Barry-Branches of Philosophical Thought

How do we come to know anything? Do logic and reason have exclusivity? Is it possible to critique another’s experience? These are only a few of the questions which we pondered over for our first meeting at the Hilton Tavern. By perusing through the various fields within philosophy, we discussed issues of epistemology (the study of knowledge, “knowing”, truth), ontology (the study of being, existence, metaphysics, reality), and axiology (the study of meaning, values, morals, ethics, aesthetics). Likewise, we recognized the tendency for bias (the winner of the war writes the history books) and the inability to step outside our humanity. We are stuck in history; and yet nature is not what is real. Nature is a human construct, according to John Batista Vico. Thus there remains a tendency to be stuck inside solipsism—the idea that your reality is the only one which exists and free from the possible existence of others.  History, then, is the story of clearing—making a path to reach truth. But what is truth? Can it ever be reached? Is there a difference between Truth and truth? Is there more than one T/truth? Such questions seem to revolve solely within the realm of the philosopher. However, the unlikely poet also has much to say. While Plato dismissed artists and poets as liars and distorters of truth, a poet’s perspective can be interpreted as truth viewed with, a different lens. Poets and philosophers provide unique, if not conflicting, accounts of the world and its inhabitants. In light of the author, C.S. Lewis can be thought of both as a philosopher as well as a poet—weaving elaborate tales which contain puzzling and challenging questions about the human condition.