FINAL #13
13. Write a 700 word story using 6 philosophers from LOOKING AT PHILOSOPHY which discusses the issue of whether "man can know ultimate truth." You can create any fictional story you wish, but you must be accurate in describing how a philosopher may argue. For instance, don't have Nietzsche arguing FOR God and Saint Augustine arguing AGAINST God. Your discussion or fictional story is a way for me to see if you understand 6 different philosophers (of your own choosing) and their respective take on truth and man's capacity to know it. TAKE A RISK.
like bill and ted in "bill and ted's excellent adventure," i decided to go back in time and kidnap six philosophers from different era and bring them to my kitchen table to have a cup of tea together. and maybe some philosophical discussions. so i took with me heraclitus, plato, epictetus, st. augustine, immanuel kant, and friedrich nietzsche. some of them looked at each other with admiration, but some with contempt and disgust. i myself made six cups of tea and had them all seated. nietzsche seems to be getting agitated, so i started the conversation.
me: so gentlemen, i gather you all here tonight for some discussion regarding the ultimate truth. can us men know the ultimate truth?
augustine: that is not possible. only god holds the ultimate truth.
nietzsche: preposterous! surely men can.
plato: now, nietzsche, calm yourself down. i'm with you on this one, but i doubt we'll agree as to how.
kant: i have my doubts. and just how would you propose that man can know the ultimate truth?
nietzsche: man has the will to power. this world is pretty much the survival of the fittest; only those who are strong can survive. one simply has to strive and evolve for the better because only after one reaches the state of the ubermensch can one know the ultimate truth.
heraclitus: i'm sorry, what is ubermensch?
nietzsche: ubermensch is somewhat like a superman. it is the final evolution stage of a human being who has successfully carry out his will to power and gain domination over nature.
augustine: you seem to be forgetting about the concept of god.
nietzsche: god is dead. enough said.
augustine: what? how dare you--
nietzsche: my apology, augustine, but the christianity concept is for the weak. you christians are scared to face conflict. your teaching to "love thy enemies" are a concept against nature itself!
heraclitus: nietzsche is right. everything in this world happens as a result of creation and destruction process. there is no such thing as living peacefully. such a style of living will render the society stagnant.
nietzsche: thank you. and you yourself, augustine, why would you think that us men have no ability to know the truth? are you afraid to face the fact that we have free will and thus we do not need god?
epictetus: be careful with what you mean by free will there, nietzsche. you yourself believe that nature should be held with a high regard. are you not convinced that if freedom unites will and ability, then the only way for you to be free is to act accordingly to nature?
augustine: that is if you regard nature as the highest of all, epictetus. but that is where you are wrong, nietzsche. our free will was given by god. free will is a product of divinity. man may have free will and may act accordingly to his will, but no matter how hard man tries with his rational mind, he will never be able to understand the ultimate truth, the divine knowledge of god. the wisdom of god is beyond human rationality.
kant: i would have to agree with augustine on that. my synthetic apriori theory shows that there is a realm, a somewhat ultimate reality, beyond our physical world, that is just not perceivable by our mind. this ultimate reality is beyond our mind, but we know that it certainly exists.
plato: but how about the soul? socrates successfully had a slave boy finishing a complicated mathematical problem without giving the boy more education than just some simple logical questions. this proves that the boy KNOWS beforehand such knowledge. that inside his mind, the answer to the problem exists, he just doesn't know that it exists inside his mind. socrates' series of questions brought this answer out from the boy's mind and the boy becomes enlightened. i am certain that if we can bring out the truth from our minds, then we can eventually arrive at the ultimate truth.
augustine: but again, you are forgetting to take into consideration the concept of god. where do you get this ultimate truth hidden in your mind in the first place if not a divine being?
nietzsche: the concept of god contradicts what nature holds for us. nature teaches us to follow our passion, yet christianity tells us to not to. how can a concept that defies the course of nature can be correct?
epictetus: the ultimate truth that people seek is most likely to be in the form of happiness. now, even conflict is not needed to obtain such ultimate truth. if one is able to practice stoicism with a disciplined mind, and wanting simply what one has already have, then happiness, the ultimate truth, will be easily obtainable.
augustine: see, nietzsche. the concept of christianity does NOT defy nature in any way. like i have mentioned before, the wisdom of god is beyond our knowledge. we cannot use rational thought to justify things that god decides upon. this is where faith comes into play. you need faith if you want to understand the ultimate truth.
epictetus: now, i am not quite so sure about your god, augustine, but i agree upon the idea. there are things in nature that are within our control, but there are also ones that are beyond our control. our free will exists so that we can change those within our power, but for those beyond our power, all we can do is accept and understand the fact that we have no control whatsoever over those events.
nietzsche: that is ridiculous! men have domination over nature. the will of power will definitely allow men to force nature to bend accordingly to man's will.
at this point, i realized that nietzsche and augustine were not going to give up or give in. while the other philosophers seemed to be enjoying their tea, nietzsche and augustine seemed like they are ready to bring the fight to the next level: deathmatch. trying to avoid any unpleasantness, i stopped the discussion and used the time machine to bring these philosophers back to where they belong. maybe it would be better if they had never met.
like bill and ted in "bill and ted's excellent adventure," i decided to go back in time and kidnap six philosophers from different era and bring them to my kitchen table to have a cup of tea together. and maybe some philosophical discussions. so i took with me heraclitus, plato, epictetus, st. augustine, immanuel kant, and friedrich nietzsche. some of them looked at each other with admiration, but some with contempt and disgust. i myself made six cups of tea and had them all seated. nietzsche seems to be getting agitated, so i started the conversation.
me: so gentlemen, i gather you all here tonight for some discussion regarding the ultimate truth. can us men know the ultimate truth?
augustine: that is not possible. only god holds the ultimate truth.
nietzsche: preposterous! surely men can.
plato: now, nietzsche, calm yourself down. i'm with you on this one, but i doubt we'll agree as to how.
kant: i have my doubts. and just how would you propose that man can know the ultimate truth?
nietzsche: man has the will to power. this world is pretty much the survival of the fittest; only those who are strong can survive. one simply has to strive and evolve for the better because only after one reaches the state of the ubermensch can one know the ultimate truth.
heraclitus: i'm sorry, what is ubermensch?
nietzsche: ubermensch is somewhat like a superman. it is the final evolution stage of a human being who has successfully carry out his will to power and gain domination over nature.
augustine: you seem to be forgetting about the concept of god.
nietzsche: god is dead. enough said.
augustine: what? how dare you--
nietzsche: my apology, augustine, but the christianity concept is for the weak. you christians are scared to face conflict. your teaching to "love thy enemies" are a concept against nature itself!
heraclitus: nietzsche is right. everything in this world happens as a result of creation and destruction process. there is no such thing as living peacefully. such a style of living will render the society stagnant.
nietzsche: thank you. and you yourself, augustine, why would you think that us men have no ability to know the truth? are you afraid to face the fact that we have free will and thus we do not need god?
epictetus: be careful with what you mean by free will there, nietzsche. you yourself believe that nature should be held with a high regard. are you not convinced that if freedom unites will and ability, then the only way for you to be free is to act accordingly to nature?
augustine: that is if you regard nature as the highest of all, epictetus. but that is where you are wrong, nietzsche. our free will was given by god. free will is a product of divinity. man may have free will and may act accordingly to his will, but no matter how hard man tries with his rational mind, he will never be able to understand the ultimate truth, the divine knowledge of god. the wisdom of god is beyond human rationality.
kant: i would have to agree with augustine on that. my synthetic apriori theory shows that there is a realm, a somewhat ultimate reality, beyond our physical world, that is just not perceivable by our mind. this ultimate reality is beyond our mind, but we know that it certainly exists.
plato: but how about the soul? socrates successfully had a slave boy finishing a complicated mathematical problem without giving the boy more education than just some simple logical questions. this proves that the boy KNOWS beforehand such knowledge. that inside his mind, the answer to the problem exists, he just doesn't know that it exists inside his mind. socrates' series of questions brought this answer out from the boy's mind and the boy becomes enlightened. i am certain that if we can bring out the truth from our minds, then we can eventually arrive at the ultimate truth.
augustine: but again, you are forgetting to take into consideration the concept of god. where do you get this ultimate truth hidden in your mind in the first place if not a divine being?
nietzsche: the concept of god contradicts what nature holds for us. nature teaches us to follow our passion, yet christianity tells us to not to. how can a concept that defies the course of nature can be correct?
epictetus: the ultimate truth that people seek is most likely to be in the form of happiness. now, even conflict is not needed to obtain such ultimate truth. if one is able to practice stoicism with a disciplined mind, and wanting simply what one has already have, then happiness, the ultimate truth, will be easily obtainable.
augustine: see, nietzsche. the concept of christianity does NOT defy nature in any way. like i have mentioned before, the wisdom of god is beyond our knowledge. we cannot use rational thought to justify things that god decides upon. this is where faith comes into play. you need faith if you want to understand the ultimate truth.
epictetus: now, i am not quite so sure about your god, augustine, but i agree upon the idea. there are things in nature that are within our control, but there are also ones that are beyond our control. our free will exists so that we can change those within our power, but for those beyond our power, all we can do is accept and understand the fact that we have no control whatsoever over those events.
nietzsche: that is ridiculous! men have domination over nature. the will of power will definitely allow men to force nature to bend accordingly to man's will.
at this point, i realized that nietzsche and augustine were not going to give up or give in. while the other philosophers seemed to be enjoying their tea, nietzsche and augustine seemed like they are ready to bring the fight to the next level: deathmatch. trying to avoid any unpleasantness, i stopped the discussion and used the time machine to bring these philosophers back to where they belong. maybe it would be better if they had never met.
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