Random Thread

Hmm. A short comic? 'Sketch comic'?

It's been some time since I've done one of these.

Here is.. condolences to all the victims of the sudden weather change in the Mediterranean last year. From Greece to North-Africa. Once again, there are forecasts that predict a potential storm at the very same time of this month, like before.

What can I say? Brace for Impact.(?)

........

The Philosophy of Idealism

A philosophy presents the world as being unreal and rather existent through 'ideas' or a form of 'conciousness', and the physical world are nothing more than imitations, giving the mind an importance in how reality is shaped. There are a few other definitions. You may find more official ones online; most of what I found are similar to this.

This philosophy is said to have first appeared during the time of Ancient Greece, with Plato(Platonic Idealism) proposing that "Eternal truths exist in the realm of ideas." Or, it's also said it might have present earlier by Pythagoras.[Even though when I did look into that, the "Idealism" of Pythagoras was more... mathematical, you can say.(: Which is an interesting concept. Might write then post about that later.] As this philosophy goes beyond what's sensory, that naturally opposes materialism which dictates that matter is the primary part of existence, of which also includes that mental processes and conciousness are fundamentally the result of materialistic interactions.

This philosophy evolved into two main, basic forms: Metaphysical Idealism and Epistemological Idealism. Metaphysical idealism says that reality is grounded by mental properties in a way. While epistemological idealism says that knowledge is based more in the mental rather than what's physical, or "things in themselves". These two main parts of idealism is also branched into other kinds of philosophy too, and promoted by prominent philosophers like Immanuel Kant in Germany(Later became part of German idealism , he founded what's now known as "Transcendenta Idealism") and Francis Bradley.(Recorded to have lead the movement of British idealism).

While this philosophy seemed to have been first proposed to explain the concept of reality, overtime it was involved into politics, revolutions and even in the works of some religious figures. Idealism in itself is very broad term that incorporates a lot of aspects, but noticeably, the main aspect that remains across all of its off-shoots is that ideas play an important role in shaping the reality; with ideas being the highest type of reality.

Interesting quote by Plato, "Reality is created by the mind, we can change our reality by changing our mind."

Pythagoras, & Existence in Pythagorean Philosophy:

I'd guess that many people who heard of Pythagoras will probably only know him by something they likely had in a math class:

(Reference to the Pythagoras Theorem)

This.(': Even though, if you were to read about him, you'll find there could have been a lot to him than just mathematics. But there's even a complicated issue when you want to research. That is, there isn't any books proven to be written by him.. Yes, so most, if not all, main sources written about him were by other Greek figures.

For a short, general introduction to this philosophy.. Pythagoreanism is a philosophical and religious movement that originated with the teaching of Pythagoras, OR at least said to be associated with Pythagoras.(*) Pythagoreanism encompasses a range of beliefs and practices, which are essentially focused on mathematics, morality and the nature of the universe.

Pythagoreans believed that 'Numbers' are the fundamental reality, and they are what govern the structure of the universe. They viewed the cosmos is a system ruled by mathematical laws, and that music has a mathematical relationship with numbers. For Pythagoreans, numbers are the essence of reality.(**)

Pythagoreanism categorized numbers in various ways, following philosophical and mathematical principles. Here are some key types of numbers that the Pythagoreans focused on:

1-Odd & Even Numbers:

-Even Numbers: Numbers that can be divided by 2 without a remainder (e.g., 2, 4, 6). Those numbers were associated with balance and stability.

-Odd Numbers: Numbers that cannot be evenly divided by 2 (e.g., 1, 3, 5). Those numbers were associated with individuality and asymmetry.

2-Prime & Composite Numbers:

-Prime Numbers: Numbers greater than 1 that have no positive divisors other than 1 and themselves (e.g., 2, 3, 5, 7). Primes were considered fundamental building blocks of numbers.

- Composite Numbe: Numbers that have divisors other than 1 and themselves (e.g., 4, 6, 8). These are formed from prime factors.

3-Perfect Numbers:

-A perfect number is equal to the sum of its proper divisors(excluding itself). An example of that is 28 (1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14 = 28). Perfect numbers were viewed as representatives of harmony and completeness.

[These are only a few of their philosophical views on numbers. You may also search for their views on other kinds of numbers. Such as Square and Fibonacci numbers (: ]

About.. Irrational Numbers:

As you may already know any number that can be a fraction is a Rational Number. Meanwhile, Irrational Numbers are a set of real numbers that cannot be written as fractions or ratios made up of integers.(An example of that is Pi***)

The Pythagoreans primarily dealt with rational numbers, but they also encountered irrational numbers. The discovery of irrational numbers challenged their belief in the completeness of the relationship between numbers and that led to philosophical dilemmas about the nature of reality.

The Pythagorean classification of numbers quite reflects their belief in the intrinsic order and harmony of the universe. They sought to understand deep philosophical meanings behind existence and the cosmos, through math and numbers, basically, as it appears. Or primarily through them at least.

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(*) To read into the writings which relate to Pythagoras and Pythagoreans, you may check "The Pythagorean Source-book And Library" by Kenneth Guthrie. Pythagoras isn't a unique case when it comes to having a lack of substantial information about a past individual. It reminds me of other historical figures like Zoroaster.

(**) As the fundamentals of reality itself.

(***) π= 3.1415926535..... no software, as far as I know, can handle an infinite amount of numbers. So I'll stop right here..(:

The Perks of being Half-Deaf/Partially Deaf: (More of a joke)

While not being able to hear well might cause a difficulty with reacting properly to external auditory stimuli, and a difficulty with interacting with people.. here are a few 'perks' I noticed from about a year or two of experience:

1-You can put on one earphone to block most or all sounds when in a noisy environment.

2-You don't have to know the 'details' of people's conversations around you, simply because you can't hear most of it properly.

3-When there's a ruckus in the house, you can lay down on one side when you need to sleep.

(':

Well, I will get a check-up by an otolaryngologist soon enough and see what the issue is eventually.

("Never Be Alone" - TheFatRat)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ic-gZlPFTkQ

I recall this one long ago when I've first encountered this artist. That and "Fly Away." (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cMg8KaMdDYo) Not sure if I should compliment the track itself or the effort put into the animation in the background.

"You and I, jumping off the edge. They say dreamers never 'die.'"

Well that sounds 'off' yet the song in itself is 'uplifting.' Well, my dark humour aside...(: It seems there isn't much of this music genre being made, or at least it doesn't get recommended or liked much by the public. anymore. Well, I guess it's been a while. So it was nice to re-visit one of the artists I had on an old play-list.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q64QLP22jrs&list=PLuGTLIaStNK-Uc8crUdIy0V6s-JXuwcfC&pp=iAQB8AUB (Violin cover)

Now, this is something.

(An extract from "Idealism: The History of a Philosophy" by Jeremy Dunham, Iain Hamilton and Grant Sean Watson)

Interestingly enough, this book about the history of idealism addresses that it can somehow be materialistic in a way, and also can relate to realism throughout the book. The author(s) seem(s) to argue for this position from the very beginning of the book / in the intro.

Post-Research Reflections on the Trinity:

The concept of the Trinity is an essential part of the Christian belief. Most of time, when you search about it online, it is defined as that God exists as three distinct entities / persons: The Father, Son(or Jesus) and the Holy Spirit.[Those words are usually capitalised. So I did the same.] While this concept emphasizes that while each person is a full, complete god, they are not three separate gods but one in essence. 

I did enquire about it before and I got a response similar to this. It seems to be challenging to comprehend, and this difficulty isn't new. Many do find this concept difficult to understand. Like the concept of being three, but one.(?) Or how early churches debated over this concept and some interpretations of some biblical verses that emphasize the oneness of God, while others highlight the distinct roles of the aforementioned entities. Those are a few interpretations of the Trinity I have explored:

• Unitarianism: This is a modern movement that rejects the 'Trinity' altogether, affirming the oneness of God but denying the distinct persons of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

• Modalism / Sabellianism: This view suggests that God is a single person who reveals himself in three 'modes' or forms rather than as three distinct persons, which undermines the relational aspect of the Trinity.

• Arianism: This view asserts that the Son was created by the Father and therefore not co-eternal or consubstantial with Him.

The first one I'd expect to be a heresy like the other two if it were to be introduced during the first centuries. Like Arianism, which was a view was proposed by Arius, a Christian priest. It created a controversy back then, and it was one of the main topics in the Council of Nicaea.*

What really is the 'Accurate Trinity' though?

So far, the first definition I mentioned in the beginning is what the main Christian denominations(Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant) go by; the belief that God the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are one. 

The earliest consensus being the Nicene Creed.**

I'd say this matter still needs a lot of research to understand how all of this developed in detail.

(The Trinity, in Latin. Pater= Father, Filius= Son, Spiritus Sanctus= Holy Spirit, Deus= God, "est"= is, "non est"= "is not")

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*.. But it got rejected in the end. Arius: )):

**Check for the original text of the Nicene Creed of 325CE.

The Book of Matthew & Hadith Literature:

Abrahamic religions are known to be a group of faiths whom are essentially monotheistic. There are three main faiths within that group, which are: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Considering all of these faiths come from a main source that is an important historical figure, Abraham. And naturally, they will have some similarities shared amongst them.

While I was reading the Bible before, a few sentences from the Book of Matthew caught my attention. I am already aware there are similar aspects between Christianity and Islam, but what's interesting about this part of the Bible is it has not only the same instructions laid out for Christians as Islam; it is worded about the same both in the Bible and in Hadith literature.* At first I thought I might be mistaken since I didn't memorise Hadiths by word, and it's been a year since I've researched the religion in-depth. Actually, I found the narrations I was looking for.

Here are two examples:

(Matthew 6:3, New World Translation)

(ESV)

And,

(Muslim 1013)

(Matthew 5:28, New World Translation)

(ESV)

And,

(Muslim 2657)

The first one is when I sought to searching for the narrations, because it was clearly obvious as you can see. Interesting how the same teachings in Christianity are adopted by Islam in the same way. Islam emphasises that it is the religion for all the past biblical prophets. So it's understandable. I didn't expect the teaching to be similarly formulated like this though.

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*The recorded actions and sayings of Mohammad.