My Philosophy

This is a little bit of philosophy that i basically stole from James Derrida. Except the way i think about it is much different than him, i'm pretty sure. Let's hope i can actually make it make sense.

Basically, everything we see is a symbol. Think about words. Each letter is a symbol for a sound, and when certian sounds are put together they are a symbol for a real thing. The word money is a symbol for money, but the word money is not money. We know what it means though. So, what is money a symbol for?

K this is where it can get confusing. Money is a symbol of value, its a currency, but the materials money is made from, paper and ink, are not valuable in the way money is. Money has value because we give it value. And what did we have before money? Is money simply a symbol/replacement for gold? Where did value come from, and what has value, and why? Like words represents an object that is not present, (the word money does not have value itself) objects represent something that is not present. I really hope this makes sense.

I believe (and so does Derrida) that there is something we cannot access through our senses here on Earth. It is not present, but it is manifest in everything we see and hear. Some things are closer to this essence than others. For example, money is a symbol of value and the word money is a symbol for money which is a symbol for value and the Symbol $ is a symbol for the word money which is a symbol for actual money which is a symbol for value. Make sense? Also i think that natural things are closer to the essence than man made things. Man made objects take natural objects and make something different out of them. A house may be made out of wood which is made out of trees, but trees are not made out of other natural objects. They are closer to the true nature of the essence.

This idea of bringing things to thier base origin or nature is called deconstruction. It looks at the elements of a building and determines where they come from and what those natural elements mean. Because everything is a symbol though, everything can be interpereted in many different ways. I believe that literature and words  are a way of trying to understand the essence by drawing father away from it, and that the same deconstructionist approach would reveal things about life and the essence, which is why it is so hard to pin down what a good work of literature is saying. Its talking about a facet of the essence which we cannot fully understand using our symbols. Because even people are a symbol of the essence, we can come to understand it by understanding ourselves.

Because of this symbol thing, i believe that everyday occurences and things that happen are symbols for something greater. One point of this blog is to relay these events in a way that make them meaningful and important. When i feel like sometihing that happens means more than a simple event, i want to portray that meaning, that facet of the essence, and maybe understand it better myself.

So what is the essence? I think its an all encompasing truth and presence that means the whole of everything. That doesn't really make any sense though. I believe that the essence is literally God. He created everything, and he even said that "All things testify of me." I think it totally makes sense. He is in everything. Don't write this off just because i got religious all of a sudden, if there is an essence, it makes sense that it would be a greater, all-encompasing being.

Anyway, thats my philosophy and I hope actually makes sense, even if you don't believe it. Its just a different way of looking at things.