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By their fruits you shall know them

September 12th 2009 07:30
In the bible, Matthew 7:16 to be precise, it states that "by their fruits you shall know them". What this means, by analogy of how well a fruit can bear fruit, is that you can know somebody by their outward manifestations. I will analyse and expand upon the implications of this in more detail:

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, in Beyond Good and Evil:

"Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir"

In other words, he is professing the very same idea that Jesus proposed in the Bible, that is, you can know someone by their outward manifestations. This is almost an anti-philosophical idea, for the purpose of philosophy is to find that which is objective through the use of reason. According to Nietzsche, though, all someone's philosophy tells us is not that which is true, but that which they believe; in other words, their subjective outlook upon life.


Let's look at another example: my own blogs. What is interesting is that as I was writing them, I was trying to be as objective as possible. And really, I thought I was being objective, I mean, I was using reason after all, wasn't I? But let's look at some of the blog titles:

If you're bored then you're boring
Judge not, lest ye be judged
Familiarity breeds contempt (about how one gets tired of another after too much time with them)
You can never step in the same river twice (regarding identity issues)

Can you see a common thread here?? It is quite clear that in analysing these issues, I was also revealing the essence of my personality. Someone who is concerned with being bored, someone who is concerned about judgement from others, someone who gets tired from too much company with others... this person (me) is an introvert, with possible social anxiety and perhaps even schizoid tendencies. Their highly analytical nature suggests a strong logical thinking capacity, and the fact that it is applied to the subject rather than the object (the self rather than the world) means that this thinking is of an introverted nature. And here I was thinking that I was discussing pertinent issues! All I was doing was revealing my subjective experience of things, bearing my fruits if you will (perhaps on an intuitive level I knew this was true, and hence why I was a bit embarrassed about showing my blog to people I know).


Now a sceptic might say, "oh, but this is a personal blog, proper academic philosophy or something such as science is free from such subjectivity". Science is a hard one to answer, but philosophy is certainly not free from the subjective. Whatever your beliefs are, they will reveal as much about yourself as they do the world. The reason foe this is that through engaging in an activity, whether it's science, philosophy, sex or whatever else, we automatically reveal our preference for that activity. We obviously value it over other activities at that point in time, otherwise we would do something else (unless we're forced to do that thing, which would still reveal something about our subjective experience).

So where to now for me? For someone who desperately wanted to use the objective in order to escape from the suffering of the subjective? I'm not sure. My subject (self) has a unique relationship with the object (world) and the wrestling between the two is something that will occur as long as I'm alive.
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Comment by Anonymous

October 5th 2009 12:21
An intuitive, deeply analytical, mind may find itself unraveling through intense and unnecessary self-examination. In the time spent prying into your introverted phylosophies, one could have been enjoying the world or at least putting to good use such a mind. Of all the wasteful and meaningless things a person could do, none is more distateful than over self-examination. Here is a quip for you, "ignorance is bliss." Live your life, do not toil over how subjective or objective you are. When you look back over time, and read over the blogs you have written, I hope you see time spent that could have been used on something else. I hope that you see a void instead of a mass. I hope that you begin to do, instead of thinking of doing and analyzing the difference. And to all who read these words, enjoy who you are. Despite the hard times you are going through, there is good all around, all you have to do is look. If I have offended anyone, I'm sorry. You can reach me at the email listed below. I'm an active duty soldier with a wife and daughter at home. You just have to love life, the ups AND the downs.

Marc

pacolemere830530@gmail.com

Comment by Banana Mango

October 6th 2009 09:47
Hi Marc, thanks for the comment. I'm not offended at all by your comment - I appreciate being challenged. As a matter of fact, I have long held the belief that ignorance is bliss. My favourite Simpsons episode is the one where Homer becomes really intelligent, finds it to be miserable, so goes back to his ordinary yet happy existence. The thing is, I would love nothing more than to live life in the way you describe. I look back on my blogs and I already see a void instead of a mass. But what can I do? I have tried my utmost to live life to the full, to get out there and engage with life and people instead of just being an observer. But you know what? Despite some great times, I was generally pretty bad at it; my introversion just kept coming through. In hindsight, all I was really doing was working around that introversion rather than overcoming it.

My heroes are people like Casanova and Neal Cassady: people who lived full, sensational lives. But I don't think I have it in me to be like them. And I have tried, believe me. I accept it as my fate to be a somewhat detached intellectual (or pseudo-intellectual, as one person called me - I'm not concerned with semantics). It's actually not all that bad - my imagination is vivid and my mind can provide me with no end of stimulation. I can be alone for hours and not get bored. I feel strongly about art, music and literature. I get great joy from sitting quietly in a library and reading Schopenhauer. I really feel that I am better off accepting my fate as a thinker rather than resisting it, as I did for so long in my attempt to be "happy".

I hope that you begin to do, instead of thinking of doing and analyzing the difference


As Simone de Beauvoir said, "man never contemplates: he does". Contemplating is my way of doing. And really, if everyone in history took your advice, there would never have been a Schopenhauer, or a Socrates, or probably not even a Buddha. And that would have been a shame.

Comment by Another intp

March 24th 2010 09:25
You're being too hard on yourself - you *were* being rational (at least, since you're an INTP, I assume you were, not having read all your posts) - you were just unaware of what your choice of subject matter revealed.
If rationality is the flashlight's beam and subject matter is the forest path, you were accurately illuminating the ground while only semi-consciously choosing which portion of ground, ie which path.
Looking back, you realised what your choice of path said about you. I've noticed the same thing with my own stuff.

Comment by ChaCha

May 2nd 2010 07:51
Hello Bandana mango!

I just found your blog and I think it is WONDERFUL!!! What an excellent outlet to rebalance your thoughtful self after the weekly 38.5 hours, or whatever it is, spent with your (and my former) employer whose achronym we won't mention here!

I agree that thinking and writing is a form of action, but I think that these things by their nature are contemplative and therefore a possible spring board/fertile ground to cultivate more externalised action.

On the other hand, if the writings are actually read by others they become more externally/ fruitfully active. Ie. If writings are published or sent to others with a specific intent (eg.to lobby, make aware, thank, warn, explain, court, deceive, frame!) then the receptions of these missives make the act of writing 'actively' social.

Looking forward to more!

Joyce x

Comment by Banana Mango

May 2nd 2010 13:48
I'm glad it inspired you to comment Joyce! Makes me think I should be writing more. I think that's a really good thought (gee look how well my English has come along, "really good" is my choice of adjective :/), that writing becomes active in its reception... no wonder there are some more worldly people who think that contemplators are wasting their life, because all they see is the physical act and not the ripples that writing creates, even if indirectly.

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