Being in Asia for this time has, among other things, brought me to multiple points wherein I had to choose how to face an experience; as C.S. Lewis put it, "What we learn from experience depends on the kind of philosophy we bring to experience." This I believe to be exceptionally true and answers quite a number of questions I've heard as to the point and practical purpose of philosophy. Experience is indeed a teacher, but we as students must decide what we actually listen to and choose to remember. Indeed a teacher may do their best to teach me math, but if my philosophy dictates that math is useless, then I shall resolve to learn nothing. One does not have to learn from experience.
During my stay throughout Asia, therefore, my philosophies have been visited and revisited, revised, tempered and tested. It is one thing to sit in comfort and fancy the novelties of heaven and salvation. It is another thing entirely to discuss this with one who has been long suffering and is soon about to find out how true our truth is. It comes to my attention that sitting amongst such suffering I could be like Job's friends, or perhaps instead like Charles Templeton and use the opportunity to denounce God as too weak to help, a sadist, or simply non-existent: for a 'good and loving God would never allow such evil.' For that matter I would have to start by deciding that pain, in and of itself, is evil, and that evil is evil because it's painful.
I want to take a step backward, however, and first consider what is at stake to begin with: my philosophy. It is an old word of Greek origin. The first part of the word comes from phileo - 'to love' - and the latter from sophia - 'knowledge; wisdom'. What the word means in a contemporary context I shall leave alone, but years ago it was designated to mean a 'love of wisdom and knowledge', and that was when it was still believed that there was real wisdom and real knowledge. That is, absolute; unchanging. One did not sow seeds in the winter, for that was foolish, nor did one reap when the crops were young, for that too was foolish; one sowed when the soil was rich, which was wise, and reaped when the crops were at full stalk. Philosophy, therefore, immediately dictates the fruition of our experiences, and is therefore rather important to be considered. But I say this not to lecture; I say it to explain.
For this is my endeavor: to begin going through the various elements of my philosophies with a search for truth. Gladly, I shall continue to pull from without that which I 'know' but, admittedly, do not understand. It shall be a challenge to myself to see how well I can give an account of my philosophies, while attempting to sift and set truth. To put it another way, to make sure that my philosophies are defined and derived of truth, not truth of my philosophies.
My posts therefore related to the search and reflection shall therefore be super-titled 'The Inquisition: '. I pray that my intellectual odyssey may be of use to some that might read it, and I encourage all at various points within ones life to take some time and check whether our image of reality actually coheres with reality. Otherwise, quite frankly I'm afraid, experience is not teaching us truth for we're not looking for it.
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