Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Materialist Philosophy

The major problem with this restrictionist philosophical method is that you end up being a Procrustes. Focusing on one part of the data at the exclusion of other parts means that you end up with a half truth. The cost/benefit is this, the more object knowledge you have the less subject knowledge, the more analysis the less syntheses, the more quality the less quantity.

For example, you can reduce music down to its objective elements. You can say that this song has this frequency and then this one and then the next. But by doing this you kill the existential aspect of the song. The subjective element is what makes music, music.

Soren Kiekegaard talked about how the more objective a fact is the less existential personal relevance the fact has and vise versa. The fact that 2+2=4 is highly objective but it has little meaning to me on an existential level on the other extreme my eternal salvation has a lot of existential importance to me but it is unprovable. A philosopher to sacrificing the intuitive (existential data) comes at too high of a cost. A philosopher is a lover of wisdom, as such a philosopher needs not to look for a wisdom to serve him/her but a wisdom to serve. The truths found by a restrictionist philosophical method are below man and are not worthy to serve. Link

2 comments:

Leo said...

Thanks for the thought-provoking post. The Fact of the matter is that there is always a whole objective truth that has to be known and held, the whole truth, not little parts of it here and there, or accepting one part of a truth because it fits one's lifestyle or world view and excluding/ignoring others because they do not. Unfortunately, most people don't understand that.

Austin said...

I’m not suggesting that there are two unconnected, truths a subjective and an objective truth. I believe that there is one truth who is Christ who is the subject that possesses the objective truth. Our faith is not objective in that it can be manipulated through experimentation. It comes from a subject, Christ, the great “I am” who reveals truth. It is a truth that can not be taken but is a gift of grace. I doubt that we disagree on this point though.