The Thing In Itself: My Opinions About My Opinions
in that order.
I'm
interested
in things the way they really are. I'm
interested
in the thing in itself. So I'm
interested
in seeing if I can see things the way they really are. Is that even
possible? It begs the question "Is it available to me (is it even an
option) to see things the way they really are?". As soon as I look to
see the way things really are, I bring my own view with me, yes? To see
things the way they really are, and not just how they are in my own
view, it would seem as if I would have to leave my own view out of the
picture / out of the equation ... which begs the next question "Is it
even possible to ever leave my own view out of the picture / out of the
equation?". A quick assessment suggests this may not be possible. So to
test that, let's continue fleshing it out in this inquiry.
It's more than I don't know how to ever leave my own view out of the
picture / out of the equation. It's more likely that it's not even
possible to ever leave my own view out of the picture / out of the
equation. And that would suggest I simply have no
access
to seeing things the way they really are, and that I only have
access
to seeing things through my own view of them. For want of a better
word, what I'm seeing when I'm seeing things through my own view of
things, is what's called my "opinions". And the only "seeing" I have
access
to, is what I'm seeing when I'm seeing things through my own view of
them.
Now there's
nothing wrong
with opinions nor with having opinions.
Human beings
have opinions. I have eyes. I have ears. I have nostrils too. And I
have opinions. If I tell the truth about them, I didn't have much to do
with acquiring eyes, ears, and nostrils. I was born with them. I simply
have them ie they came with the package. Like that, I have
opinions too. They're just kind of there in the makeup of
what it is to be
human.
Indeed, well expressed opinions can be elegant, erudite, intelligent,
and riveting to engage with. Yet nothing about having well-constructed
opinions is as character-defining or as mature as being able to get
there's a critical difference between the way things really are, and my
opinions about the way things really are, and to act appropriately.
At very best, if I can never divest myself of my own opinions, I can
'fess up to that my views of the way things really are, are in
actuality just my opinions about the way things really are. Whatever I
hold out to be the way things really are, can only be authentically
expressed as an opinion. That's as close as it seems that
human beings
can get to owning the way things really are. We collapse our opinions
of the way things really are, with the way things really are.
So here's something worth considering: if you find yourself arguing /
debating about the way it really is (or isn't), remember that's not the
way it really is (or isn't) anyway. That doesn't mean don't have
opinions about the way it really is (we're
human beings,
so we have opinions). What it means is 'fessing up to that your
opinions are simply (and can never not be) your opinions, not the way
things really, absolutely are. And if the two match, it's mere
coincidence.
Now ... back for a moment to the way things really are,
back to the thing in itself: it exists like a postulate
only, given that when I assert the way things really are, it's plainly
not much more than my opinion about the way things really are. And even
if I want to claim some
originality
in constructing my many opinions, on the occasions when I regard my
opinions as the only right ones, the only accurate ones, the only true
ones: that's my automaticity
speaking.
