What is The Struggle among Ideas? It is the struggle by each and every individual throughout a lifetime and all of humanity throughout history to explain and give meaning and purpose to the world we inhabit. Ideas offered to explain the natural world or the social and mental conditions of humanity are in a persistent battle for preeminence. Ultimate victory is neither possible nor desirable, for it is the struggle itself which enriches the human predicament.
Thus, although entangled with both, philosophy is neither science nor religion; rather, it is the binder that holds each one of them together and also reveals their similarities, one emphasizing ascertainable knowledge from the sensate world and the other emphasizing revealed knowledge from the mind. Neither science nor theology alone can fulfill the needs of humanity. Science has not provided answers to the persistent questions about good and evil, wisdom and folly, or meaning and purpose in life. It cannot explain the elation and depression associated with feelings, intuitions, and emotions, and even when mechanistic explanations are offered, they seem totally inadequate to the experiences felt. It is not even certain that the so-called laws of nature constitute a unique framework, partial for sure, for interpreting the order in nature. Organized religions are not satisfactory either; although they may offer answers to many timeless questions, these answers are supported only by dogmatic belief systems which assume knowledge where in fact there is only ignorance. Belief in dogmas may console the weak and the infirm, offer certainty in an uncertain world, and succor the hope that “springs eternal in the human breast” but, in the end, it may signify only the triumph of desire over intellect.
About J. Ivey Davis
J. Ivey Davis was a paratrooper by age sixteen; he completed his B.S. (Caltech) and Ph.D. (UCLA); lectured one year in Africa (University of Ghana); and traveled throughout the world. He worked in theoretical physics, applied science for industry and national security, and international consulting (France, Japan, and Sweden).
What is The Struggle among Ideas? It is the struggle by each and every individual throughout a lifetime and all of humanity throughout history to explain and give meaning and purpose to the world we inhabit. Ideas offered to explain the natural world or the social and mental conditions of humanity are in a persistent battle for preeminence. Ultimate victory is neither possible nor desirable, for it is the struggle itself which enriches the human predicament.
J. Ivey Davis was a paratrooper by age sixteen; he completed his B.S. (Caltech) and Ph.D. (UCLA); lectured one year in Africa (University of Ghana); and traveled throughout the world. He worked in theoretical physics, applied science for industry and national security, and international consulting (France, Japan, and Sweden).