On Learning Philosophical Concepts A Little Bit At A Time

7/24/2020

The Philosophers attempt to bring ideas to the future generations,

they are masters of learning how to think, conceptualize, and get extremely smart.

There are a few things that we must set aside at first,

and above all remember that they were children once, teenagers, that they are all too human.

When possible we should begin with survey courses and general overviews,

Video Lectures and Audio Books on the subject of Philosophy in general.

is a great start, Ariel and Will Durant seem like an amazing couple.

In 1977 they were presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Gerald Ford,

and Ariel was named "Woman of the Year" by the city of Los Angeles.

The Giants of Philosophy Series is a set of 13 Audio Books surveying word's top Philosophers,

written by multiple authors and narrated by Charlton Heston.

We must not judge a Philosophy by the mistakes of the Philosopher,

if they did make mistakes, then they published hoping to be granted a hearing.

We should avoid memorizing, ideally we want to approach Philosophers that we find familiar,

and perhaps already having re-invented some portion of what they worked on.

One concept that comes to mind is Amor Fati,

it means Love of Fate.

But to me, it does not speak about the kind of fate where everything is pre-determined,

or the fate of a person who lets whim and life push them around, but rather events that just happen.

but in my opinion he takes it too far as he speaks of Suffering, he runs into the extremes.

My bullies are an example of Extremes and Suffering,

and Amor Fati does not mean I should love my bullies, and Friedrich states as much:

"Only great pain is the ultimate liberator of the spirit. I doubt that such pain makes us ‘better’; but I know that it makes us more profound."

(Thanks Friedrich, My Dear Old Friend.)

Albert Camus brings it down to reality,

speaking of accepting that life comes with Difficulty and Ease, and we should accept both.

"A will to live without rejecting anything of life... is the virtue I honor most in this world."

It is not enough to learn about a philosophical concept like we just did,

we should hope to integrate it, or keep it as a reminder that we have more to learn before we understand it fully.

The way I connect with Amor Fati,

is by understanding that not everything in my life will happen for a reason,

some thing will just happen out of complexity and randomness that we can't prevent; and that to me is fate.

I like how Albert Camus telks about Ease and Difficulty and the way I understand him,

is that we should stand up for what we believe in, even if it means that people will yell at us.

So it is not tolerance of difficult things that just happen for no reason,

but the difficulty of standing up for what we believe in when the chance presents it self, for no reason- you see.

Our decision making which dictates our path in life,

has nothing to do with things that happen for no reason.

Finally, Amor Fati simply means,

do not let things that you have no control over take away from your Love of Life.

While this may not be exactly what Friedrich Nietzsche and Albert Camus talk about,

my initial, more personal interpretation, gives me a platform from which I can learn both of their interpretations and mutual differences.

And what I am showing here, is that we don't have to understand all the philosophical concepts right away,

that it is best to learn a little bit at a time, at our own pace, and in our own sequence.