Essay 2-Plan for a System of Essays

Product of the Series

As dictated by essay 1, there shall be a new philosophical series built for the purpose of the mission, that is the happiness of all mankind. However, several questions arise from the idea of a philosophical series which must be clarified and answered. The foremost question is in what form will this philosophical series be? From a semantic analysis we can determined that it is a series of philosophies, but nonetheless we obtain no information about its concrete form. Therefore, this essay shall seek to clarify the form or product of the philosophical series.

Philosophical System

The product of the series shall be a philosophical system, but what is a philosophical system? A philosophical system is a set of interrelated and interconnected philosophical statements through proof relations. In order to understand this, we must go further to the analysis of a philosophical statement. A philosophical statement can be defined completely as a philosophical true proposition, or a philosophical truth.

A proposition is a declarative sentence which can be either true or false. It is declarative, meaning we state or declare an object with its particular properties. As such a declarative sentence can be mapped to its corresponding object. It is debatable whether all declarative sentences are propositions or not, but briefly a proposition is a declarative sentence which can be compared to reality. We can then determine whether the meaning or objects represented by the proposition match the objects in reality.

If a proposition matches reality then it is true, if it does not match then it is false. A true proposition is also known as truth. However not all truths are philosophical statements. For a truth to be a philosophical statement, it must be philosophical, that is it describes the most fundamental properties of reality and human experience. It can also be described as a truth of only realistic properties or objects, that is it applies throughout all of reality. If a truth is only local, it might not be philosophical.

All truths known to man must be justified, that is to say there must be evidence or proof for the truth. The justification here is more of what allows us to determine that something is true rather than what causes the object to be the way that it is. This justification can be in the form of another truth or from a source of justification, such as our sensory experiences or our pure reasoning. The connection of justification between truths constitute what we call the proof relations, that is the relationship of proof and justification between various philosophical statements.

With that idea we have a clear picture of what is a philosophical system. We are also aware of the connection between truth, and as such philosophical systems in general with happiness. However, the fact that we are engaging in a philosophical system implies that we are attempting to create a new system instead of adhering to an old one. This raises the question of why must we create a new system instead of following an existent philosophical system?

In order to fully understand the connection between the philosophical system and happiness, we must understand how it is practiced and applied in the world. For individuals the system informs the individual on how to act and what to act. This system is not always explicit but is usually manifested in the form of unconscious and conscious beliefs which drives the behaviour of the individual. For entire societies, the system informs the values and norms of society which in turn evolves into the social system.

Our focus is on societies, and so a quick determination of whether we need a new system is not is an evaluation of the current systems. The end goal of the philosophical system is to bring happiness for everyone. However, the current reality shows that the current social system and thus the philosophical system behind it has not succeeded that well. The realities of war, discrimination, exploitation, among other evils, implies that there are still flaws and imperfections within the system.

It is by that basis that we seek to create a new philosophical system to replace the currently outdated and flawed system. Of course, it is not to completely discredit and invalidate the current system. As the current system is indeed better compared to older systems. However, it is certainly not perfect either and the contradictions of the current system has begun to show. Therefore, we are justified in forming a new philosophical system instead of adhering to the old one.

System of Essays

The philosophical system is an abstract object, consisting of pure philosophical statements relating to each other in the abstract realm. In this case, the system is akin to the way mathematical abstractions exist in their own abstract realm. As such we require a way to access the system in its concrete form. The concrete form would be a representation and medium for us to access the system, understand it, and apply it to the world.

We can establish the concrete form of the philosophical system as a system of essays. Each individual essay will represent one or several philosophical statements. An essay itself is already a system, a system within a system if we can say. As all the statements within an essay relates to each other for the purpose of supporting the thesis of the essay. The focus of the essay however is still the thesis, and therefore the philosophical statements that is to be proven in the essay.

The proof relations of each statement are manifested within connections of hyperlink. If an essay is based on an idea located in a previous essay, the current essay will have a hyperlink connection to that previous essay. That way, there would be an interconnected and interrelated web of essays which represents the interconnected and interrelated web of philosophical statements in a philosophical system. With the essay system, we can then finally properly access the philosophical system and apply it for the greater happiness of mankind.

This essay corresponds with the Indonesian version.