Logic
Sunday, March 15th, 2009Logic
Concerning the rules of Logic and Reason; the evidence of evidence and proof of the system for logical and reasonable belief.
In a recent conversation with a companion of mine, we discussed ethics and morality. My opposition made the claim that anything that was done for the sole sake of pleasure was immoral, on the grounds that it — inevitably — would lead to unhappiness. Since I am a Free Lover, and whole-heartedly believing that consensual and promiscuous can be happy and desirable, I disagreed with his thesis. I searched for contradictions in his theory, asking if he agreed that buying a music CD, for example, solely for pleasure was immoral, or getting intoxicated. However, I decided to ignore contradictions, because someone surely can be entirely self-contained in their theory, and still be fallacious in their assertions. I asked them, instead, why they believed that pleasure (for the sole sake of pleasure) was immoral. They told me that it was their thesis, and that it was axiomatic. By this, they meant that it was unnecessary for them to prove such a thesis true. After stiffling my laughter, I told them that nothing could be accepted as true without evidence. They then asked me something I could not answer, and I was knowing that I could not answer. They asked me, “How do you know, then, that your method for knowing, such as requiring evidence, is true?” Their statement here was not entirely false.
After all, to take something as truth, I was using the system of understanding and knowledge called Reason, as well as Logic. If something was consistent, and if something had evidence for it, I would take it into consideration as truth. But this system, this system of gathering evidence and examining claims, how did I know that this would lead me to truth? I am sure that the commoner would exclaim that such a system yields good results. At least, this is what I have been believing and claiming for some years: I believe in the ways of Reason and Logic, demonstration and вытяжка фабер observation, because such ways of knowledge have always been capable of demonstrating truth. However, how do we know that this is truth? For example, if we were explorers, and it was a rumor that inside every snow covered mountain, it is colored orange, and we were to discover — by drilling — that it was indeed orange on every snow covered mountain, how would we know that this is true? It may certainly seem absurd to even ask this question, but how do we know that our minds — the tools used specifically for thought — are not dilluted? It could be caused by drug, or perhaps a chemical in the air in close proximity to mountains that penetrates even the most powerful lead suit, or it could be our passions altered our own vision as we desired to see the color orange. There are so many explanations, but those few previously mentioned are small, detectable possibilities.
What if, for example, a Solipsism was true? Solipsism is the belief that the believer of such a theory is the only conscious being in the Universe, and all of the physical matter surrounding them was simply created by their imagination. There is the possibility that we are in a dream; that this life of ours is simply a dream. What if, upon discovering this orange material in the snow-covered mountain, it was truly only our imagination in our dream that produced such an orange material? But even beyond that, how can be sure that our own physical reality is not a dream? Or perhaps a state similar to a coma? Of course, the idea of a dream or a coma is quite prevalent in our Universe. Maybe, we are all playing a futuristic game and we take control of bodies to play, and our memories were destroyed before it started, to prevent us from remembering that it is a game.
There are a great deal of possibilities of what this world could be. However, this may be going off on a tangent. By explaining what a Solipsism is, I can further demonstrate the claim of the system of Reason and Logic being unevidenced themselves. After all, though it could be some alteration from an outside force that makes us think we see orange on the inside of the snow-covered mountain, but it could just be purple, blue, red, or black. What if we heard another rumor that snow at the top of snow-covered mountains tastes like ice cream, and then we
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