Philosophical Debate

I was at work and was discussing randomly with a friend Descartes Philosophical argument of Cogito Ergo Sum(I am thinking, therefore I exist) and one of my other work colleagues brought up the argument that we cannot take ownership of thoughts and cannot prove they are our own, I did some research and I believe this statement must come from the school of Skepticism, I cannot find the philosopher who developed this theory but it seems like a valid argument, What if my thoughts are shared? What if I am the result of higher beings thought? How can I absolutely know that these thoughts are mine and mine alone?... The answer is cannot know but can assume.

I cannot with all accuracy prove that the thoughts that I am thinking are truly my own but I can assume they are, at the moment of the proposed argument I was a but tripped out, it seemed completely valid, I could think of no counter argument, however, based on perception although logically not fully accurate (not accurate based on the Cogito Ergo Sum theory) I was able to think of a possible argument against the theory, although also based on assumption because it includes variables such as awareness and perception it appears to be more logical and make more sense, it also lacks the element of imagination or speculation.

Here is a copy of the email I just sent to my colleague(who is currently not at work):

Now although you cannot prove that the thoughts that I think are mine you also cannot prove that they are not, the following logic seems to make sense from my view:

The only thoughts that I am aware of are my own, I cannot prove that another being is thinking I only assume that other sentient beings on the same level think because they have similar actions to my own, because the only thoughts that I can be *aware* of are the ones I am thinking them, it must then be assumed they are my thoughts, now because the ability to perceive a higher beings existence is based on assumption from almost no evidence other than my own creativity then again, I must assume that the thoughts I am thinking are my own.

The thoughts that I think can be assumed my own because only I am certain that I am thinking. A 3rd person can be assumed to be thinking because they may behave similar to myself, I am human they are human therefore I assume they think. A higher being cannot be assumed to be thinking because I do not have any logical proof that it exists except by creativity.. it cannot be literally perceived and interpreted, therefore it is not known whether it is thinking or not.

Another point to go further to take ownership of my own thoughts is as follows:
At a moment of experience alone or amongst a group the feelings are dependent on my situation therefore the thought that arises from my perception from my maybe inaccurate senses is still by assumption my own because I assume only I can be in exactly the same situation at that one time, so the variables time, surroundings, feeling, and perception combined together to create situational thought can only be known logically to occur once, the only other way to counter that statement that I can see is that there maybe parallel universes and that my overall thought is subject to a collective of individuals some how linked to me that create the overall thoughts that I have, but again I cannot literally have perception of these alternate beings therefore it cannot be known whether they are thinking.

Now although the theory that my thoughts are not mine and that I cannot take ownership of them because I cannot know that only I am thinking them still stands, from logic and evidence I cannot with reason prove that any other sentient being actual thinks because there is only an assumption of thinking, therefore it comes back to the thoughts that I am thinking are imagining another beings existence.

Thought can be known but cannot be perceived only assumed, therefore only I know that I am thinking, I cannot know that another being is thinking/imagining my existence or having the same thoughts I am simply because I cannot prove the existence of thoughts other than those of my own conscious mind.

Most things are assumed or imagined, the things that can be assumed based on what we define as literal perception appear to have more validity.

Therefore the validity of Cogito Ergo Sum should still be valid based on the above argument.


Now I am sure there are some elements of my theory that could be argued but its pretty much the only argument I could think of, If anyone thinks it lacks critical components or even knows the philosopher who made the theory my colleague brought up post a comment!

My Thoughts in a Moment of Pain

It’s the most incomprehensible pain I have ever felt, the hardest thing that I have ever dealt with, she gave me her answer and that was it, it was the first time I have ever truly felt whole in my ability to be truly selfless to someone.

I feel like crying but I can’t because if I explain to anyone they truly won’t understand.

At the moment in time I just wanted to hate her but I couldn’t, I just wanted her to be happy and at that moment my heart felt completely crushed but I knew she made the right decision, at least I hope she did.

I can’t fully comprehend this, I am utterly confused and right at this moment the only retreat I have is this blog.

I don’t know why but I felt so connected with her but I knew truly how distant she felt away from me.

I felt like just becoming mad and saying things cruel along the general lines of expecting too much from life but I knew it was never that simple and saying that would of just aggravated any chance she had of working through any faults she thought she might have.

I don’t feel like moving right now, I can barely breath, why do people form something great and then loose it because of something so trivial? I cannot answer this question.

Its totally and utterly crazy but it was like the minute I knew she was going to give me the answer I felt like crying, I knew it already.

I had the unhealthy emotions raging inside me, wanting to just die, wanting to be spiteful but on the other hand I had the compassion, the reasoning, the true love inside of me, and as crazy as it is writing this, which at this very moment in time with tears in my eyes, the only thing keeping me together is this feeling of love that feels so much stronger than anything material, obsessive….

I feel like I have come to a milestone in my life, I know I shouldn’t wear my heart on my sleeve, Its so hard not to because I just crave the giving of love so much, and I think I have realised that I can finally be who I want to be in a relationship as long as it’s the right person… if I ever find the right person.

Is it Karma, am I meant to find the right person? Maybe I caused someone so much heartbreak once in this lifetime or another lifetime that I have to suffer this fate.. but is it suffering or learning, I really need to reflect again.

I need to find a worthwhile purpose in life and with my pursuit of finding that one person its not going to happen, I need to just live my life, I’m thinking about taking a course to be a counsellor, I want to impact on others lives instead of living a materialistic egocentric goal, its not fulfilling to live a life of money or things or even looks as in the end it just comes down to death, we all die, and what if, I die at 30 but became a counsellor and prevented even just a few youth suicides, gave someone the hope they needed and the wisdom they needed to see life isn’t as bad as it seems, I myself have been there, in one sense I feel so hopeless and so meaningless but in another sense I know that I have learnt so much, come so far in such a short period of time and I have so much potential to care for others instead of just myself.

I’m sure if that right person, like this girl I met, someone who may of come as far as me when I meet her and accepts me for me might come along but then again is it truly important to meet this person.

How beautiful would it be to meet someone and want to change the world and make it more compassionite more liveable?
But do I need it? No
Do I crave it? Yes

It feels so impossible but what do I have? The knowledge to know I can go somewhere.

I’m sure I wont be me again for a while, I take much time to heal but that’s who I am.

These things I know for sure:
I hope she finds happiness and purpose
I hope that I find purpose and meaning
I need to cleanse these unhealthy painful emotions and become me once again.

I’m a wreck but I will cope, I left the door open to her, I told her what I thought was the best advice, I told her to be happy, and I don’t feel spiteful, I know I couldn’t talk to her normally at this moment in time as just a friend, maybe if I pass this her and I can one day be friends but for now she is out of my life and things are as they were before I met her, I’m glad I met her, she was an awesome person but it obviously wasn’t right in her mind.

I am utterly confused but lets hope the right views I held in this absolute expression of the thoughts in my head right now overpower any wrong views in this expression.

I hope though that most of my thoughts are right view, I am confident that they are but I’m sure in time they will make sense.

Reflection

I haven’t posted on this blog for a long time as many of you may know, I’m not sure if any of my old readers from various places still check on the blog from time to doubt and I doubt it but here I will be posting my views, beliefs and perceptions from the world.

The first thing that has got me back into a post is love, its my trigger, it’s the thing that cuts deep into me no matter how strong it is, it always leaves me wandering how I got myself into the situation in the first place, internet dating? Wearing my heart on my sleeve? Getting attached too quickly? I honestly don’t know and even after long periods of meditation I can’t figure out why certain situations lead to so much suffering for me.

I know these things are certain, I do ultimately put myself in a position with the potential to get hurt, I do trust society too much to perceive certain people as being able to ignore the superficiality of the world, but the sad fact is, is that too many people in the world are conditioned with superficial views, they may not be aware of these things and it can take a very motivated and reflective person to be able to reflect on themselves and see the root cause of this problem and rout it out, but of course this is only my point of view.

For those of you who would like to work towards being more content with your life try listening to http://www.bswa.org/modules/mydownloads/visit.php?cid=4&lid=131 and see if it works for you, I myself have much trouble being content with live because like everyone I am not perfect, I want more meaning in life, I want so much more purpose but yet it can be so hard to find sometimes.

Without going into specifics I will go into detail about what has happened recently that has caused me to reflect on myself, you see I tend to always try to find some way of improving my life when things go wrong.

I met a girl, of course since my last post I have met many girls, and I just haven’t been able to relate to them in the same way I could this girl. This girl, I spoke with her on the phone many times for hours on end and I hadn’t met her, we could hold a conversation about things which you couldn’t usually develop a discussion out of in the everyday conversation. Things about life, love etc, it also seemed we had so much in common, this awesome girl couldn’t wait to meet me and it built up, we met, and that was it, I still felt the same way about her as I first did but she didn’t feel the same about me, of course this should have been expected, the one quam I have with myself is that I let myself get to emotionally and mentally attached, I thought hey this could work, as it turned out there were some views that even this great girl might not of known she held and that I still don’t know what they were that caused her to not be so *into* me anymore, I’m not going to make any kind of example of her but you can see from this wonderful but painful example, ultimately wearing your heart on your sleeve causes suffering.

On a personal note, I feel lost because this is the first time I have met someone who is so much alike me mentally and even some what spiritually that I was able to relate to on this level, it truly is hard sometimes when these things happen and pass us by but life is difficult and we have to find the good in what happens to us no matter hard it is, life is a learning experience.

Let’s reiterate on something important from the path of Buddhism, the four noble truths:

1. Life means suffering.
2. The origin of suffering is attachment
3. The cessation of suffering is attainable.
4. The path to the cessation of suffering.

You see this is great, it’s so blunt and in my eyes so true, my only problem is I don’t want to be totally detached from the world, I want a partner, I want to find a profession that helps people, this is my problem and I just can’t seem to find a way to work myself around it.

At this very moment in time I’m utterly confused, I don’t know what I want, what I want to do, I need to get out and enjoy life more.

As some of you may or may not know I’m and IT guy, I’ve always been into the challenge of learning things new and IT has seemed to be that profession, programming to be specific, but lets look at what’s wrong with that view, doing IT, doing something because its what I want doesn’t really achieve anything on a greater scale its just me isn’t it. Now as selfish as this my sound *I* would be a lot happier doing things that directly impacted and improved other peoples lives, not just mine.

Right now my stresses are many, I don’t altogether enjoy my job, I have loans which I just want to pay off, I’m not getting enough exercise because I never have enough energy thanks to my work, I’m giving up smoking which is hard but I’m getting there and of course the ordeal that has recently occurred that I have partly focused on here.

I don’t really know what more to say because I’m tired as all Hell but I would like to leave you with a few things to reflect on:

Are you unhappy where you are now?
Is your job causing you too much stress?
Is there any place you would like to take your life?
Are you having difficulties relating to people?
Is there something I don’t like about myself?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions ask yourself how to I reverse that or how to achieve what I want to achieve, its really easy if you think clear headed and make sure the motivation behind your goal is pure.

Also for those spiritual nuts out there reflect on how fulfilling the following may be:
1. I vow to rescue the boundless living beings from suffering;
2. I vow to put an end to the infinite afflictions of living beings;

For those love nuts out there curse by what may be Karma from the times we have broken others hearts as hard as this may be reflect on:

Do we need a partner in our life to be fulfilled?
Is the Pain worth it?
What are our alternatives?
(For me the answers are yes, yes, I will cover this if I ever get hurt so much the first two answers change)

Anyway that is me for this post on reflection, I hope it wasn’t to muddled as you may of notices I’m feeling quite reflective myself as well as confused and slightly lost, even empty.