Nova Sententia: A New Way to See
In this Borealism-E [Essential] post...
_A problem
_A solution
_A new way
The problem: A broken compass, scratched with paradigmatic grooves
We complicate things.
Our emotions, our constructs, and our raving rationality have promulgated themselves into this insatiable appetite for patterning everything from our own behaviour to that of our world, while we often overlook the fact that we tend to overthink.
In reality, and in our quest to discover how our reality operates, we can should/would/could try to simplify a bit by basing how things work on, well, how things work.
We over-compartmentalize knowledge; we allow tenure or status to obscure our minds; we force-feed outdated methods of inquiry and treat mass learning as a commodified product; we censor and self-sabotage our curiosity because of cultural displeasures; we restrict access to information; we let money or access to funding be the primary motivator or a powerful variable in too many equations.
We’re not perfect, though we try to be, and we’re not necessarily destitute; and though the stream of optimistic perspective seems to run more dry every year, there’s hope yet with respect to how we can correct this seemingly sinking ship.
While our knowledge of the world is rooted in simple observation, upon which we form hard rules of logic regarding the way that matter works or how energy moves, our layering is a bit all over the place.
What's needed, then, is some simplification; the necessity to get out of our way and to get back to simple observation.
The solution: A revitalized focus on the essential nature of all things
Assume we take the ‘hard’ knowledge we’ve cultivated regarding the physical world — principles of, say, thermodynamics or magnetism or mathematics — things that are as irrefutable as anything (for nothing seems to be truly irrefutable as we zoom in closer or look out father) — and assume that we apply their workings to our world in a way that corresponds to the ‘softer’ truths — those intuitional bits relating to principles of, say, balance or polarity.
What if we can't ever actually observe the real truths we're after? In such a case, it's critical to accept and observe the imprints of truth itself.
If we simply view everything in its naked and unfiltered form, looking solely through the lenses of ‘hard’ truths about our world and applying the more irrefutable principles of certain disciplines (say, thermodynamics), we can gain more than we’d otherwise think.
We’d mitigate our emotional responses; we’d employ a greater level of objectivity, working outside of the grooves that have been carved into our base-perspectives by inter-generational prejudices; we’d be assessing based on raw and pure observation, disentangled from the messy baggage and insulation that we’ve grown to over-apply.
“When one enquires into the essential nature of things — into the deeper realms of matter in physics; into the deeper realms of consciousness — one discovers a different reality beyond the superficial mechanistic appearance of everyday life.”
- Fritjof Kapra
It's an objective leap into a subjective unknown.
One has to take such a leap of faith from the objective into the subjective experience of the world — as it has to be acknowledged that reality is filtered through our singular perception of it.
The external world is needed, of course, but not to the degree we tend to assume - especially in the virtual-social side of things.
The more we filter our perspective through, say, social media, the more we lose sight of our own perceptions.
The new way: Reading between the constructs
It’s a fine balance between relinquishing the need to know everything while trying to actively know everything. Though something magical happens when we admit that we don’t know as much as we think we do — something that can only be experienced and not described.
This wonderful thing that happens, humbling though it is, allows us to shed the intellectual arrogance and institutional pomposity.
Moreover, it prompts us to realize the importance of subjectivity in our pursuit of knowledge and delineates why we need to jump from a passive bird’s eye view to an active participation in our own existence.
This subjective perception appears to be true in every layer of reality that we study. It’s the fulcrum of our perceptual experience in this world.
A subjective focus on the essential nature of all things, employed to follow the real things that lie underneath all of our cultural constructs.
To pursue the ripples of truth - the impressions that are clear and defining - without an expectation of ever really catching up to what we're after; as opposed to denying everything in the absence of unequivocal truth.
Maybe we'll get more out of it all this way.
For a more filling version of this post: https://medium.com/borealism/nova-sententia-a-new-way-to-see-4c8bfd3af707