Philosophy of existence
Philosophy of existenceMy thoughts on tables.
Since I have decided to do a university course on Philosophy, I thought that it was worthwhile doing some research into the subject, which I knew, or perhaps still know, little about. Philosophy takes the questions which are asked every day and look closely at them, closer than I have ever tried to do, and work out if there is, of ever can be, a pertinent answer to them.
Is there any knowledge in the world that is so certain that no one could reasonably doubt it? This question, which at first sight might not seem difficult, is really one of the most difficult that can be asked. When we have realized the obstacles in the way of a straightforward and confident answer, we shall be well started on the study of philosophy. What I have found during my period of immense seclusion and research is that philosophy is merely the attempt to answer, not carelessly as we do in everyday life, but critically, after exploring all the possibilities that a question of this sort entails, and after recognising all the vagueness and confusion that underlie most normal thinking.
In daily life, we assume loads of things to be completely certain, which, upon closer scrutiny, are found to be so full of contradictions that we have to think hard about what we really knew in the first place. In my search for certainty, it makes sense to begin with what we really know, and knowledge must be derived from this. But anything, which I used to consider to be definite, I can now begin to doubt. It seems to me that we are all now sitting on chairs, at a table of a certain shape, on which I see sheets of paper with print. By turning my head, I see a blacked-out window which I am fairly sure is hiding a grass lawn, London, the moon and even further than that, the sun. I believe that the sun is about 100 million miles from the earth (give or take), that it is seriously hot and much bigger than the earth and that, due to the rotation of the earth, it rises every morning, sets every evening, and continue to do so for quite a long time in the future. I believe that if anybody else looks at the table which I am now looking at, he or she will see the same chairs, table papers and candles which I see, and also that the table that I see is the same as the table which I feel my arms resting on. All these things seem to be so obvious that I clearly don’t need to explain this to an intelligent group of people, except when I am replying to someone who doubts whether I know anything. All of this may be doubted, and all of it requires some very careful discussion before we can be positive...
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