What is Philosophy?

Café-Salon Philosophique #23

October 10, 1998

No. of Participants: 15

The Evening's Topic: "What is Philosophy?"

Samuel began the evening with the statement, "There is a stagnation of learning in education occurring throughout America." He described left brain dominance, and how our Society, neglects stimulating right brain functions.

Artistic talents lie dormant in a vast majority of the people. Balance needs to be established between the artist and the scientist, the thinker and the doer, with assertion and passivity, motion and stillness.

He then announced lst Year Anniversary plans for Cafe-Salon Philosophique which will be November 7, 1998 at Barnes & Noble. The topic will be: "Immortality." (Please see details below)

The first question of the evening was asking, "Why did we come to Cafe tonight?" Natalie "saw it in the paper." Jon and Laura "thought it looked interesting" by observing a previous meeting in the bookstore. Reinhard thinks "it's an important time we live in," and "it is important to discuss worldly affairs." Damien came because he likes to "express himself" and "to learn." Aziza came to see "if her mind still works."

So, "What is Philosophy?" David said that "we possibly couldn't be here to discuss book theory because that's a completely different thing." "There are many realms of philosophy." Jon thinks philosophy is "principles of daily living and involves politics." Brad said, "philosophy is how you know the world.

You then put philosophical views together by cause and effect, and then it becomes a matter of ethics of how you deal with society."

Natalie believes that, "philosophy is a way we find meaning for our existence." Laura philosophizes in order "to have an organized way for understanding and perceiving the world. Eric says, "philosophy is questions and thoughts that don't have answers." Aziza believes, "it is a way to learn and understand about the internal and external worlds."

Wayne stated that "philosophy can be guiding principles to deal with the world and to sharpen our awareness of what's happening." "It's like a science that shows us how things work." Sam said, "it's a way to think."

Reinhard sees philosophy as a "love for wisdom." Damien commented that "philosophy is a cultural language of reason. It is where we are in life by what we believe."

Brad learns about life through philosophy. He admitted to being a skeptic though, because he feels that "we have been inudated with vast amounts of information from schools, the governments, church, etc." "I am in the process of building my own model and ways of thinking by "putting together bits and pieces of information" that I have learned, to gain my own clear perspectives."

The next question was, "To What Degree are we Conscious?" Someone commented that consciousness does not necessarily mean knowledge. Aziza stated that "it is because we are unaware that we are not conscious." We are also unaware of what we have stored in our subconscious. We are unaware of the creative, imaginative genius lying within us. We don't stop to imagine how we could create something out of nothing.

The "noise" of the world and overstimulation has dulled our senses. We are even unaware of our sixth sense, the kinesthetic sense.

The group then began a discussion of how we are out of balance in eastern/ western philosophies, male/female, right brain/left brain, insights vs. thoughts, and intelligence versus intuition.

Samuel stated that, "People don't have the proper tools for balancing and organizing the being into one integrative whole. The mental, physical and spiritual aspects of a person remains unaligned. (See What is BodySpeak™?)

Humans remain stagnant." We continue as a mass of "unconscious" sheep "sleepwalking" through life. We stay hypnotized by outside authorities, and think that mediocrity is "okay."

Samuel believes that "total consciousness is possible." "Every human has the ability and the right to be fully conscious of what's happening every moment and to live life to it's fullest." Brad doesn't "believe this." "We can't know everything." Samuel asked, "Why not?" "Are you lazy not to know?" Brad wanted to think about this.

Natalie believes in the development of consciousness, but feels that technology has taken over from human contact. "Look where we have gone with computers. Almost all systems now operate by computers, e-mail and the internet."

"We are feeding the intellect but, losing the art of human contact. It's been proven that people who work with computers can develop depression and become distant from others.

Natalie continued that this is at "the expense of the body, because we are in our heads, therefore, sacrificing our artistic side." Vineeta also believes that computers "isolate people."

Aziza thinks "it is a shame when we do not see our brother and sister as our self. We see them as enemies. This causes disconnection from the self. Tribes, communities and neighbors is where we connect."

"Things started changing with the invention of the automobile - the ability to be able to go over great distances. In essence, we continue to distance our selves from the environment and nature through technology."

"Technology is good, but it also serves greed." "It can also limit our way of thinking by thinking that it is the only way to do things."

Brad added, "People tend to be uncomfortable with changes, and I suspect that they will be even more so as technology continues to change." "Sometimes, it seems to me, the more you know, the more you are alone." "What does one do with loneliness?"

Vineeta stated that she is "aware of loneliness when she realizes that she is looking outside of herself for the answer, instead of looking inside."

Samuel asked, "What's wrong with being alone? Or being independent?" "When one is in the "God state," being alone can be pleasurable and even ecstatic." He stated that he "consciously" chooses to disconnect from certain aspects of Society and finds a way to "navigate creatively" in and out of the world. Brad said, "I know you think this way, but I just don't understand that concept at the moment."

Reinhard thinks that the world has made the computer, "God." He feels that Society is "using and abusing it, just like everything else." He is looking for "missing information and the love of wisdom."

Brad still believes that technology is good. "The more we have, the more to our advantage." But, he agreed that "computers can't give inner fulfillment."

So the last question was, "Don't we have a choice?" Samuel said that we should be able to choose what we want. David thinks that "the world has been set up for the majority of people and leaves the minority out of it."

He believes there are "three kinds of people" - visual, auditory and kinesthetic. Sixty percent (60%) are visual. These are the "left brainers or techies." "Twenty percent (20%) are auditory and the other twenty percent (20%) is kinesthetic. This reflects how many are out of touch with their bodies and senses, and choose to stay in the intellectual mind, depriving themselves of knowing the pleasures of the body and their true self.

So what does the future hold? Jon thinks that we will get to the point of being able to "develop holograms," and Wayne thinks that "transmutation" is possible in the near future. He also thinks we need to develop our own value systems.

Samuel thinks that humanity has a long way to go. "We are not humans, we are still humanimals." We need to evolve 5,000% before we can even think of calling our selves human.

One needs to learn that "they can know everything, and that immortality is possible." "What kills immortality is our thought processes about ourselves and others. In this Society, "death and dying are accepted as inevitable." We do "what we are told" by so called, "experts," and believe in the "aging process" of life.

Is immortality possible? Think about it

In closing, we would like to make this special announcement:

CAFE-PHILO CELEBRATING ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Cafe-Salon Philosophique will celebrate its ONE Year Anniversary on Saturday, Nov 7th, 1998, 7:30 - 9:30 PM dedicated as homage to Marc Sautet, the French Philosopher who launched Cafe-Philo, 1992 in Paris, France, who died tragically and suddenly this year.

The Topic: IMMORTALITY: Death as inevitable or Death as unacceptable ?

Suggested book to read is: Immortality, by Dr. Ben Bova, available at Barnes & Noble Bookstore, 2915 Pearl St., Boulder, CO.

Our next Cafe meeting will be held October 24, 1998 at 7:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble , 2915 Pearl St., Boulder, CO. The topic of the evening will be decided at that time. Thank you for your participation and invite your friends!

Reported by Alessandra