i don't understand philosophy

Ali 2022-10-26 22:58:02

Philosophy is dead, the professor said. People cannot make thought and matter consistent, and people have to endow certain concepts with substance, because people cannot accept that certain abstract concepts only exist in the brain. Butterfly effect, useless to talk about. He just asked a few questions that no one could answer. People are reluctant to face pain, war. We need to think that life has meaning. Those short sentences at the beginning made me suddenly feel profound, and even I became one of those who were speechless.

Martin tried to get close to the professor with reverence, and he told Beth that I'd rather make a mistake and do something than make a mess than miss it completely. So he succeeded in attracting the professor's eyes and having a lively discussion with him. He was so excited that he couldn't hide the great joy in his heart.

Speaking of math, numbers. I understand what they say, no matter what kind of number you can find the truth, that is, there is so-called absolute truth in mathematics, odd number sequence, even number sequence, Fibonacci sequence, and then there are more complex formulas to express sequence. There's also the wall where he plays tennis and Martin's so-called variable calculations, at which point he's actually incorporating mathematics into physics. I can understand mathematics, I can understand physics, but I can never connect them to philosophy. I don't understand philosophy. But philosophy still exists, just as the butterfly effect is unpredictable but happens all the time.

If there were only philosophy in life, perhaps it would be like the man who had his limbs amputated, unable to bear the heavy burden of the first major problem in his life and had a nervous breakdown. Or maybe, he will be abandoned in obsession, and he can only look up at the sky alone to find the cloud that should belong to him. But life without philosophy would be boring, so Lorna would be attracted, taught, and Martin.

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Extended Reading

The Oxford Murders quotes

  • Arthur Seldom: There is no way of finding a single absolute truth, an irrefutable argument which might help answer the questions of mankind. Philosophy, therefore, is dead, because whereof we cannot speak, thereof we must be silent.

  • Arthur Seldom: Since man is incapable of reconciling mind and matter, he tends to confer some sort of entity on ideas because he cannot bear the notion that the purely abstract only exists in our brain. "The beauty and harmony of a snowflake" - how sweet. "The butterfly that flutters his wings and causes a hurricane on the other side of the world" - we've been hearing about that damn butterfly for decades, but who has been able to predict a single hurricane? Nobody! Tell me something. Where is the beauty and harmony in cancer? What makes a cell suddenly decide to turn itself into a killer, metastasis and destroy the rest of the cells in a healthy body? Does anybody know? No! Because we'd rather think of snowflakes and butterflies than of pain, war, or that book. Why? Because we need to think that life has meaning, that everything is governed by logic and not by mere chance. If I write 2 then 4 then 6, then we feel good because we know that next comes 8. We can foresee it. We are not in the hands of destiny. Unfortunately, however, this has nothing to do with truth. Don't you agree? This is only fear. Sad... but there you go.