FREE THINKING: EXPLORE THE REALMS OF KNOWLEDGE

The ancients saw life and existence as a singularity of all subjects, chemistry, botany, biology, physics, astronomy, astrology, mathematics, politics, aesthetics, religion, ethics, and economics were seen as one. Philosophy was central to the development of each of these stances of thinking.

Even today in modern academia the subject of Philosophy is linked to economics and politics. Ethics, as a fundamental element of Philosophical reasoning, is considered to be important to all aspects of living, especially in the sciences and politics. Logic, another integral part of such thought is found at the core of mathematics.

The ability to reason and think in a logical way seems to give the ‘human animal’ an advantage in the world in which we live. Other creatures may have some ability to display simple processes of logic. Instinct possibly provides them with a primitive ethical awareness of their own species but only the Homosapien seems to display an advanced understanding of self and the world in which they exist.

We must also accept that our thinking could have arrogantly made an incorrect assumption. This being the logic and ethical reasoning that we human beings display, are superior to that of other life forms on this planet. Nevertheless, that is not to say ‘Peter Rabbit’s’ thought process is identical to ours; that too would be arrogance.  

Most people would see a beautiful sunset or an idyllic country landscape as an ‘aesthetic’ experience, but few would express this using scientific language or mathematical algorithms. However, we might use a smartphone, paintbrush, guitar or pen and paper to use words to describe what we are experiencing.

The great poet William Wordsworth once wrote, ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er vales and hills, when all at once I saw a crowd, a host, of golden daffodils’.  He too was transfixed by what his senses had witnessed. We can say that these words came from neural circuits and muscles found in the body, yet they could not convey the totality of the event the poet experienced that day.

So, no one discipline can account for all human understanding or experience but Philosophy can help to link them together and give us a better understanding of who we are.