Philosophy for Beginners

So, I consider myself a total beginner in the world and language of Philosophy.  Each time I try to read Heidegger, my brain gets scrambled and I read 2 pages and then realise I have taken nothing in, so I have to go back again, and then mostly the same thing happens repeatedly until I get so frustrated that I go and make myself a cup of tea and get distracted on the way back to the place where I was reading.  So my Heidegger book mainly stays open on the first two pages. 

This year, I am signing up to a class with someone who is willing to walk us through how to read philosophy, how to do yoga for the mind, so that this habit might be lightened, and I might gain some of the gifts that philosophical thought might have for me.

So today I read our starter essay for this group and it was about Cartesianism - simplified into a 20 page essay that was at about my current level of complexity, meaning that I could understand what it was saying.  Which is a revelation! 

The essay ran through the basic elements of Decartes' thinking and documented the basis of his writing and thought, and then showed the limitations of this kind of thinking. 

What was wonderful about reading this article is that when I read it, in this simplified form, I could see that philosophy, is not actually abstract at all - the people who write it are pretty challenging in the choice of language they use to explain their thinking, but actually, if you get beyond this, it's simply that - something like a foreign language, that I will hopefully become better at understanding (a bit like when I learned french) in time and with application.  I will also have to exercise the muscle in me that allows me to stay with the discomfort of not understanding for a longer time than I am used to, so that I can allow the learning space to open up in me. 

Today, for the first time, I get a little of the impact that Descartes' thinking is having on us today.  And I am shocked.  Given the prolific nature of the scientific way of relating to life that is attributed to this thinking, and how this has filtered down into our education system so hugely and intricately, I feel so much clearer on many things:

• I get why so many creative and intuitive people feel uncomfortable and even unwelcome at school.
• I can see why so many of us feel so worn down by the corporate world. 
• I can feel the underpinning narrative that means we rarely feel successful even when we 'have it all'.
• I can see why people are treating other people badly. 
• I can see why there's such a great need for relationships, complexity and systems thinking training in companies. 
• I can see why we are fearful for how our children are performing at school. 
• I can see why our relationships 'fail' so often.

Thinking in this scientific way - one that is based on certain statements that are 'widely believed to be true' and using the premise that what is not within my sphere of judgement or perception is simply not true, leads us to miss out so much of life. 

While this approach certainly has its place, and it's gotten us so very far in medicine, education and business (amongst many other things too), if we only look at life through this scientific, 'only proof tells me something's real' way of seeing, being and acting, then what impact does this have on our life, the world, others ?

Watch this space for more detail on what Descartes really said - maybe I'll do Philosophy for beginners to help me learn, and then we can all be philosophers together ?