seeking after Truth

Edmund Burke is a politically based philosopher with a conservative bent.   He studied society and it’s affect on people.  In the 1700’s people tend think of society and the material ways it benefits (or doesn’t benefit) people involved in it.

Burke thought it was really important to also consider the human element of society and how we personally benefit each other through music, science, art and emotions such as virtue.

Basics of Burke’s Philosophy

Consider that people across the world have a need for creative and emotional expression.  We have moral, material, scientific and artistic needs that we simply can’t meet all on our own.   Therefore we need others to help meet those needs.

“How do we meet those needs?” asks Burke.  We meet them by referring to the customs and traditions of the past whenever we can.   When the past is not enough we, as a society, agree to help each other.   This way all of us can benefit from the efforts we all put in.   This is an agreement we all come to, ergo society is a contract between the world’s peoples.  

Divergent Opinions

Some individuals dispute the claim the Burke was a philosopher.  They consider him for a political theorist rather than a philosopher.  He spent more of his working career in politics so tends to talk via political overtones.  He digs deeper and thinks more broadly so generally is considered a philosopher and not just a political theorist.

Overview of the life of Edmund Burke

An Irishman born in 1729 Edmund Burke grew up concerned about relations between the Irish and the English.  He helped improve British administration in India and opposed the French Revolution. He actively sought to limit the power of British royalty.   His ideas formed the basis for the Conservative Party.  He died in 1797.

Fleshing out His Ideas

Since we are more than animals, society is more than just economic or material advantages.   Society seeks after the common good (our agreements on customs, norms, and values).  As such, society changes over time to reflect not only the past but current thought processes.  Change needs to occur slowly as that’s the natural progression. Fast-moving changes do not benefit society (ergo his opposition to the French revolution).

On the other hand, he was a supporter of the American Revolution as it was a slow change, predicated by the needs of that society.  He urged the British government to strive to understand the colonists and work with them while maintaining their right to receive taxes.

Nuggets of Truth

I have to admit, I struggle with this one a bit.  I see what he is saying (for the most part) and agree that society is more than economic or material gain.  Each philosophy, if not fully founded on the truths of scripture will be at fault. 

My biggest struggle I have with Burke’s idea that society is a contract, is that he doesn’t see society as what it truly should be.  He sees it only as a way for us to get what we want and need.  Yes, he sees it as more than just economic gain but includes the harder to quantify things as well, but his focus is on individual need and how society helps us gain that.

Society is not just a means to gain advances in science or education. It is more than just seeking the common good or a way to express our moral outlook. Being part of society goes beyond our own individual needs. It is a way for people to showcase the glory of God through helping of each other, showing grace to each other, and exemplifying the attributes of who God is, to a struggling world around us.

Society helps us to see our faults, offers correction and encouragement, helps to sharpen our wits and minds, and gives us something to stand for or against. A faith-based society doesn’t help each other only to meet our own individual needs, but to help because it’s what we aught to do. What God calls us to do. We need to remember that.

Now the lad and I were talking about all this at supper and he mentioned this.  I will try to write most of what his thoughts were.  Sorry if I miss anything.  🙂  Society is good and it’s what we need. God has put it in place for us and part of meeting our needs as a society means, as a contract between us, is that as society meets our needs we meet the needs of others.   It might be a forced meeting of needs, but it is still a shared action.  As Christians, we’re more inclined to meet the needs of others because God calls us to do so.  AND we find contentment in doing so because we know we are living as we should. 

So what are your thoughts in this?

My Sources

I mostly used The Philosophy Book to help me understand the theories presented.  I also looked at the following sources:

• Great Thinkers.
• Merion West.
• Encyclopedia Britannica.
• BBC.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• I also used World Book Encyclopedia that is part of the SchoolhouseTeachers.com membership.   They have an excellent sale right now, so check it out!

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Gottfried Leibniz lived in 1646 -1716, he was a rationalist from Germany.  He thought that there were two kinds of truth, the truth of reasoning and the truth of fact. A rationalist claims that knowledge is gained by rational reflecltion alone. 

What made Leibniz unique was that he divided truth into two different paths.  His thinking was that Everything in the world has a distinct notion… this notion contains the truth about that thing, including how that thing connects with everything else.   So you look at the thing and all it’s connections by rationally reflecting on it. That reflection will lead you down two different paths.  Reasoning… this finite fact is final truth.   And Fact … this infinite reasoning can only truly be understood by experience in order to reach a truth.

He explained his thought process in his book Monadology.

He believes that everything in the world is connected by notions, and that each notion is connected to other notions.  To truly understand a thing you need to be able to follow those how those notions connect to each other.  Understanding those connections will lead you to things that are rational truths, and to truths you can’t really understand unless you experience them due to our limited ability to reason our these rational truths.  

Discovering monads

This leads to the discovery of monads which are simple substances isolated from everything else.   Each monad represents completely the hole whole of the universe, and every monad is synched which is how God created everything.  All these individual monads completely synched and individual.   The human mind is a monad and since it holds the universe completely it is possible therefore for us to be able to understand everything completely, but we can’t determine everything in a finite way.  For instance I can’t go to a star and measure it’s surface temperature, so it’s a matter of figuring how to do so!  

There is admittedly some struggle between understanding where the truth of reasoning and the truth of fact separates. As the finiteness of reasoning can bend into the infinite truths of fact (such as the example of the star’s temperature).  We can guess (infinitely so) at what the star’s temperature is, but if we accurately use equipment to do so, it becomes a finite fact of reason.

Leibniz goes on to differentiate between necessary and contingent truths as well.   Math, for instance, is a necessary truth.  1 + 1 will always equal 2.  But saying it’s “raining in Spain”, may or may not be true and even if it were true in some areas it might not be in others. These contingent truths are ones that only God can truly see.   God has eternal truth.  God is the only one who always understand.  “God understands everything through eternal truth, since he does not need experience”

Did he find Truth?

Leibniz saw God differently than people.  He’s spot on with understanding that God is so much more and understands everything already.  He also saw that everything has a spark of knowing all truth. His Monads as containing all truths of the universe…. Such an intriguing notion don’t you think?  

Gottfried Leibniz, philosopher Share on X

My Thoughts

In Romans 1 we are told that everything knows the truth of God

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

When I read of the monads in Leibniz’s ponderings, these verses came to my mind.  If the monads hold the truths of the universe… we can either find them as we seek for truth, or turn our reasoning to alternative explanations.  Our experiences in the world help us to discover more truths.  Dividing them into fact or reasoning seems understandable as there are somethings that are just true … I can’t change the fact that our cat Milo is a tuxedo brown tabby.  I can’t reason out that his colour is anything other than what it is.  I can ponder how genetics came into play, and why his markings turned out as they did.

Free Printable

You can find it here find it here.  Probe into Leibniz further.