Friday, June 16, 2023

The Phenomenology Of Focus

There are only so many logically possible things to experience even if factors like psychological perceptions and the laws of nature were to change.  More importantly, there are only so many logical truths that exist and thus there are only so many that can be discovered or revisited.  Indeed, after a point, a person can only revisit, though very few even ever attempt to reach this point.  Whether they maintain or drift away from awe at the philosophical centrality, gravity, or significance of a thing is not something that dictates their worldview.  They could feel less awe due to familiarity with certain things and still have rationalistic knowledge of them, and still live for and be psychologically devoted to them.

The experience of reflecting on long familiar truths, concepts, and experiences in all of their importance or nuance is not one that has to grow less passionate or alluring over time, though.  If it does happen for a given person, diminishing excitement or outright boredom only means that someone has become bored: the thing they are less excited about on an emotional level, or perhaps no longer excited about at all, is no different than its logically necessary nature must be.  There is only a difference in how they are perceived or dwelt on by a particular individual.  Some people speak of how they hope to do all they can to prevent this from happening with a marriage or some other life situation, but there are far deeper, more crucial things than any human relationship.

The same logical truths, the same general introspective states, the same scientific experiences (and the laws of nature behind them, though these cannot be known by humans beyond subjective sensory perceptions), and the same issues can seem new or enthralling long after they are familiar.  As a person revisits and delights in these truths and concepts, whether they are reflecting on them in the midst of shifting life circumstances or just focusing on them in a very precise or different way, he or she in no way is damned to not be captivated by them in deepening ways.  Although only irrationality stops anyone from coming to many logical truths about reason itself and other things no matter their circumstances, these scenarios and how they might change over time can also provide a new psychological context to focus on philosophical truths, first and foremost the inherent, eternal truths of reason.

With or without a dramatic or major life event like a death, marriage, or career switch, the same truths are waiting to be acknowledged and can be returned to or concentrated on as emotions change.  The uttermost depth of logical axioms (and the many logical truths that follow from them) and the immediate experience of introspection can be intentionally savored together day by day as a person's attitude deepens or evolves.  There is no truth or concept of significance that cannot be repeatedly delighted in or clung to as life goes on, whether situations change or remain static.

Emotion can indeed be a great force to keep someone enchanted by logical truths that do not depend on emotion, including truths about God, morality, science, relationships, leisure, and practicality and not just strictly about reason.  How a person focuses on things of an explicitly abstract or more practical kind, especially as they go through their daily personal experiences at the same time, can be at least partly put under the reins of the will.  Trouble feeling emotionally satisfied or elated about the true core, depth, and often complexity of philosophical reality might never strike someone.  Should it strike, there are still things they could do or desire to once again enjoy how multifaceted the experience of coming again and again to the same truths can be.  No one who has thoroughly known the objective veracity or personal urgency of many issues would not also see how regularly dwelling even on the familiar can be empowering, intoxicating, and comforting.

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