This attitude of disregard does not only apply to such monumental questions as “Why are we here,” but also to any query which doesn’t seem to have a “scientific” or rationally derived answer: What is beauty? What is the best music? What makes something wrong? I could not answer these questions definitively, and no one in McDonalds could either. You also wouldn’t be able to find these answers in a book. This ope

n-endedness distresses people. No one likes to be stumped, which is also the reason why so many people try to ascribe pre-packaged, conventional answers to questions that require far more thought and insight than a simple, “ready-made thought from which thinking has been evaporated,” as Gerd B. Achenbach describes in his essay, Orphic Underworld Philosophy. Gerd goes on to explain two reasons for which he believes are the causes of this tendency in humans. The first is the insight, which seemingly all humans posses, that knowledge is power. This has been proven true since the beginning of history, and is certainly true today. Observe any corporate CEO (legitimately hard-working that is), athletic coach, or even priest; these people are in put power positions because they are believed to have knowledge others don’t. Achenbach’s second reason is the widely believed claim that truth is only personal. If this were actually true, no one could ever say that one truth is actually better that another, and therefore, we could have no actual truths. All we would be left with is a bunch of random opinions which are no more valid than the next bunch. In no way do these opinions bring us any closer to an actual glimpse of an answer to the questions at hand.

So, one might ask who is left to do the answering? In a perfect society, every citizen would be striving, together, using elenchus to seek the answers. However, we do not live in a perfect society. Not everyone is in a position to worry about questions with no tangible meaning. People who struggle simply to survive should not be expected to worry about unanswerable questions when their time could be better spent finding food for themselves and their family. This is not to say that not a single poverty stricken person could think deeply, but, although it is admirable, it should not be expected that a physical being place its physical needs second to its spiritual and or mental needs. So, back to the question at hand, who should be seeking the answers to these questions that seem to have none? Whose job is it?

Achenbach believes that it is the art of the philosopher. He quotes the Romantic novelist Novalis to describe this art. “The meaning of the Socratic is that philosophy is everywhere or nowhere—and one can easily orient oneself through the first thing one comes across and find what one seeks. The Socratic is the art of finding from any give

Some topics in this essay:
Philosophy Gerd, Lewis Shadowlands, , Gerd Achenbach, religion i’ll listen, false reassurances, answers questions, i’ll listen, religion i’ll, times grief, answer questions, question life, perfect society, achenbach describes, ultimate truth,