Conflicts …

Philo: Sorry I had to rush off last time, but I had an essential fatty-acid crisis developing and needed to grind some flax seed in a hurry.

Estudia: Well, I hope you are feeling better. You look fine. I can’t tell that anything is wrong. Is it your mind or your body that is lacking the essentials?

Philo: Ha, ha, ha, very funny. I see that you have been reading up on this dichotomy we have been discussing. The conflict that arises when men can not distinguish between the man-made and the metaphysically given. Men have throughout the ages wished reality would conform to their desires. They pray for it, they meditate for it, and they wind up not living in this world but dreaming of the better one to come. I told you that if you expect existence to conform to your wish simply because it is your wish, then you are in for a big disappointment. You get the conflict between the “spiritual” and the “material.” These are the two realms of the imaginary existence that has been handed down for centuries. From Plato to present day psychology this theory that there is a conflict between the mind and body has permeated philosophical thought and ordinary living.

Estudia: How did this mind-body conflict get started?

Philo: It is called the theory of mind-body dichotomy and goes back to the beginning of man’s search for meaning. It stems from the primacy-of-consciousness viewpoint.

Estudia: Oh, I get it. Those who think that consciousness creates existence will want and expect existence to comply with their wishes.

Philo: This is the inheritance of Plato. In his dialogs we listen to Timaeus explain to Socrates the formation of the world and he recounts the myth of the demiurge. Matter was in chaos until a creator tries to shape it into a world of perfect beauty but fails. Matter is imperfect and always in conflict with the ideal. This is the thinking that results in the error of turning away from reality and not accepting things as the really are. The metaphysically given, I remind you, is absolute. By not accepting this fact you wind up with the mind-body dichotomy.

Estudia: I don’t accept the primacy of consciousness view. You have convinced me that the axioms are absolute. Existence and only existence exists. I don’t expect things to be what I want just by wishing. I’ll work for what I want while wishing for it. But my wishes will be goals, written down and concretized and visualized by me, not just dreams and whims.

Philo: You should find peace as it is true, “The truth will set you free.” People with you’re your attitude will be in harmony and feel serene with what is. Use your perception to perceive existence as intended and as is only possible. Your senses can’t be out to foil your efforts and make you think things are something other than what they are. Seek the truth and always be honest with yourself first and with others as long as they are worthy of your respect.

Universal Possibilities …

Estudia: It’s been a while, Phi. But do you remember what you told me about denying the metaphysically given as absolute?

Philo: Absolutemente.

Estudia: Well, I’ve been thinking about this and I realized that if I do accept the absolutism of the given, then I’ve got a responsibility to conform to the universe, right?

Philo: Of course, it can’t be that the universe should conform to your wishes. That’s what a conflict with reality is and many people think that this is the human condition. These kinds of people are at war with the external world. They feel that their wishes and desires should be the way things work, but that darn reality is intractable. Existence just isn’t good enough so they wind up feeling that life is impossible or at least not fair.

Estudia: I hear that a lot. “It’s not fair; I studied hard and still got a D on the test.” I think I’ll be better off if I accept reality along with my limitations and my strengths and just use reality for my own purposes if I can.

Philo: Oh, you can. Stick with reason and, although success is not guaranteed, you’ll have a shot at success for sure.

Estudia: How did this fallacy of rewriting reality get started anyway? Was it the cavemen who understood so little and had so much to fear that came up with the idea?

Philo: In a sense, yes. Religion evolved to explain existence and the idea of a supernatural all-powerful god was born. And, of course this god could have created things differently and can change them at any time by performing miracles. The idea expressed by the philosopher Leibnitz, “All is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.” concretizes the idea that ours is just one of many possible universes. It’s a mistake to spend your time dreaming of how things might be instead of dealing with things the way they are. Physicists are spending a lot of time on conjuring up “real” parallel universes these days. If they don’t find them, I’m sure they will be ready to blame existence for their failure. “After all, it was good in theory, just bad in practice,” will be the wine I’m sure. No, you are right to honor reality, but remember that you are not infallible or omnipotent, so even if you do not evade the facts you are not guaranteed success.

Estudia: At least I won’t hold a grudge against existence if I do fail or if I have to deal with adversity. Feeling sorry for myself won’t move me toward anything except one of those non-existent parallel universes six feet under the ground.

Philo: Now you’re getting morbid. Next time I’ll tell you a sad tale first attributed to Plato, my favorite philosopher (not) next to the one my kids liked, Play Dough.

Estudia: Wait, before you go, how does Christianity view existence.

Philo: Like Islam and Judaism, they all invite you to wish for a different reality. “You’ve got to have Hope, Love, and Charity. That’s all you’ll ever need.” Or, how ‘bout “Let’s all pray for Brother John and Sister Mary, so they can save the farm” or what ever. Not trying to be too facetious there but it’s true. Only the man-made is possible to control, if it conforms to the laws of physics of course. Anything else is not possible, it is the actual. You can’t have it both ways. Omnipotence is not logical and it is incompatible with the law of identity. A is A, and that’s it. Hope and prayer are useless except as a physiological prop at times. The introspective aspect of praying, opening yourself to the subconscious mind, can help you find answers to real problems in reality, but prayer is not going to change reality for you. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. See you later.

Rewriting reality …

Estudia: I’m back Phi. Where were we?

Philo: We were talking about the error of not differentiating properly between the man-made and metaphysically given facts. You said that you wanted to embrace socialism because it a given fact and I said you were evading reality if you did that. Socialism is a man-made fact so you would be unrealistic in not rejecting a bad idea, and you would just be sanctioning the status quo which in this case in creeping socialism in our country.

Estudia: That’s good to know because I hope to fight bad ideas when I learn enough about good ideas like you have been teaching me. I see my error, but don’t people make the same error when they refuse to accept the metaphysically given facts like death or our inability to know everything?

Philo: Well, it’s another kind of error. You should accept the metaphysically given as absolute. That’s the correct attitude. What you are thinking of is the case where someone doesn’t like something like death and so they evade it or worse say it makes there life meaningless. That is called “rewriting reality” by Ayn Rand. Someone who does this is simply not regarding the facts. The metaphysically given is absolute and they are imagining an alternative.

Estudia: Give me some examples. I think I understand. If something is it is and you’d better get over it. Lots of people don’t like the fact that we die so they invent and claim to believe in heaven or reincarnation. I think that would be an example, no?

Philo: Right! Some go so far as to say that because we die then life is meaningless. We are mortal and to be alive means we are necessarily going to die eventually. All living organisms suffer from mutations, limiting cell-division processes, free radical damage, etc. and that limits our survival. We can’t rebel against this fact of reality, but we can value our lives and search for meaning, and find it too so that we will enjoy our existence. Another example this rewriting of reality can be found in philosophy. Lots of philosophers are skeptics who don’t think the senses are a valid source of data for learning about reality. They would prefer that we gain knowledge from a higher power like our feelings or from a God.

Estudia: What do you say to them?

Philo: I tell them that knowledge depends on sensory data and that is all I can tell them. It is a fact that is necessarily so and hence absolute and no alternative can be imagined except as a fictional endeavor like a good science fiction novel. By our nature, we use our senses to gain knowledge of reality and that is a metaphysical fact that applies to us and all the processes that are involved in using our senses.

Estudia: So I have to conform to the universe and not hope and pray I can get some higher power to change it so it would be, quote, better, unquote.

Philo: Exactly, absolutely correctomenti. You are very bright. Someone who doesn’t accept the absolutism of the metaphysically given has a different attitude. They don’t expect to conform to the universe; they expect existence to obey their desires. A person like this has a serious conflict with reality and will see this as a problem in human life. Lots of thinkers have and still do have a problem distinguishing between the metaphysically given and the man-made. I think even our present day physicists are way off base here. Never could quite get their explanations so I finally gave up with all that imaginary, ghost particle, and uncertainty stuff. Next time I’ll give you a little history and explain one of the biggest dichotomies around.

Estudia: Terrific, I can hardly wait. See ya, Phi.

The Proper Attitude …

Estudia: Okay Phi, your discussion brings up a question for me.

Philo: Shoot.

Estudia: So what if there are metaphysically given facts and in addition, man-made facts? Who cares and why? A fact is a fact after all.

Philo: Not exactly. There is an important, even crucial difference. In fact the difference is such that we have to treat the two types of facts completely different.

Estudia: Like how?

Philo: Let me finish. This (sweeping his hand around in front and partly behind himself) is reality and there are lots of metaphysically given facts out there, in here, over there and everywhere. Doesn’t matter what you or I think about them either. They just are and you should properly accept them without evaluation. No jumping up-and-down, cussing or whatever. These facts can’t be true or false, good or bad, right or wrong. They just are. They are right no matter what.

Estudia: What about man-made facts?

Philo: Well, you can probably guess what I’m going to say.

Estudia: They must be evaluated I’d think, because they are chosen by man and don’t have to exist even.

Philo: Right, you do have to evaluate them. You must pass judgment on these man-made facts. People can make mistakes, they can be irrational, or just plain wrong so anything that someone creates doesn’t have to, and shouldn’t, be accepted just because it exists. You can’t … well you can but it won’t help… you can’t call a hurricane bad in and of itself. You just should say, yep, a hurricane and time to board-up or ship-out. You can work to protect yourself and your property from the effects of one, but you don’t judge it as such. The man-made must be judged.

Estudia: What about if I think hurricanes are so bad that I figure out how to stop them in their tracks and cause them to dissipate before they can get up any wind or storm surge?

Philo: You’d be confusing the given with the man-made. What you described might be a good thing assuming you accomplished your goal, but you’d be wrong to judge hurricanes as such. You procedure for limiting or eliminating them is what needs to be judged. The beneficial rains that hurricanes carry inland might be missing if your procedure worked and then that could be a really bad thing for farmers and water users. That could and should be judged. The fact that hurricanes form should just be worked with and accepted. Nothing good or bad about it. It just is.

Estudia: Okay, but what about being realistic for a minute. We have big government and socialism is creeping in all around us. This is what most people want and they’ll vote for it. That’s realistic and it would be a mistake to fight the trend. You have got to make the most and best of a bad situation. That’s reality.

Philo: Hardly. What you are talking about is a man-made fact. There is nothing metaphysically given about socialism. It’s definitely man-made. I’d say you are being unrealistic in not judging it and fighting it. You are evading reality if you just accept it as being our destiny. Socialism contradicts the metaphysically given nature of man as I’ll explain some day, but socialism is not a given.
Estudia: I’ve got to run, but I think I understand. I want to hear more when I get back. CU later, Philo.

Chosen facts …

Estudia: Phi, does necessity mean that something is what it is because it is what it is. This is confusing me.

Philo: Whoa, that is confusing said like that. Necessity identifies something about things. Existents are things that are here and existents are what they are by the law of identity and so they are necessary.

Estudia: This applies to all facts, right?

Philo: No, only to metaphysically given facts, not man-made ones. Man-made facts are chosen by man. They exist because of a human choice. There is nothing necessary about them other than that they have identity, causes and now exist. There is nothing necessary about those kinds of facts. Men can be creative and use or adapt the entities of his existence to his own purposes. You can create things, but you don’t have the power to change the metaphysically given facts. You must conform to the given and use the immutable facts to your benefit.

Estudia: Like I have to dig the gold out of the ground if I want to possess it, but I can design an elaborate pulley system to haul it up or not.

Philo: Sure, the gold in the ground with the properties it has is absolute. Your lift system is optional and chosen and a man-made fact. It must conform to the metaphysically given however, so your creativity does not defy the absolutism of reality.

Estudia: The Francis Bacon view that “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”

Philo: Exactly.

Absolute facts …

Philo: Welcome back ‘tud. Glad to see you.

Estudia: Y tu, professor. But I have been thinking about your philosophy and you promised to discuss metaphysics some more. Can’t see how there is much more to it so I’m curious.

Philo: Metaphysics is pretty limited as far as most Objectivists are concerned and they are concerned. Their view ends with the idea that there is just no alternative to reality. You don’t need to postulate an alternate reality or something outside and separate from the universe. A fact is a fact and no conceivable or imaginary alternative is possible. All facts are absolutely necessary and metaphysically given. Nothing we can do about it.

Estudia: What do you mean; we can’t do anything about them. I do lots of things that get things done. Men create all sorts of things, don’t they?

Philo: Of course, but that’s my point. There are facts that are just part of existence that exist separate from any human action. Facts that are not man-made. We create all sorts of mental and physical entities but they are all man-made and subject to our control. Some facts are just there and there is nothing we can do about them.

Estudia: Yea, that’s true I guess. It’s a fact that electrons and protons are attracted to each other but we use that fact to make televisions, right.

Philo: Electromagnetic attraction is a metaphysical fact. Televisions are man-made.

Estudia: Viruses are metaphysically given and anti-viral medications are man-made. Airfoils are man-made but lift and drag are metaphysically given.

Philo: Oh, you are good. So you may easily see that once you identify something, like the attraction of a proton and an electron, all of the Objectivist metaphysics is implied. The law of identity says that the fact is what it is. The entities obey the law of causality and act in specific ways. The nature of the entities and their actions are independent of any consciousness. They are not dependent on anyone’s feelings or beliefs.

Estudia: The primacy of existence corollary.

Philo: Exactly. If a fact is then it is an absolute fact —absolutely necessary by the nature of existence itself and not changeable by you, me or anyone, or anything for that matter.

Estudia: But is a fact necessary. Is it necessary to have laws say, or guns for that matter?

Philo: You are confusing the man-made with the metaphysically given. I’m taking about things over which we have no choice. Facts that are necessary because their nonexistence would result in a contradiction. The identity of the electron/proton system makes their attraction necessary. That is all that is needed from reality and such facts are not subject to evaluation like are they bad or good. You may not like it, but these types of facts are real so get over it, in other words.

Estudia: Water is denser that air and can crush you if you go too deep, and that is a bad thing, isn’t it?

Philo: It just is a fact. Compressed air in a tank with a two stage regulator is a man-made fact that can let you breath under that pressure, that’s good and can add enjoyment and wealth to men. Next time let’s discuss choice in dealing with facts.
Estudia: Bye, Phi!