Philosophy, Knowledge, Reason, Illusion, Intuition, & Revelation:
What's the Reality & How Do We Perceive it?
What is the Reality of Philosophy?
In this article, we are going to discuss in detail all the above mentioned key terms including important questions.
Introduction
Who are we? Why we are created? What is the reality behind our creation? What is the aim of our life? What is the reality behind life after death? Why we live on the planet earth? Is life possible on any other planets other than planet earth? Who has created us and this entire universe? Are we created intentionally or accidentally? What is the nature? What is the knowledge and where from do we get the knowledge?
All these questions have remained so important that human beings have been trying to find out the real answers for all these questions over the past many centuries. However, so far humans have not been agreeing and building a consensus while answering to all these questions. There are two different perspectives which have caused the difference of opinion while answering to these questions. Obviously the source of knowledge is the main contradiction behind this unending debate.
Philosophers believe that philosophy is the ultimate source of knowledge and thus knowledge is human's creation. Whereas, revelation claims that creator of the entire universe is the only source of real knowledge. Philosophy doesn't believe in life hereafter. Revelation on the other hand, claims that this life is temporary and actual life will be the life hereafter. So another question arises from here that which of these two different opinions is illusionary that is deceiving or misleading us intellectually and which of these two different opinions is based on reality and guiding us towards a right direction?
Well, my intention is to share the knowledge with you which I possess. I don't want to impose my opinion and understanding upon you, rather I want to convince you through foundations of my own knowledge creation. Hence, before jumping into this important debate, I want to give you an overview about Philosophy, Reason, Illusion, Intuition, and Revelation. Let us now read about all these key terms and then build our argument accordingly.
Who are We (Human Beings)?
Philosophy explains that humans are the most sophisticated animals. It was Aristotle who had called humans as social animals. Whereas, Evolutionary Theory (Natural Selection), first proposed by Charles Darwin claims that all forms of life evolved from a single biological molecule. Biology claims that it took millions of years for humans to evolve possibily from Chimpanzees and thus we (humans) are Homosapiens. However, biologists have never been successfully proving their claims about evolution. This is why entire evolutionary theory is based on hypothesis and probability. As a result, supporters of evolutionary theory are desperately trying hard to withdraw from their previous claim about human beings as Homosapiens.
Another important factor that raises questions over the credibility of evolutionary theory is that whether living things including human beings grow and reproduce from the same species or evolve from other species? Why biologists who believe in evolutionary process haven't been able to practically prove evolutionary theory in any species including humans? Does evolution takes place in animals only or in plants and other living organisms?
Philosophy states that humans (sophisticated animals) do have certain instincts like other animals. These instincts include Food, Shelter, Sex, and Company. These instincts subconsciously shape our behaviour. Philosophy further claims that human beings have emotions that help us to change, grow, and move. Emotions give us hint about our surroundings and environment. Emotions also motivate us to act positively or negatively. However, rationalists believe that human beings are distinct creatures due to the ability of "reason" and hence different from animals.
It is Philosophy that talks about "Reason". Philosophy claims that reason is only found in human beings, not in any other living beings. Reason causes us to think rationally and scientifically. We take decisions on informed knowledge and calculated risks based on our rationality. Similarly, on the basis of our own life experiences and knowledge transferred by others, we become rational. Therefore, being rational animals, we learn from our past and anticipate in our future.
Philosophy also claims that "Reason" created knowledge including dividing Philosophy into two main branches "Ontology and Epistemology". It is "Reason" that paved the way towards scientific knowledge and differentiating Philosophy from "Physics, Biology, Metaphysics, and Psychology".
Revelation on the other hand gives entirely an opposite view as compared to Philosophy and Biology. Revelation claims that we (Human Beings) are created intentionally by our Creator (God Almighty). We are the supreme among all the other creatures because the Creator infused His Soul into the body of Adam. Revelation clearly denies Evolutionary Theory by rejecting the notion of Homosapiens. Revelation states that we are the offsprings of Adam and Eve while Adam was created from clay and water by God Almighty. Adam was sent on the planet earth with some basic knowledge about life, food, shelter, and survival.
Revelation also mentions that man has been sent being a vicegerent of his Creator. Human beings have been bestowed upon with limited knowledge, natural resources, and ability to discover and utilize the natural resources. However, man has also been warned against "Illusion" (Satan or Ibless) who is an open enemy. It is Satan who creates doubts into the minds of human beings and leads them towards destruction through misinformation.
What is the Knowledge?
Knowledge is a very broad and diverse term. It includes rationality, reasoning, factual information, acquisition of skills through experiences, theoretical and practical understanding of certain subjects, cognition abilities, memory development, physical and metaphysical principles, and logical development about certain facts and beliefs. Knowledge is not wholly developed and discovered by the human beings rather it is attributed to them by their Creator. In fact, basic knowledge is in our instinct. Similarly, animals too have basic instincts (knowledge) including appetite and sexual desires.
Creation of this entire universe including human beings is purely based on knowledge and hence it is a living fact that knowledge is beyond human limitations. In fact, humans have very limited knowledge as they still don't know much about the universe and its laws that govern universe and nature around us. Knowledge is even beyond to our known universe. It is therefore a power that governs this universe. Today, even the modern science endorses that humans don't know much about the hidden secrets of this giant and ever expanding universe.
Knowledge has different forms including Implicit, Explicit, Declarative, Procedural, Tacit, Prior, and Posterior Knowledge.
Implicit Knowledge is what we gain through real life experiences. We come across many new life experiences intentionally and unintentionally. Similarly our emotions and behaviour teach us different real life experiences.
Explicit Knowledge is what is documented, transmitted, and learned from others. Explicit knowledge is what we do not experience personally but hear, learn, or know from others. Stories, poetry, novels, and other forms of literature are a common form of the explicit knowledge.
Declarative Knowledge is what we call factual knowledge and that is static in nature. For instance it is a fact that sun gives us light and energy. Similarly we personally experience that winter is cold and summer is hot. Declarative knowledge is more concerned with our senses and bodily experiences.
Procedural Knowledge is what we call as imperative source of knowledge. For instance when we try to know that how sun gives light and energy, why winter is cold and summer is hot, will be considered as procedural knowledge.
Tacit Knowledge is what we get in practical. It is one of the oldest form of knowledge that humans learnt by doing things again and again. For instance we learn so many things from others just by observing them that how they are doing it. Tacit knowledge transfers orally and practically from one generation to another without any documented or written form.
Prior Knowledge is what we call as abstract, logical, and rational information. Individuals have certain innate cognitive knowledge development skills. For instance, when we think about anything and try to understand it logically and rationally based on our cognitive abilities, it is called as prior knowledge.
Posterior Knowledge is what we call knowledge based on logical, rational, and experimental basis. Both prior and posterior knowledge are more scientific in nature as they lead us to new discoveries.
What is Philosophy?
Western philosophers believe that those were the Greeks who laid the foundation of philosophy around 2500 years ago. The English language's word "Philosophy" is basically taken from the two Greek language words "Philos" which means "love" and "Sophia" which means "wisdom". In general, Philosophy (love for wisdom) deals with the basic ideas about human knowledge, nature, reality and meaning of life, truth, right and wrong, religion, and our beliefs. Philosophy has been trying to simplify the reality by asking questions that what is reality? (Ontology) and how do we know about or perceive it? (Epistemology).
Philosophers often discuss about Western (Greeks, Romans, French, German, & British) Philosophy and Eastern (Chinese, Indian, & Persian) Philosophical schools of thought. However, Egyptian Philosophy and Babylonian Philosophy are still missing, although philosophers believe that Greeks were heavily influenced by the Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations. On the other hand, Arabic Philosophy is also not clearly mentioned as part of the modern school of philosophical thought and hence, secrets of love for wisdom (Philosophy) are still undiscovered.
Ontology, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Rationalism, Empiricism, Humanism, Utilitarianism, Existentialism, Egalitarianism, Elitism, Socialism, Modernism, Postmodernism, Ethics, Reason, and Logic are some of the most common approaches in Philosophy. Philosophers believe that Ontology (one of the basic branches of Philosophy) gave birth to natural sciences including Physics and Biology to understand the physical world, nature, and human biology. Whereas, Epistemology (second basic branch of Philosophy) deals with Metaphysics and Psychology. Unlike Physics and Biology, Metaphysics and Psychology deal with knowledge beyond the physical world. In simple words, epistemology deals with abstract ideas including our cognitive and spiritual knowledge.
However, one thing that often surprises me is that Western Philosophy is ambiguous and unclear itself. When we read different branches of the Western Philosophy, we find that they not only contradict with each other but also deny eachother at times. For instance, socialism, communism, nationalism, feminism, capitalism, neoliberalism, and postmodernism have quite different and contradictory philosophical ideologies against eachother.
Eastern & Western Philosophies
Unlike Western Philosophy, Eastern Philosophy doesn't look for material comfort rather spirituality. Trio of Eastern Philosphers (Laozi, Budha, and Confucius) believed that humans are equal by birth but different by virtue, knowledge, and beliefs. They believed that sufferings are universal and our desires are the main reason behind our sufferings because the more we get the more we desire for. So instead of the material comfort like wealth, luxurious lifestyle, power, and success, Eastern Philosophers searched for moral and spiritual comfort. This is why Eastern nations have remained less aggressive and offensive as compared to Western and Central Asian nations.
Eastern Philosophers believed that death is a reality but yet a mystery because it is irrational in nature. Eastern Philosophy realized that life is an endless cycle of desires for pleasure. However, it believes in beyond materialistic comfort. Eastern Philosophers believed that all humans have free will to choose between good and evil. Unlike Western Philosophy of individualism, Eastern Philosophy believes in strong family relations (socialism).
Farming was the main skill of the Eastern Philosophy. Fortunately, South and East Asia have enough resources of fresh water in the shape of Yellow River, Ganges River, and Indus River. Rice has been remaining the main crop of this naturally rich and self dependant part of the world. However, lack of reason and rationality provided Greeks, Mongols, Arabs, Tartars, Persians, Afghans, and even Britishers to invade and conquer them easily.
Western Philosophy was not based on spirituality like Eastern Philosophy. Instead rationalism has been remaining the core principle of Western Philosophy. Trio of the Western Philosophers (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) in order to make like comfortable, taught Greeks to rely on manipulating nature through science and technology. They taught West to sail through oceans and become merchants. As a result Western Philosophy started believing in materialistic comfort. They realized that scientific advancements could lead them towards life comfort, wealth, and power.
Western Philosophy took great advantage of the Egyptian and Babylonian civilisations by learning new knowledge from them. This quality of adaptability gave Western Philosophy an edge over the Eastern and Persian Philosophies by making it more dominant. Rationalism provided a new lens of reason to the Western Philosophers to view and experience the world around them. During Medieval Period, Western Philosophy saw a great setback in the shape of the establishment of the mighty Roman empire. West calls this Middle Ages period of about 1000 years (from 5th century to 15th century AD) as Dark Ages in Europe.
However, when Muslims defeated the mighty Romans, Western Philosophy started re-emerging. Another factor that provided space for the Western Philosophy was the failure of Persian Philosophy (Mysticism) and disrespect for Arab Philosophers, Scientists, and Scholars. Their tragic end during Mughal Empire and Uthman Empire, provided Europe an opportunity to learn new knowledge in the form of Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Astronomy, Medicine, Geography, and Optics. All important Persian and Arabic books were therefore translated into English, French, and German languages by the European scholars which eventually injected a soul into the Western Philosophy.
Pros & Cons of Western Philosophy
Western Philosophy became dominant since the very beginning of the 16th century. This journey is still continue though it has started losing its ground from the very beginning of the 21st century.
Various European nations including French, Dutch, German, and Britishers started discovering new continents. They however, started colonizing African, American, Australian, and Asian nations in order to rule over them and plunder their natural resources including gold, silver, coal, diamonds, and copper. Britishers and French in particular, remained very much successful to colonize different regions of the world including plundering natural resources abundantly.
With the help of scientific advancements, Britishers discovered unlimited natural resources including striking oil. However, at the same time they started polluting the world and damaging the natural environment through industrialisation. Europeans did new demarcation of the world, geographically distributed regions, set borders, and divided regions into nations and countries. This gave them an opportunity to fully control to the colonized nations.
At the same time, Western Philosophy injected materialism into the masses of these slave African, Asian, and American nations and set interest-based trade and commerce policies. They changed the education system of the world by imposing western-friendly education setups. They built schools, colleges, and universities to produce skilled labour and loyal bureaucrats to the British empire.
Western Philosophy became so dominant that changed the cultural values, religious beliefs, social norms, and ethics of the colonized countries. New scientific discoveries and advancements made Europe the ruling elites of the rest of the world.
Following the Western Political Philosophy, Europeans established international organisations including UNO and World Bank. In order to control the world economy, they formed new laws and framed new monetary policies to have strict check-and-balance on the economic activities of the world. However, the emergence of China, Russia, and India in recent times has posed new threats for them.
Similarly, technology has replaced Science and Philosophy. World is now moving forward where Information Communication and Technology (ICT) has been occupying a central place. So, if we conclude the pros and cons of the Western Philosophy, we come to know that on the one hand we do have seen amazing scientific discoveries and experienced life comforts but at the same time Western Philosophy has destroyed our natural environment, plundered resources, and promoted materialism.
Where does the Reason Stand in Philosophy?
From philosophical point of view, reason is an ability of human mind which causes us to think rationally, scientifically, and logically. Reason helps us in taking decisions on the basis of rationality, calculated risks, experiences, and informed knowledge. Reason is always subjective and selective in nature. Human beings are the only living beings that have the ability to think and reason logically. However, not all the humans possess highest intellect level.
Deductive reasoning, inductive reasoning, and abductive reasoning are the forms of formal and logical reasoning. Philosophers believe that scientific reasoning opened the new doors of knowledge including Physics and Biology. Reason caused rationale and emergence of Science and new scientific discoveries which provided us with sense of security, life comfort, medicines, better houses, bumper crops, prepare fast foods, communication channels and transportation facilities.
It is an established fact that reason laid the foundations of scientific and technological advancements in human society. Thus in order to make human life more comfortable and scientifically advanced, we have manipulated nature including putting many species in danger and damaging our own environment. As a result of logical and scientific reasoning, today's human society is crossing all the limits just for materialistic comfort wealth, and power. Today human life runs through an endless cycle of desires for pleasure and comfort.
We need to think rationally and logically that why we are investing our resources including spending billions of dollars in search of the possibility of life on other planets by damaging our own planet where life exists from thousands of years ago.
What is Illusion?
Illusion is a psychological deception, intentionally spreading misinformation, denying reality, hiding facts, and promoting false and baseless beliefs and ideologies. Distortion of sensory information and imposition of pseudo discourses is also a form of illusion. From the philosophical perspective, illusion is called as illusionism which means that people hold illusory beliefs about freewill. It is basically an abstract ideology which forces us to believe what is unreal and not true.
Although, illusions are the psychological factors perceived through our senses and cognitive processes, they can be scientific in nature. For instance, during a day time we see a blue sky but at night a black sky. However, blue or black sky is a non-existent thing in reality. Similarly, soon after rainfall we sometimes see a rainbow in the sky which is purely an optical illusion due to refraction, internal reflection, and dispersion of light in water droplets.
Because Illusion is always unreal and creates misinformation, it doesn't like to accept criticism and answer unlike questions. Illusion has different types and forms as it can be religious, political, social, scientific, personal, impersonal, and cultural. For instance, feminism, imperialism, nationalism, humanism, elitism, socialism, communism, capitalism, and neoliberalism are nothing else but illusions that emerged at different times and further widened the gaps among human beings.
In 1436, discovery of the Printing Press by Gutenberg brought a new revolution in the field of knowledge and sharing information with masses. However, it also caused spread of misinformation, emergence of false and fabricated ideologies, and discovering pseudo historical events that had nothing to do with reality. Certainly, we can not blame Gutenberg for spreading mass misinformation rather those writers are involved who intentionally deceived readers by hiding the key facts and denying reality.
Western media has been successfully using illusion by spreading misinformation intentionally. Similarly, all the secret service agencies of the world use illusion as their main weapon. Intelligent people and capitalists also use illusion for their personal gains. Additionally, intelligent people and even intellectuals who believe in materialism often deceive others and thus take full advantage of illusion.
An important question arises here that does illusion purely emerges due to human intentions or is there any other source of emergence? Well, revelation (source of knowledge created by the Creator of this universe) answers to that question that Satan (Iblees) who is an open enemy of the human beings, plays a major role as far as emergence of the illusion is concerned. However, Revelation also reveals that greedy people do use illusion just for their personal gains and materialistic comfort.
What is Intuition?
After the emergence of science and technology back in the late of 20th century, Philosophy started losing its grounds. In order to maintain its credibility, philosophers therefore, introduced a new branch of Philosophy called intuition to keep Philosophy as dominant as it has been over the past many centuries. Intuition falls somewhere in between emotion and reason.
Intuition is a new form of knowledge that according to western thinkers, provide us insights, original ideas, inventiveness, and ability to connect dots. Reason is slow, instinct is too rigid, emotions cloud our judgement, but intuition is fast, snappy and of-the-moment insight that allows societies to move forward.
Western philosophers believe that most inventions and discoveries can be attributed to Intuition rather rational thinking. They believe that science is taking care of reason only and thus ignoring emotions. Science doesn't teach us about love, care, suffering, sacrifice, and empathy.
Intuition provides us a tool to cope up with human sufferings therefore, it falls in between unconscious or irrational psychology as well as conscious or rational sciences like physics and biology. Through intuition, Western Philosophy is trying to get edge over Globalisation (a new phenomenon of ICT) but whether it will be successful in it or not, only time will tell us.
What is the Revelation?
Revelation is something that is divinely revealed. It is a type of knowledge that is beyond human intellect and creation. Revelation is free from human doctrines and schools of thought. It is not based on human experiences, logic, reason, and rationale. Revelation also means sharing of truth and reality (pure knowledge) with human beings that was previously unknown to them.
However, revelations came to chosen and special human beings (Prophets or Messengers) through angel Jibra'el. Similarly, Allah the Almighty revealed knowledge through showing His miracles including giving special powers and signs to different Prophets of Islam including Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad.
Muslims (the followers of Islam) believe that Qur'an is the latest and ultimate form of revelation that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad through angel Jibra'el by Allah the Almighty. Prior to Qur'an, three other books including Psalms, Torah or Old Testament and Gospel were revealed to Prophet David, Moses, and Jesus respectively.
Revelation tells us that all the Messengers carried the same message of Islam and preached about one and the Only True God. Revelation further discloses that this life is temporary and mortal. We are sent on earth to taste our faith and belief. On the basis of our faith and belief we will be rewarded heaven or hell in life hereafter.
Revelation denies the concept of religion as religion is based on human doctrines and knowledge. Revelation claims about Islam and calls it "Deen" which is purely from Allah the Almighty (Creator). Therefore anything other than revelation is not authentic, reliable, and thus true source of knowledge.
The last Messenger of Islam (Prophet Muhammad) claimed that Qur'an is the final and ultimate form of revelation and his duty was to preach it among human beings and invite them towards ultimate success in the form of true knowledge.
Revelation claims that scientific advancements, wealth, power, luxurious life, and even technological discoveries are an illusion and nothing else. Revelation states that death is the biggest reality and this world is mortal which has to come to an end sooner or later. Therefore, we need to be worried about life hereafter that how much we are prepared for the next life which is ultimate and immoral.
To understand further about "Revelation" one should read and understand Qur'an atleast once in his lifetime.
Conclusion
I have tried my level best to give you a broader view of the picture by mentioning factual and real information to the best of my knowledge. It us upto to your free will, whether you agree or disagree with my viewpoint.
Thanks for your reading.
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