Jimmy:
There are basically two schools of philosophical thought -- the roots which all philosophy subsets have grown from: Aristotelian and Platonic.
For Aristotle, life is not some unexplainable mystery. It is not supernatural, but a fact of nature. Further, consciousness is a natural attribute of certain living creatures. It is their natural power or mode of action.
What it is not is a mystic miracle incompatible with physical reality. It is not to be attributed to some occult source in another unproven dimension. You see, for Aristotle, "living", and "knowing" are facts orf reality. Therefore, man's mind is neither unnatural nor supernatural, but natural.
"Life is the end of living bodies since they exist for the sake of living. For Aristotle, and any man of Reason, even God has no purpose, ONLY MAN." -- Professor John Herman Randall, Jr.
The antithesis of this is Plato's philosophy which in essence states that man can know nothing. Aristotle versus Plato is the conflict of reason versus mysticism. For the three times in human history that the philosophy of Aristotle was applied (even though not totally and exclusively) the world made tremendous leaps of progress. (Those times being Classical Greece, the Renaissance [which means rebirth], and the Great Enlightenment [18th Century] during which the original United States of America was created.)
Every period in human history where the legacy of Plato: Faith, force and altruism-collectivism was applied were periods of ignorance, torture, totalitarianism, fear, and dark ages -- including the infamous Dark Ages.
Father Terrence |
