[Axel19]

I'm currently doing a philosophy degree, about the worst degree a dp'er could take, but there's no going back I suppose (it's ok really). I tend to be very sceptical about knowledge as are many philosophers. I think if I weren't so anxious and obsessive I'd be content with the knowledge that other people exist, even if the ultimate nature of reality is unknown to me.
So anyway, what's my point? I was reading a comment Bertrand Russell (great British 20th century philosopher) made about David Hume (Great British 18th century philosopher) in contrast with Rousseau (Great 18th century French philosopher). It was something to the effect of 'Hume was sane but had no followers, but Rousseau was mad and had many'. Hume was sceptical towards most forms of knowledge, he was very smart but a totally realistic philosopher. He didn't develop fancy metaphysical ideas without any grounding in reality. Rousseau on the other hand was a crazy romantic. I am very much like Hume. I've become incredibly scpetical and realistic about reality, life etc. Whilst many other, supposedly sane, people fly around with their crazy ideals so sure of themselves and what life is all about, I sit ever so slightly bewildered by the whole thing. I don't mean in a necessarily dp'ed or depressed way, I just mean that I am aware of my own ignorance, aware of the limits of my knowledge, aware of what I can realistically expect out of life, and also aware that there are no real absolutes. I can still enjoy a good film, enjoy a nice meal or even fall in love, but I don't seem to have the self assurance that others seem to have. A lot of people my age strut around confident that Kurt Cobain is god, or that there is no God, believing themselves to have absolute mastery over their destiny, or believing whole heartedly that a night out on the piss is the absolute pinacle of their youth. Call me crazy, but is that not a little closer to insanity than what I experience.
Oh and one more thing, I'm so rational now that I wont' abandon my reason even in my dreams. Last night I dreamed I was masturbating and spewing fluorescent semen, I had to rub it all over these buttons on this machine, so I could see what I was pressing in the dark (analyze that one Freud). Suddenly I realised the absurdity of what I was doing and woke up. This happens quite frequently, my constant obsessive rationality wont' be subdued, even in my dreams.

Thanks for reading,

Alex

 

[Guest]

You're overcomplicating this: Rousseau was a much better writer than Hume. SOmetimes the power of message is just easier to swallow when it comes from a more poetic messenger.

grin,
Janine

 

[Scattered]

People have a tendency to want to mold reality to their wishes. They want to believe that absolute knowledge exists and this can then be used to guide their lives. They want to continue to conceptialize things in such a way that they are given the illusion of control over things and over reality. Regardless of their writing styles. People would rather lie to themselves and live this lie than truely examine their lives and live according to the realizations that come from this. So it doesn't surprise me that the mad, romantic gets more followers than the sane skeptic. Ignorance is bliss. Lets all go out and get drunk.

 

[Martinelv]

With regard to 'ultimate reality', I think it's better to suspend judgement (as Kant, Thomas Hardy etc, suggested) and live within a 'consensual' reality, or live by a rational, existential philosophy. I say 'live by', but really I mean 'come to terms with'. Anything else is, at best, speculation.

I'm entirely comfortable living within a consensual reality, and 'accepting it'. This, despite apperances, is not accepting a reality on faith alone. I hedge my bets - as we all do everyday, without even realising it. Most people come to the consensus that blue is blue, the sun shines etc etc.

Sometimes I think I am 'too sane' as well. I am utterly bewildered by the quantity (alas, not quality) of lunatic ravings that people indulge. The list is endless. But I guess, however, it's understandable. In the age that we live in, of hard cold science and the death of mysticism, people yearn for mystery, chinese laterns in the trees and goblins under their beds. For me though, the universe is so magnificently amazing and the fact that we are privileged enough to glimpse it and, perhaps, try to understand it, is mysterious and magical enough. The realities of Quantum Physics, just for starters, are truely mind-blowing. Seeing a meteor, or a comet, leave me breathless, or to contemplate the miracle (disclaimer) of evolution, or the fact that we are pinned to a blue-green orb floating in a vast inky void - it staggers me.

Astrology ? Spiritualism ? Religion ? For me, they are a poor substitute for a lack of imagination and wonder.

 

[Axel19]

Nice replies guys.
Janine, Rousseau was, doubtlessly, a better writer than Hume, but Idon't think he was a better philosopher.
I just really don't get how this saneys (sane people) can have so much conviction in their beliefs and way of life.
Yes, suspend your judgement, live by what you know.