Is the individual freedom from the society a mean or an
end of the intellectual level?
Ok lets see the question in parts and then as a whole.
Individual - adj. 1. Existing as an entity; single; particular 2.
Designed
or intended for a single person or thing. 3. Pertaining, belonging, or
pecular to one particular person or thing.
Freedom - having liberty of action or thought; independent (and the
various
other connotations of Free/Freedom) which are too many to be listed
here)
Society - A group of people having geographical boundaries and sharing
certain characteristics as language, culture etc.
Mean - (specific to a means to an end) the medium through which anything
is
done.
End - farthest5 point, extreme point or part; conclusion; result; goal;
object etc.
Intellectual - requiring, or using intellect; having highly developed
intellect. (intellect - faculty of knowing and reasoning;
understanding.)
The biggest problem with philosophy and metaphysics or any other kind of
science is the limitations imposed upon us through the use of language.
Each
word paints a picture/pattern of thought/concept so vivid that any time
that
word is used, we immedialtely visialize it so. In day to day
communication
we forget that the words we use are symbols to convey what we are trying
to
say and not an entity by themselves.
In the gross world of our sensory reality, an individual is a seperate
entity. When in fact, the concept of an individual does not exist in
nature.
(its the ZMM platypus) We only think it so because its a concept we
created
to explain the differences between me and you. Unfortunately this
'seperateness' in our language has become so intrinsic to our
understanding
that we think that reality also exists in seperate units. (looking for
the
ultimate building block of the universe, disease and the patient,
mammals
and reptiles, good and evil, individual and society, freedom and
bondage,
means and end etc.
Its like asking a dancer whether dancing is a means or an end. It is
both
the means and the end.
When we say intellectual level, then again we are trapped in words.
Intellectual level implies there is a higher and higher level of
intellect.
and who decides that level? We do. Isn't that a bit too convenient? The
above question is such that we just fall into our own traps of words and
concepts. The question asumes that there is something like an individual
and
many individuals make a society which has patterns/concepts of its own
and
that there is something called freedom which has many social
implications
and above all it assumes intellect to be separate from the society. (
its a
question like- Is light a particle or a wave. it depends on what
experiment
we choose to perform.)
It does not matter whether individual freedom is a mean or an end to
intellectual level because our definations have created the concepts of
means and ends. The question will serve no other purpose than to further
form patterns/concepts/symbols which will be even farther from reality.
Ok that was long! By the way all that i have said above are also symbols
of
what i understand reality to be. That is why Buddhist monks say that
'The
tao that can be told is not the eternal tao, the name that can be named
is
not the eternal name..... (TAO TE CHING)
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