I have a growing conviction that philosophers use their mind, but often towards the wrong end. Many of us reach for an abstract truth that cannot be obtained. It is beyond our grasp, yet our mind is still a key to the “good life”.
Somehow, I sense there is much to be gained from a purposeful cultivation and development of our interior life. I’m not necessarily talking about a religious experience – not in the classical sense. I am referring to examining the connection between what happens on the external level and how it impacts the internal level.
The very statement provokes notions of dualism, but I use these two classifications to represent position, not to infer a complete break between our mind and our environment. Could it be that by addressing this relationship between the external and the perception of it, I could achieve a deep level of satisfaction? In fact, I wonder how much of our futile grasping actually hinders the development of the “good life”.
This is not to suggest that we should not try to understand truth, it is only to suggest that much of the work on essence, on universals, on perception, etc. has been applied in an abstract way, when it could be a key to a sort of internal liberation. Erikson may have been closer than Aristotle…
