(Originally written July 15, 2006 in Book 6)
Metaphysics:
Topics I'd like to write on:
-Appearance and Reality
-Physicalsim vs. Dualism
-Other Possible worlds?
-What is rationality? Is man really rational?
"What do you believe?"
This may be the most complex question ever composed. I find that ironic considering it is four simple words. Such a simple question compositionally requires an insanely complex answer, but that answer is integral to each individual human being's existence.
Firstly, this question is completely irrelevant if any form of relativism is correct. Personal beliefs are entirely subjective and dependent. They are subjective in that they are held by a human being and each human being holds their own subjective beliefs. Beliefs are dependent in that they depend their existence on a human being holding them.
Beliefs are purely subjective. Beliefs are completely dependent upon being held. But there is nothing in the definition of what a belief is that demands it to be true or correct. I can believe that this pen is blue. It is subject because I believe it is blue, but Roy over in the other seat believes it is black. It is dependent because in order for the belief "This pen is blue" to exist, it must be held by somebody. Obviously, since Roy believes "This pen is black" and I believe "this pen is blue" both of us cannot be correct. One or both of us must be wrong (the pen could be green or red).
So what makes my belief or Roy's belief true? A belief is true if it corresponds correctly with the fact of reality. A belief is true if reality shows it to be true.
In this case my belief "the pen is blue" is incorrect and Rot's belief "the pen is black" is correct. Why? Reality shows that it is black. (Things can change if you add the difference between reality and appearances or if one of us were color blind. But this is unimportant here). The fact is that the pen is black. Reality is the proof of this. I can choose to falsely believe that the pen is blue still, but I would have to deny reality or create a theory of reality not being true.
So, obviously a belief can be true or false. But, not all beliefs are so easily proved or disproved as a belief about a color of a pen. Life isn't so simple, but therein lies the reason why beliefs are so important.
I think every one should write out what they believe so they are clear on it for themselves. Then they can engage in intelligent conversations with one another and all mankind can move closer to a full knowledge of everything. No individual will know all, but collectively we can come much closer than even the most intelligent individual. SO as you read this consider what you believe yourselves.
Beliefs:
1. I exist.
Proof? The fact that I am writing this or doing whatever shows me that I exist. It is self-evident. No matter what arguments are presented to me I cannot deny my existence because the very denial I would put forth would contradict it. I cannot say, "I do not exist" if in fact I do not exist.
2. Something else must exist other than me.
Proof? I have three options to believe:
a) I exist in complete isolation
b) I exist and everything else is a product of my mind
c) I and other things exist
As appealing as option 'A' is at some pints in my life it is obviously false. The fact that I am in a room with other things denies that I am alone.
Option 'B' is a possibility, but am I so arrogant to believe that I have a great enough mind to create all that I see? Even if I were so arrogant I believe I could not hold to it because I do not control those other things the way I control myself. If I had a great enough mind to create everything else it would follow that my mind would be powerful enough to control those things I have created or I would be conscious of my decision not to control them. Because neither of these things apply to me I cannot accept option "B".
By process of elimination I must accept that things other than myself exist. While I deny that I have created all the other things I do not deny the possibility that such a being exists.
3. I exist as a mind.
Proof: Prop 1 "I exist".
I have thoughts. Thoughts are not tangible, physical things. There is not a physical or sensible thing called a thought. Since there are no such things as physical thoughts I cannot claim to be wholly a physical thing. If I am not a wholly physical unit there must be something non-physical. This is mind.
Mind is intangible. It does not possess physical qualities. The mind is a collection of non-physical properties and operations. These operations are emotions, thoughts, memory, etc. Individual thoughts or emotions or memories are non-physical data used by the operations of minds.
The mind is a very difficult thing to grasp. It is not the physical brain that exists inside my body, shout it, like the other physical parts of my body, correspond to it. There needs to be a lot of discussion about what exactly the mind is, but that is for later...
No it's not.
A mind is like a central processing unit. It is the command center of a human being. But the mind is not a physical being in that it possesses physical properties which are sensible or tangible. As such, science (which is physical observations) has no business studying it. But science can consider the effects of a mind.
Anyway, a mind is like a non-sensible CPU. It is capable of numerous operations.
Here I will attempt to illustrate this, but understand please that I am attempting to draw a non-[physical thing and that my art skills are lacking. So with that in mind here we go:
A mind is a unit. It is a single entity, not a bundle of operations and data. It is an individual thing that performs many wonders. At first glance (if it were physical) it would look like this (a mind chip inside of a stick figure body).
The mind 'chip' would be 'implanted' somewhere in the human's body (again please understand that a mind is not a physical thing, it is a part of the whole human person, but for illustrative purposes allow this major error). The mind chip ('cpu') is somewhere in the body of an individual we will call Joe.
The functions of Joe's body are dictated by his mind. His mind is the CPU of Joe and the programs are Joe's body. You or I observe Joe as we would observe a computer screen (though neither you nor I are sitting at the keyboard).
The CPU or controls of Joe are highly complex. They involve a number of operations and tons of data. Most data is input into the mind after it is created, though some exists at its creation. All operations exist at the point of creation, but gradually evolve and sometimes devolve. These operations are consciousness, perception, emotion, thinking, reasoning, understanding, memory and will.
For clarification purposes I am stating that each of these operations of the mind are innate. That is, every mind possesses these operations from its creation pint (not to be argued when right now). These operations are not mature and need to develop, but they exist and are potentially able to be honed or further developed.
1. Consciousness is the first operation of the mind we will discuss because it is the first operation of the mind employed. Consciousness is like the power source of the mind. Without consciousness there would be no mind, just like there would be no bodily life if there were no breath in humans. Bodies require outside physical things to operate because they are physical themselves. A mind is a non-physical thing and therefore requires a non-physical thing to use as fuel for operations. Separation of body and mind will be discussed later.
Consider a perpetual motion machine, these fictional devices would operate on fuel of their own creation/supply. A mind is like a perpetual motion machine; it needs only its own fuel source - consciousness. Consciousness is an awareness of one's own existence. It is the self-awareness we all possess. Some humans have a higher self-awareness than others. Some persons with mental or physical defects do not possess the level of consciousness needed to sustain a 'normal' life. That comes in next to understand why. But consciousness is simply the self-awareness of one's own existence. It is also the fuel needed for all other operations of the mind to take place.
Consciousness is the power source. I mentioned earlier that mind is like a perpetual motion machine, but that is not entirely true. It is merely a machine that uses the power source outside itself, but it can be said as such for now.
2. Perception
Consciousness is the power supply of the mind. Perception is the place where data is inputed into the mind. Perception is the point at which the sensible world interacts with the super sensible mind. The perception operation takes in the data of the physical world.
Perception is merely a collection agent. It is experience. The mind views the sensible world and experiences it. The perception operation is like a net that catches data. It does nothing with that data other than collect it and then pass it on to its next step.
The perception collects the data of the sensible world, but unsorted data is not usable. It is raw material for a thought or an idea. Perception sends the raw material to be processed, but as it is sent it filters through one of the operations of the mind which we have very little control of.
3. Emotion
Not all operations of the mind are easily tamed or adapted or honed. Emotions is one of those operations. There are numerous emotions. Anger, fear, happiness, sadness, etc. For simplicity's sake we will only illustrate two emotions - happiness and sadness.
Data from the sensible --> Perception --> Raw material data --> Emotion
If there were only two emotion then the data would receive a choice of two charges: happiness or sadness. Each data entering the perception would be neutral. It would remain neutral as it was caught by the perception. Then when it would become 'charged' as it passed through the emotion operation of the mind. I like to call the data perceived 'raw data'. I like to call the data passed through the emotion operation 'emotionized data'. Since we are focusing on only two emotions let 'sad' emotion be marked black like this <--. Let the 'happy' emotion be marked orange like this <-- (drawn orange). Let the raw data be marked like this <--. So here we have the illustration:
Sensible world --> (data) Perception --> (Raw Data) --> or --> (drawn orange). In example 1 we have data that is now associated with the emotion 'sad'. The actual data could have inspired this emotion or the mind could have already been in a state of sadness and simply added that emotion to the raw data. In example 2 the data is now associated wit the emotion 'happy'. It is associated that way because the data caused it or the mind was in a happy emotive state.
The emotion operation does not analyze the data, it simply adds a feeling to it. It adds some extra data to the data. The emotion operation is another transfer operation. It is a pitstop for the data sent from the perception to the thought process.
The thought process is actually three operations bundled into the one. The first is thinking.
4. Thinking
Thinking is the first operation that begins to analyze the data.
Input data - data collected by the perception
Raw data - data sent from the perception to the thinking that has not been emotionized
Emotionized data - data that has been associated with a specific or numerous specific emotions
The thinking received the emotionized data and begins to sort the data. It simply catches the emotionized data and sort of packages it in a way it can be processed and then ships it to step two in the thought process.
5. Reasoning
The reasoning takes the sorted or packaged emotionized data from the thinking and begins to see what exactly the consequences of that data means. It supplies scenarios with the data and continues to process it and then sends it to the final step of the thought process.
6. Understanding
The understanding finalizes the data processing and actually comprehends the data and packages it as a complete thought or idea.
A thought - a single comprehended piece of data
Idea - a composite of comprehended datum
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