On Life, Its Essence and Reality
ON LIFE, ITS ESSENCE AND REALITY
Life 's Issues and Realities; A mini-book compiled of my writings on philosophy
Joseph Concordia
September, 13, 2012
Preface
After spending a whole lifetime studying, thinking, and working in the field of engineering and the sciences, and even consciously viewing a focus on the “liberal arts” as something of a waste of time, I have come to realize that the deeper and more meaningful aspects of life are found in the humanities and that a focus on the hard sciences is really a shallow view of life. The humanities opens a window to a view of the world that has infinitely more substance than that which can be described through mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Science has its place. That is to make better approximations to what the reality of nature contains and how the processes of nature work. It is a useful and valuable thing. But the humanities reaches into areas where no scientific discipline can define the rules or establish a formula that fully defines the process at work. These areas are in the realm of knowledge that consider concepts for beauty, truth, goodness, evil, honesty, peace and tranquility. These are concepts of the mind and the character of each exists only in the individual personality, value system, and faith dimensions of each person.
The study of the humanities gives insight to such things. It gives one the opportunity to read and learn what was the view of these things by a multitude of highly intelligent, thoughtful people who spent their lives contemplating such things. It causes one to consider which, of the many diverse views represented by those people, makes sense and which seem to comply with a personal outlook which you as an individual would consider rational, reasonable. In other words it causes one to think about what actually is your belief regarding the truth about life. That is not simply adopting the belief of
Life 's Issues and Realities; A mini-book compiled of my writings on philosophy
Joseph Concordia
September, 13, 2012
Preface
After spending a whole lifetime studying, thinking, and working in the field of engineering and the sciences, and even consciously viewing a focus on the “liberal arts” as something of a waste of time, I have come to realize that the deeper and more meaningful aspects of life are found in the humanities and that a focus on the hard sciences is really a shallow view of life. The humanities opens a window to a view of the world that has infinitely more substance than that which can be described through mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Science has its place. That is to make better approximations to what the reality of nature contains and how the processes of nature work. It is a useful and valuable thing. But the humanities reaches into areas where no scientific discipline can define the rules or establish a formula that fully defines the process at work. These areas are in the realm of knowledge that consider concepts for beauty, truth, goodness, evil, honesty, peace and tranquility. These are concepts of the mind and the character of each exists only in the individual personality, value system, and faith dimensions of each person.
The study of the humanities gives insight to such things. It gives one the opportunity to read and learn what was the view of these things by a multitude of highly intelligent, thoughtful people who spent their lives contemplating such things. It causes one to consider which, of the many diverse views represented by those people, makes sense and which seem to comply with a personal outlook which you as an individual would consider rational, reasonable. In other words it causes one to think about what actually is your belief regarding the truth about life. That is not simply adopting the belief of
References: 1. Scientist who believe in God, http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/sciencefaith.html#.UENao5a8irg 2. Women 's suffrage in the United States, wikipedia web article visited on 9/13/2012 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_the_United_States#Nineteenth_Amendment 3. Homosexuality 101; http://www.narth.com/docs/hom101.html