@jgweed,
jgweed wrote:
philosophy begins in "wonder" or "confusion." for it is often only when something intrudes itself as being "out of place" or "broken" or "unusual-in-the-normal-course-of-events" that we pay attention to it;
I question the accuracy of what Aristotle noted. I find that 'wonder' and 'confusion' are at best, distant cousins. They are related but they live far apart from each other. 'Confusion' does show up
"when something intrudes itself as being "out of place' or "broken". Its a question of
what is "out-of-place" or "broken". I have found that when 'Be-ing' experiences confusion it does so when who you're Be-ing gets confronted by another possibility of Be-ing. Hence con-fusion,
"that which argues against the possibility of you Be-ing one with your 'self'".
Let me give you an example of what I mean. Recently I was posting with another person who mentioned the concept "paradigm construction". Now, "paradigm construction" is a wonderful concept (its kind of like the 'afterlife'). We could compare our 'thoughts' about it. We would agree on some and disagree on others. We could gather a crowd of people and have a discussion on "paradigm construction" and if need be we could get bigger and bigger rooms as more people joined the discussion, we could even take a vote on the opinions and then use them to convince people to agree with us. You get the point. However, until an actual paradigm gets constructed its all empty chatter and meaningless. What do you need to know to produce an actual paradigm? Until you can actually make a 'paradigm' isn't it all bullshit?
What if somebody, let's say, from another planet, came along and told you that
you are the paradigm and that by uncovering who you are you create a shift in that paradigm and that you can shift that paradigm any time you want. All you have to do is stop representing your 'self' as a thing. When you change your conversation, you 'shift' the paradigm that you are and you 'transform' your view of the 'world', the 'they', and who you are.
As you de-construct the 'world' and disentangle your 'self' from the measurabilty and definability of it, you come to a point where you can no longer prove the existence of your 'self' by using the standards of the 'world'. When you come face-to-face with the "possibility of the impossibility of your existence" who you've been Be-ing dies so that you can be your 'self'. You uncover/discover that anything is possible and that you are no longer a slave to proving your existence. In Be-ing you 'anticipate resolving' 'death' so that you can be your 'self'. This is what Heidegger means when he speaks about 'running towards death' and 'anticipatory resoluteness'. This is the essence of human freedom. In Be-ing you answer the question "Who am I?"
Once you 'transform' your view of the 'world' and the 'they', confusion becomes 'fusion' and you live in 'wonder'. Then everything is 'wonder-full' because you are full of wonder.
This is what is called 'transformation'.
Read "A Message to Michael" at
http://able2know.org/topic/163653-1