Philosophy and God

Philosophy simply lies in the love and study of wisdom. It is concerned with the ultimate purpose and valuation of all things of human life such as birth, life, death and world and human interests in Universe, matter, mind, soul, spirit and God. Poets, prophets, naturists, romanticists, classicists, economists, historians, politicians, scientists, mathematicians, etc. have a say in philosophy.
No Man’s Land Philosophy is not the property of any specialists or professionals or intellectuals and hence, it is a no man’s land. So, anybody can explore, discover and investigate anything in this land. As philosophy has extended and expanded into many fields like science, politics, etc., which were all functioning under its banner once, have now made human knowledge unmanageably vast. Therefore philosophy now specifically means as per the view of Will Durant mainly five fields of study such as logic, aesthetics, ethics, politics and metaphysics. Hence people have lost the old charm and joy for it now.
Great Philosophers In the past it was the philosophers who had brought knowledge and wisdom within the reach of everyone by their dialogues, conversations, lectures, speeches and writings. Due to the efforts of the great philosophers religious control over the State changed, monarchy was displaced by democracy, blind religious beliefs were shattered by the bold scientific expositions of the truths to the people and so on. In this respect the philosophers people cannot forget are Socrates, Plato, Spinoza, Kant, Spencer, Russell, Confucius, Sankaracharya, Ramanuja, Radhakrishna and so on. Knowledge and WisdomHow human knowledge and wisdom are gained by men had posed to be great philosophical questions to many philosophers. According to John Locke human knowledge comes of sense-experience of matter and not purely of mind as it is like a clean slate in the beginning. Next Bishop George Berkeley refuted Locke’s analysis of knowledge that matter does not exist except as a form of mind and established that all matter is a mental condition and the only reality that we know directly is mind. David Hume, who came next, as per a wit “no matter, never mind” destroyed both the views of Locke and Berkeley in his
TREATISE ON HUMAN NATURE and said that knowledge is perceived merely as ideas. The next philosopher Kant said that knowledge is gained through pure reason. So, we can say that knowledge is gained not only through the sense experience of matter but also through mind, ideas and reason.The senior of these three philosophers and many others since then, Spinoza says that the best of philosophical knowledge is necessary and is most important of all things of man’s interests as through knowledge alone we can get freedom, happiness and peace. There is so much about knowledge. So, what can we say about human wisdom? We can say that human wisdom is the product of knowledge, observation, reflection and experience, which means that wisdom comes of the maturity of human mind or human perfection.
Scientific Philosophy Finally, what is the use of philosophy? The answer to this question lies in the writings of Bertrand Russell. Philosophy is necessary and important according to the views of Russell. Modern developments of the world and modern civilisation depend wholly on the scientific researches on minute things whether they are really helpful or not to human life on the Earth. He says in his essay on Knowledge and Wisdom that first wisdom is necessary to judge what scientific pursuits are really essential and what scientific pursuits are irrelevant before starting any scientific research. According to him to make philosophy relevant to the modern world the old approach to it should be replaced by the new approach of common sense, mathematical reasoning, scientific analysis and logical inference, which is the essence of his philosophy. Therefore his scientific philosophy can be accepted as the best modern philosophy and it is useful according to human culture to humanise modern knowledge to a great extent in the present world.
True Knowledge Those who don’t believe in any religion go to philosophy to know the truth. Philosophy has almost unveiled the eluding truth, but the pursuit is still on as there cannot be a nobler thing to do than to pursue after the truth. Whatever it is, by intellectual thinking only man has gained more and true knowledge of anything and everything from the Self to the Space. This is mainly because in this field only any question can be asked on anything to know the truth. Philosophies of Sankara on Advaita or monotheism, Plato on THE REPUBLIC and modern philosophies of Spinoza, Kant, Spencer, Russell and philosophical teachings of Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, J. Krishnamurti and Aurobindo contribute much to human knowledge and basing them only many useful philosophical ideas are developed for the progress of mankind. Materialists have denied the existence of soul, spirit, Universal Consciousness, God, immortality, etc. and supported single life, physical and mental aspects of human beings only. On the other hand, on abstract ideas like time, spirit, mind, immortality, etc. many philosophers have expressed wonderful interpretations for the understanding of anyone. But the quest for knowledge of Truth is very high in every one of them.Knowledge is PowerVarious views have come from researches on how man gets knowledge. According to Spinoza the first type of knowledge we get from hearsays, the second type from experience, the third type higher than these two from reasoning by deduction or induction and the fourth type far higher and superior than all the three from intuition just as we know mentally the answer of a problem in Mathematics without working out the steps from the beginning to the end. This intuitive knowledge is the most important and reliable one. Using this knowledge Spinoza has written a treatise on Ethics just like proving a Geometrical theorem or rider by using the method of Chess game. That is why he is called as the father of modern philosophy to many philosophers who came afterwards. So, this knowledge is real power, freedom and happiness.Will of God For Spinoza, God is everywhere; and everything is within this power.
The Will of God is the same as the Laws of Nature but not God and Nature are one. So, it is good to go according to the Laws of Nature. Mind and matter are inextricably united in such a way that either of them cannot exist without the other and so, both of them are not separate entities. A well informed knowledge or intellect only can help to know when love has to rule and when power has to rule. Of all the things only a good and perfect thought can remain immortal as far as immortality is concerned. There is so much about intellectual knowledge from Spinoza that they are really thought provoking and useful forever. Ideas According to John Locke in his essay on Human Understanding through sense-experience only mind knows everything as it is fresh and blank in the beginning. But Berkeley argues that knowledge of matter or other abstract things is gained through mind only and so, mind is everything. David Hume in his Treatise on Human Nature established that knowledge is gained on “no matter, but never mind.” Through sense-experience, mind, etc. weak or strong impressions are formed. But from the strong impressions only ideas of things, etc. are formed in the minds of human beings.
Reason After Spinoza, Kant only revolutionised human thought and cast his influence on many intellectuals, poets, etc. His famous philosophical treatises worth to be quoted are Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of Practical Reason, etc., in which he says that pure reason on sense-experience or no experience of past, present or future knowledge is obtained. While analysing the inherent structure of mind or innate laws of thought he says that knowledge is transcendental. Mind is not a silent spectator but an active organism that moulds and shapes perception of events i.e. memory of the mind stimulus is transformed into perception and perception is transformed into conception or ideas.Perception is disordered stimulus; conception is ordered perception. Science is ordered conception and wisdom is ordered life. Ideas of religion are based not on pure reason but on morality, the substance of acquired conscience by evolution.