Evolution

Through my recent research reading articles, books, blogs and viewing a spectrum of videos I noticed that through time there is a strong link between psychology, philosophy, and theology. This is a topic I would still like to elaborate on as I gain more knowledge. Different branches of each discipline spreads out into a magnitude of directions. It is like a river that splits into different directions and into smaller streams but re-join again at some point. The past month my focus turned to the history of philosophy, more directed to Western philosophy. It was if a whole new world unfolded in front of my eyes and the more I got to read the more questions I needed to be answered. The more I searched for answers I was discovering even more and more vivid information. For me some days felt like there were not enough hours to get through everything I wanted to study. And this being self-study with no guidelines or restriction on what to read and where to get it from, or prescribed lectures to follow, I was free to  go wild and read whatever I wanted to. It is a journey of discovering secrets of life.  All of this being done with a simple purpose to me, discovering a meaningful life. I realised that with the technology we have available today, any person willing to read and learn can become a genius. I can only imagine what could have been done if the historical philosophers that made such a remarkable impact in the world had our technology available in their time. For them it took days if not months just to collect the material they wanted to study and then they could not just start debating with each other through an email or not even to say, a video call. The process evolution has caused  dramatic changes to everyday life. And speaking of evolution, imagine what Naturalist Charles Darwin would have further accomplished in his theory having available what he have today…?

  We have to embrace what we have. We need to start to look at possibilities of evolving even more into extraordinary beings capable of the unthinkable. It is so easy to neglect all our available resources due to a lack of interest and by choosing rather to do nothing than to search for knowledge. I am also guilty of this but I am trying to break down a bad routine and build on something with meaning. Studies in neuroplasticity is taking off in our time revealing our ability to change how our brain grows and works. Simple things that psychologist talked about years ago like positive thinking, the law of attraction and many more things are now brought to light by scientist having more information available regarding our brain and how it functions and its ability to transform. Unfortunately, I also noticed that there is a huge resistance between scientists, philosophers and theologians to join hands and work together. The one do not accept the way of the other and each discipline can actually be linked together to complete an enigma that people tried to complete for ages now. The Eastern believes compared to Western believes are also looked at separately and I think a combination of knowledge putting aside cultural differences for the sake of studies can convey a multitude of new information allowing astonishing evolution to humankind. For me growing up in South Africa and living through a time where politics and racism took the main stage in my epoch and where the focus keeps on turning to rectify the past instead of letting go and focusing on a better future for all, I feel like I am held back to study true philosophy. Most of our learning institutions are more focused on African philosophy and psychology and do not have a broad spectrum to choose from to study. Especial for someone like myself that do have a fulltime job and would like to do distance study on my own time in order to uplift my own knowledge irrespective of the career I am currently in. Not to be confined to what and how to study and having a set time for completion would have been to more use for me. And what more to speak about the extreme financial implication studying towards a degree or higher education could have on my life. How many people are there that would love to study and build on an education but could just not cut the bill to reach that dream? I am not changing the focus of the subject I’m writing on as I have to remind myself not to wander from what I am trying to say, but I needed to add these obvious restrictions that people have to face as a reality of the time we live in today and our reality also defines and implicate our way of thinking. For future generations to understand our philosophies they would have to understand the era we lived in. That is why one of the books I am reading now, The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, is giving me a larger sense of where the philosophers came from as Russel wrote in his preface, “My purpose is to exhibit philosophy as an integral part of social and political life: not as the isolated speculations of remarkable individuals, but as both an effect and a cause of the character of the various communities in which different systems flourished. This purpose demands more account of general history than is usually given by historians of philosophy.” For me history is an eye opener for the future. We cannot learn from trial and error only looking at our mistakes, but we need to look back in the world’s history where philosophers and other noble people have already documented such a vast amount of knowledge. We need to read and then step back and through our own reasoning and with recourses available today, re-evaluate information and knowledge to form even a more progressive conclusion to what life is about and where we are heading to. For me this is where my fascination in discovering a meaningful life come from. Let our history, combined with our contemporary be part of a positive evolution towards our future. We have to teach our children that knowledge is not only power, but knowledge put to use is like building material for our future. Understanding evolution would put us into a stronger connection with nature, and with that we would start to understand nature better. And if we can accomplish that, we can reach greatness.