IS that so - It all depends upon what the meaning of 'Is', is

IS that so - It all depends upon what the meaning of 'Is', is

Part 11 of 22, from Exiting the Wizard's Circle of Economics

Where we should begin is of course where the beginning of the subject is, because if you haven't given some thought to what the meaning of the word IS, is, then what it is will assuredly be taken from you by those who recognize that you haven't yet grasped it, and seeing the power they can gain by using that to their advantage, they'll do so before you've even noticed that it's gone (welcome to the last thirty years (at least)). The sorts of things that should be on people's daily radar, but usually flies well under it, are the most routine points that're used, misused, neglected, or violated, in the standard practices that you very likely do not connect with 'economic thinking', such as what is meant by an 'Idea', or a 'Concept'.

Modernity has developed some very dangerous 'ideas' about ideas (Thomas Reid's comments on this are both revealing, and humorous, and to those used to the 'modern' mode of thinking, unexpected - in one he uses the sense of smell to swiftly reduce idealism to rubbish), that are essential to the semantic deceptions used in general today, and by economics in particular. They do so by using those words that you, classical philosophy, and modern misosophy share (especially in the case of words such as 'value', 'is', 'truth', 'good', 'choice') only in the spelling of, so as to more easily lead you astray. This is due to a kind of verbal-magic trick being performed on and about you with that, and if you can become aware of even some of what is and has been concealed by deliberate mislabeling, the affect upon you is like catching sight of the magician slipping a card from his sleeve - it frees you from the illusion that he'd magically made it appear.

If you've ever said "Well it's just Common Sense", you can thank Thomas Reid and his refutation of Hume's notions, for it, :

Being able to develop a strong enough grip upon what IS, so that it won't easily slip from your grasp, is one of the most significant features that underlies and structures the Western form of reasoning. Its purpose and effect is to help you determine what is (Metaphysics ), what is most likely to follow from that Causality), as well as testing the validity of what we believe (Logic), and then clarifying what we should do in response to that (Ethics).

That is what traditional philosophy always practiced, so as to identify, clarify, and determine whether or not you were justified in believing that what you've understood to be real and true, was or wasn't so, which is the means of keeping you free of the webs of sophistry that TURDS seek to wrap about your understanding.

Although the moderns' advertised that their new field of 'epistemology' exists (ahem) to help you to 'justify belief' - that's not quite the same thing. One problem with their claim, is that it is founded upon the basis of Kant's assertion that we cannot know reality as it is (which is just the tip of that philosophical iceberg), which is what modernists and post-modernists depend upon in subverting and replacing what traditional philosophy sought to have people understand.

Let's begin at the actual beginning, by flagging a few key points from Metaphysics,

• Reality exists. - You perceive that the hand before you exists (and yes Neo, even if it's only a computer simulation, the simulation, or a dream, in that context, it exists)
• Identity - What reality exists as, entails its identity - You don't see the reality of your hand as an undistinguished whole, you identify it - from non-contradiction this isn't that, runs from a silhouette to a molecular scan - through perceiving the elements of your palm, fingers, thumb, etc.
• Awareness - observing what Reality exists as, engages our awareness of our conscious selves - we become aware that there is a self that's observing the hand before us, and that it too exists within reality.

Note that these three points don't strike you in three sequential steps, all three - Reality, Identity, Awareness - are always simultaneously implicit in, and entangled with, every thought and observation we make.

And for the unwise guys who might say:

"You can't prove that reality exists!"

, every word they used in saying that: 'You', 'can't', 'prove', 'that', 'reality', 'exists', presumes that reality does exist, and that something about it is being communicated by those words they've chosen within it, to you who can understand their words and exist within the same reality as they do. Have a nice day. If they persist with something like:

"You don't know what's true for me!"

, just retort:

"So how do you know what's true for me?"

, and if they retreat into:

"No one person can know that their judgment is true!"

, they fully deserve a retort of:

"Is that true in your judgment?"

, and so long as you don't follow down the path of their thinking (and the virus of modernity is trying to draw you in there), and instead examine what they've said and the implications of their statements, a technique known as Retortion, you can safely disarm their mind-traps and continue on your way.

With the outrageous obviousness aside, there are some importantly obvious points to make:

• It is self-evident that human beings are endowed with five senses and a mind at birth.
• It is self-evident that the development of the mind & senses enables us to perceive, judge, and reasonably understand what is real and true in our world.
• It is self-evident that only by intelligently conforming our thoughts to reality, can we learn from our experiences and be better able to take those actions needed to serve and preserve our lives - materially, individually, socially.

What these observations make self-evident to us, is that when we attend to having our thoughts and actions reflect reality, we're able to increase our knowledge, successful actions, and wisdom.

Equally self-evident, is that whether by accident, error, or carelessness, we can be wrong. We can make mistakes.

When we fail to conform to reality, we experience some degree of failure and confusion in whatever it is we might've been trying to achieve.

Which, believe it or not, is a good thing.

Why?

Because it tells us at least three very important facts:

1. that thinking well is not an automatic process, but is one which requires us to be attentive to reality and in our thinking about how to respond to it,
, and,
2. what that reveals is that our ability to discover an error, is confirmation that we can recognize what is real and true!
3. It's important what we direct our attention to.

A moment's consideration makes plain that discovering an error is at the same time revealing a truth that is the most fundamental one of all - which is essentially Aristotle's law of non-contradiction,

that a thing cannot be both true and false at the same time, and in the same manner and context.

, as being the 1st rule of thought, and the foundation of logic. It is also a truth which is the most feared by those who primarily value power, because it has the potential to explode all of their artful sophistries - the wrapping of layers of confusing words to mask contradictions - and leaves them powerless.

They hates it. Truly they do.

What this means for the rest of us, is that we can perceive the world around us, and by virtue of our knowing firsthand that we are capable of making errors, we also know that we're capable of perceiving and judging what is true (if not, an 'error' would be an unknown concept to us), and we do that best by methodically reasoning between our perceptions and judgement, towards a better understanding of what is real and true. It's important that we choose to direct our attention - sensorially and mentally - towards what is actually relevant to a matter, no matter how inconvenient that might be to our feelings and preferences.

But what do we know of how we're able to perceive the world, and abstract ideas from it?

Using the tools available to him at the time, Aristotle used the image of how a signet ring is impressed into wax, as an analogy for how reality is impressed into our minds by means of our sensory perceptions, which we then use in forming our thoughts and memories. From Part 12 of De Anima:

(A) By a 'sense' is meant what has the power of receiving into itself the sensible forms of things without the matter. This must be conceived of as taking place in the way in which a piece of wax takes on the impress of a signet-ring without the iron or gold; we say that what produces the impression is a signet of bronze or gold, but its particular metallic constitution makes no difference: in a similar way the sense is affected by what is coloured or flavoured or sounding, but it is indifferent what in each case the substance is; what alone matters is what quality it has, i.e. in what ratio its constituents are combined.
(B) By 'an organ of sense' is meant that in which ultimately such a power is seated.

, and from there he went on to surmise that when we are born our minds must be 'tablula rasa', a 'blank slate', as prior to our having the data of the senses to work with, we should have no knowledge or ideas of them.

Note: Aristotle was not equating the mind with the wax, the analogy was illustrating the action of the sense perceptions carrying reality into our mind, with the wax being what we retain of that action in memory. He also did not say that our thoughts are, or are limited to, the data of our sense perceptions, or that we are nothing more than our perceptions. Tabula Rasa meant only that our knowledge of the world we live within, begins with our experience & perceptions of it.

The process of identifying what it is we perceive, begins with a part of our mind that precedes any of the contents our senses provide to it, and is what was once commonly understood to be a, if not the, central feature of human nature, The Three Acts of the Mind. If the term is unfamiliar to you, you can thank your education for having robbed you of it, as did mine, but cheer up, you can remedy that, just as I did.

To hit the highlights of what I went over here, the Three Acts of the Mind is a central function in how our mind operates:

First Act: Apprehend (Understand) - We open our eyes, and whether seeing something for the first time, or understand that we know it by name, a Rock for instance, we apprehend it, conceptualize, identify it
Second Act: Judgment - The act of mind which combines or separates two terms by affirmation or denial. 'Rock is hard' is a judgment
Third Act: Reasoning - From our observations and judgments, we move towards further conclusions and applications of them. 'As rocks are hard, I should avoid striking my toe against them.'

These acts are initiated just below our conscious awareness, at the level of observing the 'signet ring' of reality being impressed through our senses into our mind, where some impression of it is left in the 'wax' of memory. In every waking moment the 'difference engine' of the human mind is constantly involved in performing these acts, observing, distinguishing and identifying what has been observed and what's remembered, and making an initial judgment about what to do about the differences it finds, in a process that is common to all human beings, everywhere and every when, the effects of which Thomas Reid called 'Common Sense' (an enjoyable audio of Reid's Inquiry here).

As Reid notes:

"...The same degree of understanding which makes a man capable of acting with common prudence in the conduct of life, makes him capable of discovering what is true and what is false in matters that are self-evident, and which he distinctly apprehends.

All knowledge, and all science, must be built upon principles that are self-evident; and of such principles every man who has common sense is a competent judge, when he conceives them distinctly. Hence it is, that disputes very often terminate in an appeal to common sense...."

Common Sense begins with the most basic level of experience, as the effects of touching a hot coal or stove produces the common and self-evident recognition, judgement, and reasoning, everywhere and every when, that one should not touch hot coals or stoves. The good sense of that is self-evident to all who have any sense, and denying it would be evidence of that person's sense being impaired, as Reid also notes:

"...The laws of all civilised nations distinguish those who have this gift of heaven, from those who have it not. The last may have rights which ought not to be violated, but, having no understanding in themselves to direct their actions, the laws appoint them to be guided by the understanding of others. It is easily discerned by its effects in men's actions, in their speeches, and even in their looks; and when it is made a question whether a man has this natural gift or not, a judge or a jury, upon a short conversation with him, can, for the most part, determine the question with great assurance..."

The scope of what is considered to be common sense, rises from direct experience at the level of having the basic sense to not touch hot stoves, on up to ever higher levels of thought regarding what the individual and their community share a common understanding of, or can be expected to. What that means, is that the faculty of Common Sense is not an entirely 'black box' feature, but is open to our actions improving (or degrading) it, meaning that we can consciously 'train' ourselves in how well we perform the Three Acts of The Mind, though after the fact, so to speak, by developing our habits of thinking, knowledge, and purpose, and by what we accept as being of value (by belief or action), all of which depends upon what we attend to.

For instance, staying close to the direct level of experience, in any human society across the ages, if you were to play a musical instrument to anyone with adequate hearing, they would report hearing its sound, and whether or not they recognized the instrument or even considered the sound pleasing, it would be self-evident to them that what they heard had come from that instrument. It would be equally true in all of those instances that those who'd consciously developed their habits of listening, and by paying attention to what they're hearing they could develop the ability to further identify that sound they'd heard as being the note 'C' or 'C#', or a combination of notes that make up the chord 'C# minor', and whether the instrument playing it was in or out of tune. To those who'd developed that ability, those identifications would be 'self-evident' to them, and anyone else who later developed that ability would as well.

Those actions of the mind of apprehending, judging, and reasoning which we've just looked at in regards to touch, and hearing, are equally active with the input of the other senses of sight and smell. The same applies in regards to the far more intricate issues involving our knowledge, thoughts, and habits of mind, and as the legal example of Reid's just noted, 'anyone' within a society should be able to identify what would commonly be considered to be foolish thinking & behavior, and so remark with words to the effect of:

'That just goes against common sense!'

, which is the 'output' of the three acts of the mind operating upon what can reasonably be expected to be commonly known to all.

To the degree that the sense of such conclusions seem obvious to people, the conclusion is drawing upon a common understanding that is so fundamental to their thinking, that the response is close to coming without conscious thought, it is self-evident, though if you were to ask them to go on and explain their conclusion in detail (a favorite 'gotcha' of 'on the street' reporting), it would likely take a few moments of conscious consideration of what it is that they know, to explain it if you could - try explaining how you know a note is C#. The more basic the reasons, the more the sense of it has been absorbed into their 'common sense', and so the more likely they haven't had to consciously consider the details of it in ages - to see what I mean, try giving an off the cuff explanation for why Fall follows Summer, or why there are four seasons.

OTOH, someone such as a logician who has consciously developed their habits of mind and knowledge in the practice of logical reasoning, and so often has occasion to actively consider the subject, would likely be able to identify the particular errors and fallacies responsible for that same common sense conclusion, and the details of which would seem as 'self-evident' to them, as identifying the notes 'C' or 'C#' would've seemed to the musician. And yet someone else of equal intelligence from outside of that community, might not be able to 'make sense' of the statement at all - at first - though once familiarized with the context, they too would be likely to come to the same conclusion.

The operations of the Three Acts of the Mind are common to all people, everywhere and every when, but what contents of the mind are common to people within a community, and so able to be recognized as 'Common Sense', depends upon the knowledge and behavior that is commonly understood in that community, and what people choose to focus on.

Developing what is recognized as a societal baseline of knowledge and expected norms of observation, identification, and judgement - and behavior in accordance with that - is a large part of what education aims at. It's with that baseline in mind, that I invite you to consider the nature of an 'educational system' that willfully fails to provide its students with what should be common sense in their society.

What should also be commonly understood, and can be simply by being attentive to the operations of the mind, is that because our perceptions do reliably inform us about reality, we're able to recognize that we're capable of making mistakes in identifying what it is we perceive ('I thought that round green object was an apple, but it was a tennis ball'), and in judging what actions we should take ('It's for hitting, not biting'), and in reasoning our way to being aware that what we are able to perceive, may not be all that there is to perceive or conceive (such as that while green is a shade we're able to perceive, others such as infrared light, are not within our field of vision, yet remarkably we are able to discover that), and what should be done about it.

An important point to make here, is that our sense perceptions (technically this refers to sensation, percept, and perception, but unless you want another several pages, 'perception' will have to do) are never wrong.

But Van! We do make mistakes, you just cited an example of mistaking an apple for a tennis ball!

Hold on now, read what I said again. Through our senses we perceive that range of reality which they are attuned to (we don't perceive all ranges of color, but we do perceive those within the range our eyes are attuned to, yes, even those who're color blind still perceive the range they're capable of) as it is. What we tend to think of as errors of perception, comes from our making errors in identifying what it is we are perceiving. The perceptions themselves (yes, including the oddities of vision, and delusions and hallucinations are matters of the mind, not of perception), are of reality as it is, and if that were not the case, we could know nothing at all.

It also matters, as I've been noting, what and how you pay attention, do you attend to that particular issue of importance within the context which makes it important, or do you allow your focus to fixate on that one point and forget about the context it has importance within? If you're not getting the distinction, there's the famous 'monkey business' video of people asked to concentrate on a basketball being passed amongst them, that you should take a moment to watch.

But because we are able to perceive the world around us, and because we are able to make mistakes in judgement, it is especially consequential that we be attuned to the nature of what we identify, and what contextually follows from that, which is the nature of causality - cause and effect. Understanding how it is that the nature of matter, and of our own thinking, are integrated and follow a process, a telos, where one thing follows from another, is important to have a grasp of.

In observing the reality we are able to observe of the world around and within us, Aristotle proposed his theory of 'The Four Causes' (gone into in more detail here), which observes the nature of how effects are preceded by causes, which logic and reason follow from (and would not be possible without), and how best to use those insights to abstract ideas from reality and so develop our experiences into knowledge of the world to a far greater degree than sense perception alone could ever have provided us, and which we can gain wisdom from. The Four Causes are, in brief:

1. the Material Cause: “that out of which”, e.g., bronze is what a statue is made out of.
2. the Formal Cause: “the form”, “the account of what-it-is-to-be”, e.g., the shape of a statue.
3. the Efficient Cause: “the primary source of the change or rest”, e.g., the artisan, the art of bronze-casting the statue, the man who gives advice, the father of the child.
4. the Final Cause: “the end, that for the sake of which a thing is done”, or that health is the end that's being aimed at by walking, losing weight, medicine, and surgical tools; e.g., or that to enhance a park setting is why a bronze statue is commissioned for a place in it;

While I'll understand if you don't care much for what causes a bronze statue to be produced, by developing the habit of looking deeper into the nature of causation than only the shallowest of surface appearances, you'll be more aware of where you are situated within the world, more informed about what it is you are observing, and less mystified about what's going on around you.

In short, an attention to causation, enables you to have a more thorough understanding of what truly does matter to you, in your life, both immediately, and long range.

And you should especially note that modern philosophy dismisses and ignores the Efficient and the Final causes from all consideration (and Thomas Aquinas' addition of the Exemplary Cause, which guides the intellect), and focuses only on the 1st two causes - as they must, because the pretenses of their theories would be unstainable otherwise (teaching college students to hate Israel for 'occupying' land, is infinitely easier to accomplish by pointing only to the first two causes of borders and guards, while ignoring the efficient and final causes of history and justice, and the contradictions those would expose in the rest of what they're taught on the issue).

How this all fits together, and whether or not we're aware of it, is something that we shouldn't breeze past too quickly, so let's pause and take note: We perceive reality and are able to identify it, and in abstracting from our experiences and considerations, we're able to assemble and associate those perceptions and observations into considerable amounts of interrelated and integrated knowledge, that knowledge branches out fractal-like from any one particular aspect of what we experience, and from which, properly understood, is able to provide us with a wisdom which can enhance and guide our experience in life, and the quality of it.

A brief illustration of that follows from beginning with the senses alone, that we perceive from some distance over there, a round, no... wait... a spherical object, green in color, and moving to pick it up, it feels smooth to the touch, solid, has some weight to it - ooh, it smells tart, tastes sweet & juicy. With that data as a starting point, we are able - by choice coupled with action - to methodically reason and investigate the substance of the apple. It's within our power to develop a knowledge of the apple itself and the tree it came from, and of the soil, fertilizer, and climate that it grows best in. Investigating the structure of the skin and meat of the apple can lead us into an understanding of the structure of the cells and chemistry that it's made of when alive, and how its materials decompose back into the soil, afterwards. From all of that we can develop habits of understanding and behavior in regards to what we come to understand to be real and true, that extend from beyond that of growing and eating an apple, to the wisdom to apply the principles which that understanding was developed through, to every other aspect of our lives.

By conforming our thoughts to what is real and true, perceptually and conceptually, we're able to achieve a greater understanding of our world than could ever be grasped by sense perception alone; this is true materially, ranging from the biology of cells to the infrared spectrum, and from the very small level of sub-atomic particles to the beyond vast nature of the structure of distant galaxies. Likewise immaterially as well, in regards to how observing and understanding yourself and those around you will find common ground in the moral principles and virtuous behavior that form into habits of character that benefit ourselves and those in society with us, which aid us in guiding our future thoughts and actions.

The unifying nature of that, is what we saw Bastiat noting in his Economic Harmonies, and it shows in what Reid had earlier observed as well:

"...The same degree of understanding which makes a man capable of acting with common prudence in the conduct of life, makes him capable of discovering what is true and what is false in matters that are self-evident, and which he distinctly apprehends.

All knowledge, and all science, must be built upon principles that are self-evident; and of such principles every man who has common sense is a competent judge, when he conceives them distinctly. Hence it is, that disputes very often terminate in an appeal to common sense.

While the parties agree in the first principles on which their arguments are grounded, there is room for reasoning; but when one denies what to the other appears too evident to need or to admit of proof, reasoning seems to be at an end; an appeal is made to common sense, and each party is left to enjoy his own opinion..."

Leaving the malicious distractions of modernity aside, when our concerns are for what is real and true, our perceptions, conceptions, and understanding, do not distance us from, or serve as barriers between, ourselves and the reality we exist within. Rather, through abstracting from what we are able to perceive to be real and true, we develop concepts which both reflect reality, and enable us to unite our thoughts and perceptions with our experiences, to better understand the lives we're living and the world we're living within, than perceptions alone could ever provide.

IOW, the very practical fruits of attending to metaphysics, causality, and ethics, is an improved ability to engage in an organized pursuit of happiness, which is the most reliable method for achieving some level of success in living lives worth living, and does so in a way that you can be thankful for whatever prosperity you do achieve, which is an approach that epitomizes the culture of the Greco-Roman/Judeo-Christian West.

Any claims and assertions against that will, and are possibly even intended to, reduce the scope and quality of your life, and your ability to live it well.

For those who doubt the consequences of lacking that, there's sadly no shortage of object lessons to be learned from 'stars' who've tragically ended their lives by their own hand or habits, after having achieved the trappings of 'success' without having first learned what a successful life is, and how to support and sustain it.