one makes of a situation with tools that one has…
if your tool is about fear, then you will be fearful of a situation…

in other words, if all you have is a hammer, then every thing looks
like a nail…

if all you have is fear, then everything becomes dangerous…
everything…

Kropotkin

if you believe in capitalism as a ism and ideology…
and capitalism is driven by and has as it basic
requirement… greed… then by default,
you accept the idea that “MAN” is driven by greed…
a false idea but one generated by the requirements
of the ideology of capitalism…your belief creates
the “reality” of the world… and you react to this belief…

in other words, by believing people are driven by greed,
you assume everyone is driven by greed…

if all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail…

Kropotkin

the tools one uses determines the work one is able to do…

if I have as my tool, logic, then everything looks like a logical problem…
if I have as my tool, emotion, then everything looks like an
emotional problem…

but the real problem arises when we when used to make an emotional
judgement and we think that it is an rational response to something…

sometimes we mistake emotional tools as logical tools…
and sometimes we mistake logical tools as emotional tools…

how am I suppose to “feel” about something?

how am I suppose to “think” about something?

we use “feel” and “think” interchangeable, but is it?

try to understand how you come up with a decision…

was it logic or was it emotions?

I am willing to bet, we decide most things emotionally
and not intellectually…

and we can’t even tell the difference… because we are so used
to using them interchangeably…

so think of your process into making decisions…
what is your process?

and I am willing to bet it is emotionally, not rationally…

and so we have people one ILP who make arguments for
liberals being shot and/or being deported or making jews
scapegoats for what ails society or what ever prejudices
they have… and that is the point…
they mistake their prejudices and myths and habits
and superstitions as being a thought process when in fact,
it is simply their childhood indoctrinations that they are
repeating… but they can’t see their childhood indoctrinations…
they think that they are being rational or logical or some other
process but in the end, it is a prejudice turned into opinion…
and nothing more…

they haven’t overcome their limitations of the childhood
indoctrinations…

to those who assume that their prejudices and childhood myths and
superstitions, are the reality of the world… you haven’t escape
your childhood, you are simply repeating it without any thought…

and that is what happens if you don’t overcome your childhood
myths, biases, prejudices, superstitions and habits……
you use those to understand or interpret the world…
and because those biases and myths and prejudices are
simply in your head and not in reality, you have a
false and skewered vision of reality…………

you are seeing the world through childhoods eyes
and childhood reality because you are using your childhood’s
biases and myths and prejudices to interpret and understand the world,
and not adult eyes and adult realities………
you haven’t overcome……

am I understood?

I doubt it because who here as the courage for an attack upon their convictions?

most people here congratulate themselves for the courage of their convictions…

and they fail to see………

I am talking to you………

Kropotkin

what myths and biases and prejudices and superstitions
am I talking about? the childhood indoctrinations
of state, religion and of man…

that America is the greatest country on earth is one such myth,
the cult of American exceptionalism……

that there is a god and a heaven and hell and one
must be saved…… prejudice of the worst kind…

that we have a fixed and determined nature…
man has a fixed and determined nature……

that the jews conspires to control all…

that being liberal is a mental disease…

all myths and prejudices and superstitions we were taught…

childhood indoctrinations all…….

but have you overcome?

have you challenged your convictions/myths/prejudices/ biases?
have you overcome your childhood indoctrinations?

Socrates said, know thyself…
Nietzsche said, become who you are…
have you overcome?

these are the same sentence…….

Kropotkin

it has been said that one who philosophizes is also confessing…

but what am I confessing?

the myths and biases and superstitions and prejudices
I have today… then I must overcome these…
and then confess to the new myths and biases and superstitions
and prejudices of the week…

I must always be in the process of overcoming…
overcoming my limitations…

that is what I continually confess…
the latest myths and biases and prejudices I have……

what is your confession?

what is your philosophy?

Kropotkin

the problem of existence…isn’t really a problem to most people…
existence just is… and there isn’t anything else to it… we just are…

and for most people, that is enough… existence just is and the modes
of comprehension we have for understanding existence, the biases and myths
and prejudices and superstitions are enough for most people…

the real story about people is that they take the path of least resistance…
it is easier to follow the lower, instinctual path of human existence…

to follow the higher path of love and peace and charity, that takes work
and sometimes a lot of work…

it is far less work to simply hate and
be angry and hold to childhood biases and myths…it is the path of least
resistance………to simply follow the time worn path of following the
expectations of the family or society and not question or doubt…

and that is what most people do… they follow the myths and habits
and prejudices…………the indoctrinations of childhood…

we are creatures of habit………. even to the point of living out our lives
to already set habits… habits set by generations past…

so the problem of existence doesn’t exist for most people…
because they have their myths and habits and prejudices,
and that allows people the ability to avoid the problem of existence…

for most people the question becomes, how do I best fit into this system?

but for a few, a lucky few, the question of existence, the problem of existence
is such, that we not only question how we fit into the system, but if
the system is the right system? we question the very system itself…
and such is the problem of existence… we question the system itself…

it is not enough to engage with the system but one must begin with
doubt about the system and the system’s usefulness…….

for most people, it is enough to engage with problems like who
will pick up bobby after work and what is for dinner and where will
we go for our next vacation…that is as far as people go in questioning
the status quo…it become questions about how to work within the system,
and what is necessary to move up within the system and how to
“improve” one’s live via the reigning ideology/religion which is
materialism… buying goods………

most people live shallow, superficial lives engaged with shallow,
superficial matters……. the lower level of human existence…
and why? because it is the path of least resistance……
it takes less work to take the path of least resistance…
and it doesn’t demand much to take such a path…
you simply go on autopilot and live out your life…
the system, the myths and habits and prejudices of childhood
will simply carry one from birth to death without any doubts
or confusion or questions about the problem of existence…

one simply lives from birth to death with the waters being calm
and the mountains steady and firm and the river flowing in its banks…

and what of the rest of us? we live in the moment of Zen……
where the sea is wild and in a frenzy and the mountains
dance like waves and the river overflows its banks……

most people never reach this moment of Zen……
where our very existence is in doubt…….

this is the moment where we truly wonder about the problem
of existence………… we doubt and we question and we find
the very earth we stand on, to be of quicksand…

the problem of existence shakes us to our very core…

and most people blithely go on with their shallow and superficial
lives… never knowing or understanding what we face, as we stand
in front of Nietzsche’s abyss…

the problem of existence isn’t a light or superficial affair…
one taken lightly like a glass of wine at night……

when face with the problem of existence… one takes a bottle
of Jack and fortifies with all the courage one can muster…

for the problem of existence challenges one to very bottom of
your existence…… for the problem of existence is an all or nothing
matter…………either you commit all the way or you don’t and if you don’t,
go back to your easy path of myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions…
your childhood indoctrinations… they are the easy path…

you must challenge the problem of existence…
or as the ancient Hebrews thought of it, they wrestled with god…

have you overcome the easy path of myths and habits and prejudices
and superstitions?

is the problem of existence, even a problem for you?

no, why not?

Kropotkin

the definition of insanity: doing the exact same thing
over and over and over again and expecting different results……

so by following the exact same myths and biases and
prejudices and superstitions as everyone else…
how do we expect to have different results?

Kropotkin

we have myths and habits and prejudices and superstitions
from our childhood indoctrinations………

but what are they?

god, country, nationalism, white superiority, the negation of
minorities and of women and religions…

are all myths and biases and habits and prejudices and superstitions…

so what of those who have taken the easy path of nationalism and
of white power and haters of women and minorities and Jews?

they are defenders of the faith… defenders of their childhood indoctrinations…

and the greater they defend their indoctrinations, the weaker they really are…
for they lack the courage to overcome… they lack the courage to see beyond
their myths and prejudices and superstitions…… they are weak and they know it…

it is only by hiding behind their childhood indoctrinations, do they feel strong
and powerful………and the harder they fight for their biases and prejudices, the
weaker they really are……… the man who fights for the right to be prejudice
and superstitious is the true “sheeple”……………he can’t even stand up for himself
and overcome his childhood biases and prejudices…

a small man indeed…and a foolish one………

Kropotkin