← Back to context

Comment by rramadass

3 hours ago

This sort of reductionist approach has long been discarded.

Philosophizing is as old as mankind with even the most primitive tribe developing a "Worldview" within which it placed itself i.e. gave meaning to its existence. "Modern Science" itself was birthed from Philosophy in order to study "Objective Reality" separately from our "Subjective Perception" of it.

But the fact that we "live in our Mind" only via subjective perceptions (i.e. experiences/feelings/emotions/thoughts/memories/etc.) has not gone away and hence the problems engendered by this must be faced.

The need for a study of this through a Philosophy is nicely stated by the opening verse of Samkhya Karika (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhyakarika) which is a seminal text from the Samkhya (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samkhya) school of philosophy;

Because of the torment of the three-fold suffering, arises this inquiry to know the means of counteracting it. If it is said that such inquiry is useless because perceptible means of removal exist, we say no because these means are neither lasting nor effective. (See the "Contents" section of Samkhya Karika webpage linked to above for a detailed understanding)

So what Philosophies give us is a way to orient our psychology through a appropriate worldview which promises the removal of all suffering and unhappiness which Biology by itself cannot.