Picture a world where people have a common understanding. A place where they can clearly see how other people’s interests affect their own. A world where cooperation and understanding is the only game played. This is what it means for knowledge to evolve. It isn’t based in economics, politics, race or religion. It is about having enough respect for ones self to be motivated for self improvement. What follows self respect and motivation is respect for the reasonable views of others and their accomplishments. This cannot be purchased by social programs and cannot be earned by following certain morals. This self respect starts with a thirst for understanding and knowledge that inspires others they interact with. It isn’t found in a religious or social sect, it is found in the heart of every individual just waiting to be uncovered. Clear understanding will enhance every worthwhile religious or social interaction. This is the motive behind what I write. From this point on, I am after an improved presentation. Next week will be the same. Comments do help and I am branching out.

We all desire to have meaningful conversations. Philosophy is a word we use for pointed conversations about particular subjects. These deep conversations can become hindered due to a number of factors. We withdraw from these conversations when we are afraid of having our trust betrayed or are constantly misunderstood and mocked. It is refreshing to find those who understand the depth of what we have to say and to be able to toss our deepest thoughts and ideas around. Imagine a culture based in this kind of understanding. Knowing the structure of how our thoughts form words and how words have meanings is important so we can better express ourselves and understand others. One resource is Categories by Aristotle. The reason I like Aristotle’s writing is that the focus is more on observed facts. These writings aren’t laden with the cultural influences and biases that we have formed in our society over the years. The biases that happen to be in these ancient writings are obvious and easy to sort out.

When conversing, it takes work to be able to sort out the BS; sorting things that are actual from fantasy and things that are true from false. For objects that exist in reality, we give names. In English they are categorized as nouns. These objects cannot be true or false, They either exist or don’t. There are also other things about then that qualify them as an individual object. Objects cannot share the same space with another object. They cannot have two characteristics at one time such as moving and standing still. You can say that we can take a snapshot of any object and describe the characteristics. This is what being objective means. Time and movement will change characteristics of an object. The easiest characteristic to observe would be location. An individual object will always have characteristics that distinguish it from other objects. We put things that have similar characteristics into groups with general names.

According to Aristotle there are ten categories of distinguishing characteristics that all real objects posses. The substance itself is the first category, the name we give it and the fact it exists. There is quantity such as how long it measures out to be and how much is there. Quality such as color or correct grammar. Relational descriptions such as half or double. A thing has to have a location too so location is another characteristic. Time indications such as today or yesterday tell at what time the observation occurred. In order to distinguish between sitting and standing there has to be a positional description. Clothed, wet, or tired are words that describe the state of an object. To build or perform surgery are actions an object might do. And the last would be the effect such as a person having surgery done or a home that is being built. None of these characteristics are good or bad, true or false in themselves but only after we apply them together with a real object does a person need to start using judgment as to their accuracy.

Well, I need to keep it short according to the rules of blogging. It is not an easy task for me. The next writing will have examples I’m sure you will like.