Philosophy & Perspectives: One Standard To Rule Them All
Our capacity to understand a perspective has limitations.
A Conversation with Dad
I explained to my dad my perspective, but he couldn’t see it.
He couldn’t see, less understand my perspective.
I repeated my perspective, but no matter how many times I did, his mind wasn’t open to it.
Have you ever experienced a scenario like this?
You know our argument is sound and it is a valid perspective but the other person cannot see it?
I think this is why Philosophy is important:
It exposes us to other perspectives and grants us a standard to judge them.
Philosophy & Perspective
I think Philosophy expands our perspective. By exposing ourselves to ideas we cannot refute, we recognize and understand that other perspectives, equally logical, exist.
We surrender to the might of ideas, and this is a humbling experience, especially if those ideas contradict ours.
There are many ideas like this in Philosophy; I learned that if a perspective is based on logic:
It is a perspective worthy of respect.
Perspectives & Logic
The standard to judge a perspective in Philosophy is logic.
This standard forces us to concede to the validity of a perspective. It is not up to us whether a perspective is valid:
Logic is the judge and jury of a perspective.
Illogical Perspectives
As we form our ideas, I think we back them up with many things aside from logic, perhaps by belief or emotion, or by an experience we perhaps misjudged.
When our perspectives are only supported by those items, they become convictions.
Once a conviction is made, we cannot let go of the underlying perspective because we become our opinions and we are afraid to lose who we are:
We may feel that by recognizing the validity of another perspective, we lose ours.
Back to Dad
I’ve never tried to convince anyone of my perspective because I simply didn’t think I needed to, to each their own is my motto.
However, it is important to me that my dad sees my perspective.
My goal was to have my dad see my perspective, not necessarily agree with it and then it occurred to me:
Our capacity to understand a perspective has limitations.
Conclusion
I love my dad, and I recognize that I am at fault for also not seeing the perspectives that were offered to me.
I think we should all be okay with agreeing to disagree since two logical and opposing perspectives on the same matter can exist at the same time.
There is an irony that a human faculty limits another, an all-human problem.
