Peace and Social Justice
An Existential Realist
It seems to me that everyone has a fundamental philosophical basis from which all perceptions about the outer world flow. Accepting this as a given, I would identify myself as an existential realist.
What exactly is an existential realist?
Humans are all born with this extraordinary organ-the human brain (mind). Let me put this out there right away-to avoid all later confusions-there is absolutely no need to postulate the existence of a human soul, especially of the immortal variety. This organ suffices-everything that an individual is resides here. It is the definitive seat of our emotions, our conceptions, our perceptions, our thoughts, our ideas, our conclusions, whether sublime or insipid, brilliant, or banal.
The accumulated evidence demonstrates that the appearance of sentient beings on planet earth came about through a long period of sustained evolution. This brain, we habitually take for granted, is a product of that evolutionary process. Homo sapiens is a magnificent testimonial to the possible, to the breadth and scope of life on this magnificent planet.
These observations may seem sacrilegious and threatening to some, but they are real and tangible representations of reality validated repeatedly through scientific study. Science is, after all, the gateway to reality.
If I had made these pronouncements in the so-called, “Dark Ages,” I would have been quickly and terminally silenced threatening the very foundations of religious thought and sentiment. But great strides have been made in the neurological sciences and brain research that clearly demonstrate and clarify the cellular basis for our thoughts, emotions and actions. In addition, mental illness, once thought to be the devil’s handiwork, is readily explained from the perspective of definitive neuronal brain anomalies.
The multi-faceted aspects of the real world can be studied and evaluated through our senses and the methodology established by science operating through the medium of the human brain. Reality, like gravity, is the final arbiter of what we perceive. Given that the individual mind can know itself and comprehend the environment through which it operates, I have chosen to fully appreciate existence in its purest and most immediate sense while fully encompassing reality and rejecting delusional states of being. In this way I define myself as an existential realist.