How doth philosophy arise? I presume that it is a high possibility that philosophy always begins in a negative scenario. If men were left to their own devices and never hindered then why would he give a second thought to anything…he would be as an animal fulfilling his instincts. But man is restricted. Man has a conscience a moral guide. Inherently he knows that there is a standard that at the least everyone else should be judged by if not he. However man is always fighting against that which would hinder him from fulfilling the desires of his flesh. The human spirit by its very nature is at odds with high moral and ethical standards. This leads men into a fight; he must justify his actions or submit to higher moral standards. He chooses darkness rather than light, in so doing he must defend himself eloquently. He must appear intelligent, superior, and even complex. In response to his nonconformity to the absolutes, those who do conform must defend the truth. (Not that the truth needs to be defended. Inherently truth cannot be deteriorated. But it must be defended to other humans if truth is to be held to by the populace.) They propose a philosophy opposed to this nonconformist.
Man does not naturally arrive at a heightened sense of self-awareness/consciousness. It is when he is opposed that he begins to think with his “stomach” (lusts, desires, and passions). His “stomach” makes him think very deeply. Although he thinks deeply he will never arrive at the truth because he begins with The Lie: self-centeredness. All his thoughts, called philosophy, are his attempts at removing guilt for the life that he ‘naturally’ wants. His thoughts are very muddled and unclear, yet he speaks with alacrity and articulacy, thus he wins the ignorant. They think he is a genius because they cannot understand him. Little do they realize that the truth is simple and clear; not easy to follow. They would rather follow the easy path, justified by thoughts that are complex and unclear.
Then there are men who shun their animal passions. They are able to do this because it is their destiny to do so, not because they have chosen it. If it were a matter of choice, the conformists would be ‘good’ guys while the nonconformists would be ‘bad’ guys. But this is not the case, providence has determined that certain men would conform and would be, in one sense the ‘judges of the earth’ (Psalm 149). They counter ‘bad’ thoughts by formulating arguments based upon the truth. These are the philosophies of Christian thinkers (St. Augustine, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, etc.). Clearly these thinkers have the advantage; much of their philosophy is based upon the truth, and that which is based upon truth cannot be wrong.
Consequently a modern philosophy has overcome the American populace of not caring about the standard. They have lived with the philosophies of suppressing the truth for so long that this second, third, or fourth, generation will pay for the sins of their fathers.
“But such is the proneness of the human mind to go astray, that it will more quickly draw error from one little word, than truth from a lengthened discourse.”
~John
Calvin~
Institutes
of the Christian Religion II.ii.7