AS/Philosophy
2090
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Communion of the unchanging is?
Written by:
Abhishek Sood
205607502
Socrates, the philosopher? Socrates, the idealist? Socrates the teacher. For the teacher’s privilege is to offer insights of wisdom through a medium of free communions for the greater truth of the question. The question of the unchangeable, is there anything greater?
Adoptions of free communions, as regarded in our society do not exist. One must understand a communion of the free, is a communion of the unchangeable—this wisdom is sought after by us, and therefore, being in our state, inadvertently, as Socrates would agree, justifies that our group is apart of the unfree communion. Humankind can be attributed as a single “spirit”, a single “organism” working in conjunction with shared time. Mankind’s elements are shared amongst all; body requirements are consistent and desires are equal. Humans are the same species. Humans therefore are this communion and our association between ourselves is unchangeable. One may re-phrase this philosophically as participation amongst us is like being in a sate of being held; like the raising of a child in the palm of your hand, one cannot limit or control the child’s growth, especially since there's a soul inside.
Inspiration, drive and will are variables in the journey of our lives where within one self; one is kept lit at all times with questions and arousals of our environment, sciences and unknowns. Arousals are the means of motivation; which through questioning our very existence brings us that much closer to the all unchangeable, wisdom. Or does it?
Socrates once said the communion of the unchangeable is the unchangeable. Translated, one may form the passage, “The fellowship of wisdom is wisdom”. One may interpret this in another, more meaningful fashion by stating, “The fellowship of wisdom is truth”. If one believes truth is not wisdom, what is wisdom? Wisdom can be formulated as a degree of knowledge. Once an answer to ones question has been answered, truth is subjected into that person, thus wisdom is obtained. Therefore wisdom is truth and truth is wisdom. What Socrates understood, was that regardless of how many questions and answers one obtained in his/her human life, one would never attain full wisdom until death.
It is stated that mankind’s fear of death is of the norm. Humans share a neutral understanding of an inevitable tragedy of human life; death. Death is regarded in a negative connotation. Death is not a politically correct discussion by any means. Death is regarded as a token on the body which inhabits a slow and gruesome process; it is painful and thus absolutely sad. In this regard, one can see how precious our lives are due to our bodies limitations to lead a full life. Socrates believed, death was the subject of all philosophers. He believed wisdom was attainable after death. One may pay due to the courage of a man to speak so openly on a subject considered by all, to be a sensitive, brutal and unholy topic of discussion-- especially in his times.
Socrates believed the body was the capsule of the soul. He believed there are limitations to ones body, limiting the soul from experiencing a true reality. The body’s six senses are, as he states, can be deceiving of the truth. Through sight, the brain distinguishes what it wants to see. Through audible hearing, again, the brain understands sounds and frequencies, the brain, in essence, wants to hear. The same applies for the other senses. Socrates believed the body, as a storage container, or even a prison of the soul, incorporated with the brain and senses, tarnished the reality for the soul creating a false reality for the mind. As a result, the souls need for escape to the unchangeable wisdom world would create agony and frustration. One may believe that as a result of such tarnished realities of truth, the mind and experience of the individual would create a clash of frequency. Thus unfortunate events and experiences in that individual’s life would transpire.
With such a conflict on the mind, the question arises if such a means is holy. If ones mind is made to combat a true reality of time, then we can conclude neither the mind nor the soul is truly free. The idea of “hell on earth” arises from such a notion. With such a lie upon the soul and mind, great catastrophes and much wrong has occurred within the unfree communion of mankind. With many wars, genocide and rape amongst other things one can conclude there is definitely a valid argument of a “hell on earth”. There is an interesting idea of knowing the difference between right and wrong. Simply, right and wrong, must therefore be the battle of the reality and unreality. Socrates believed our souls knew of this wisdom (reality), however the deception (unreality) is existent in our every day lives. To further investigate the ideology of a heaven existing, one can draw parallels between our every day “unreality”, which one may conclude is unjust, unfair and a lie (hell) opposed to the latter, composed of the unchangeable truth of wisdom(heaven). Socrates' insight on a spiritual world was justified by reasoning between the good and evil he witnessed around him. Once a child tastes sugar, there is a truth to that sugar. Sugar brings joy and happiness, and this sensation is not easily forgotten. Just as a soul has experienced the unchangeable truth of wisdom; the soul does not forget. This is therefore, the struggle between good and evil, heaven and hell.
Socrates generalized one of the most important passages ever written. The communion of the unchangeable is unchangeable. Once wisdom is achieved there are no lies, deceit nor wrong. Our current communions strive for knowledge, or information. Militaries of the world base their entire foundation on what they know. University students progress through their academic careers enduring their journey for knowledge. And a child’s intuition on how the world works due to previous soulful experiences justifies the existence of the soul itself. It was recently noted, we are currently living in a “knowledge society”. One may find this rather amusing as man and his mind have always thirsted for greater knowledge. The stars are looked upon for answers for the uncertain and calculations are derived for that is time itself. Roman warriors were taught that they were in Elysium, and they were already dead. The irony between time and Elysium is that generating knowledge of time is a great achievement towards the path of wisdom, whereas dictating an Elysium is playing god.
The communion of the unchanging is unchanging and it has and never will change.