My apologies for not posting for so long. At the moment, I am applying to the University of Dundee, Scotland, to study the philosophy of technology for a Ph.D. The teaching of public philosophy is something I will continue to do for the rest of my life, but right now I needed to take that next step. My goal is to expand my work in public philosophy and teach philosophy to college students.

The last time I posted, I presented the first half of a pair that characterizes philosophy as a whole: knowledge versus freedom. Today, I will try to describe freedom to you, which is no easy task.

For survival and to live well, we seek knowledge in order to gain some degree of control over our existence, as I explained in the previous article. To understand freedom, we must also understand the limitations of the mechanisms we use to attempt to obtain it.

It is recommended that you read this article in conjunction with the article on knowledge. In that article, I explained how, when choosing what to focus on, we necessarily prefer certain aspects of our environment over others. We are actually de-emphasizing most of the available information when we try to bring reality into focus.

Space and nothingness are not the definitions of freedom. Rather, it is a vast repository of information that remains unknown to us either because we are unaware of it or because we are paying attention to something else instead.

Freedom is crucial because it represents the nature of truth and, therefore, reality. Our normal patterns of thinking and sensing are challenged by this divergent proposition. When you realize there is room for growth and change, you can change your regular experiences of stress and anxiety.

Goal-oriented behavior can be transformed into a process-oriented focus within that new space. As opposed to feeling pressured to achieve a particular outcome, you rather become aware of the immense detail that characterizes every step you are taking. By its very nature, taking care increases the likelihood of mastery but is more important than achieving excellence. Excellence, however, is a very likely byproduct of this approach.

My Ph.D. work (if admitted) will focus on exploring the potential of this insight.

# # #