Mind is our Lab and our Experiment is Thought

     “I Think, Therefore I Am” – René Descartes

This quote itself blows up my mind.

I know everyone reading this might already be thinking — just from the title — what I’m going to write about. But trust me, this will make sense or maybe not, because in philosophy, everything doesn't need to make sense.

At the very beginning, you answer the 9 philosophical questions... and then you question the answers themselves. Every day in the journey of learning philosophy is a quest in itself — where you have to question and question and keep questioning until your brain fries. I know people feel that philosophy students don't have much work to do — but trust me, we have a LOT.

The questioning happens first in terms of our thinking, then about others' thinking, then others’ minds, then what is happening in those minds, and then boom — the mind-body problem. Then comes the meaning of words, free will, right and wrong — everything is a BIG problem in itself.

I just hope that after two years of learning philosophy, I’ll be able to answer at least some of those questions.

But how can I forget questioning death, justice, and the meaning of life?

I know, I know, you might be fed up hearing all this — but philosophy is more theory than practice.

And people who teach philosophy — let’s be honest — don’t practice it as much as we students try to.

Socrates, Epicurus, Plato, Aristotle — all these greats have started coming in my dreams. DAILY. No peace at night.

They disturb. They poke. They ask questions. They laugh at my ignorance.

And here I am — trying to make sense of this chaos.

There are many schools of philosophy, so many subjects to strive for: right now it’s world religions, then ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy, then Darsanas, then logic, then research methodology... (yes, it's endless.)

Practically, we really do question everything.

I think that if I go on like this, I’ll have to pack my bags and leave the Society of Jesus forever.

But somehow, I’ve managed to keep my questioning limited.

Though I know — soon it will burst out.

The place where I stay in Chennai is called Satya Nilayam — “The Abode of Truth”.

But then again, I ask — what is truth?

Even Jesus couldn’t answer this when Pilate asked him, so how will I?

Maybe the Milesian philosophers and the Eliatic philosophers will fight over this answer if their souls were still alive.

Oh, I know I’m making baseless propositions — but it is what it is.

Wait... am I talking like Parmenides now?

But the soul of Heraclitus will surely trouble me tonight because I believe in change!

The metaphysical understanding and ethics will say something else — but that’s okay.

We Jesuits believe in many things.

We call ourselves multitaskers, but philosophers were monists, and then there were pluralists who believed in totally different things altogether.

So much sleep is needed to have a better philosophical mind — but we are not allowed to sleep much.

Thanks to our seniors who worked hard to make our lives this "easy".

But that’s fine. As philosophers, everything is illusion.

Even if a dog bites us, everything is illusion. Maya.

Some philosophers were in such a state that they had to take the help of their disciples for defense —

and all I can say is, baap re!

What to do in this Society?

I just hope the scholastics stay together.

And then we come to learning Buddhism —

whatever the Buddha followed was a real challenge, something we cannot attain even in this lifetime.

Hats off to Buddha and his disciples.

Slowly, we are moving into tribal and Dalit philosophy.

It’s really sad to see people suffering so much just because of the matter of their birth.

I sometimes wonder how Western philosophers must look at tribal and Dalit philosophy —

maybe they think they're in some dreamlike nothingness.

But ironically, they themselves are going through existential crises, and still try to “fix” others.

But okay...

Many people have worked on moral grounds to help.

Still, we are trying to discover what is happening in this world.

There are so many contradictory worldviews —

maybe that’s why transformations never happen, because no one is really ready to accept others.

That’s the problem with philosophy.

Right now, Zeno’s paradoxes are troubling me.

Let me solve them before I go bald.

Why do people have so many questions —

How the world existed?

What is the earth made up of?

What is that one thing with which everything works?

Later, they say there are four elements.

Why can’t all philosophers just sit down at a round table and solve all this at once?

So that the later generations will at least know why they are born!

Because of all these questions, philosophers lose a lot of hair.

Now I know why!

In contextual philosophy, the trouble is not one — but many.

The tribals have their own worldview, but they are exploited.

The STs are struggling, the Adivasis too.

Some have helped them, but in most of history — and even now — they are still being exploited.

People like Dr. Ambedkar, Jaipal Singh Munda, and others were their strong pillars.

In most of this philosophy, the blame always comes to the Brahmins —

as if they made all the laws and then tried to oppress the society.

Maybe true, maybe exaggerated — who knows?

Right now, we’re still stuck in the Pre-Socratic era —

but soon, we will move forward and discover many more things.

The propositions we’re learning in Logic are helping —

I can now infer, form proper premises, and build arguments that are actually logical and sometimes even real.

One great difficulty? To just sit and listen.

Sometimes, I feel — if those philosophers could make all kinds of crazy propositions,

then why can’t I?

But then I remember — the consequences and the repercussions.

The society won’t come out of their comfort zones.

Let it be. Don’t worry.

This is not an existential crisis.

                                                                                                                           Sch Rohan Brahmane SJ