1. QUESTION: WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE AUDIENCE? WHAT DO THEY WANT TO HEAR OR HAPPEN?
TO BE ENTERTAINED?
TO BE INFORMED?
TO BE ENCOURAGED?
TO BE SUPPORTED? CONFIRMED? JUSTIFIED?
TO BE STIMULATED?
TO HEAR SOMETHING OLD AND FAMILIAR?
TO HEAR SOMETHING NEW, DISTURBING? SOMETHING YOU WON'T LIKE?
BUT SOMETHING YOU SHOULD HEAR ABOUT AND BE AWARE OF!
2. LANGUAGE IS A LIVING ENTITY
THAT LANGUAGE IS A LIKE A LIVING THING.
LANGUAGES ARE BORN.
LANGUAGES GROW AND DEVELOP.
LANGUAGES ARE DYNAMIC, THEY CHANGE, EVOLVE.
LANGUAGES GIVE BIRTH TO NEW LANGUAGES.
LANGUAGES CREATE, NEW LANGUAGES, NEW WORDS, NEW WORLDS.
LANGUAGES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR "THE NEW ONTOLOGICAL STATE" IN
THE WORLD CALLED "REALITY"
AND LANGUAGES WITHER AND DIE.
LANGUAGES EXIST IN THE WORLD OF REALITY AS A CONCEPTUAL ENTITY
LANGUAGE HAS NO CORRESPONDING BEING IN THE ACTUAL WORLD.
3. LANGUAGE AS A TOOL
THAT SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE IS THE PHILOSOPHER'S TOOL,
IT IS THE INTELLECTUAL TOOL OF UNDERSTANDING.
IT IS THE TOOL BY MEANS OF WHICH WE CREATE OUR UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE WORLD, OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD OF EXPERIENCE AND THE CONCEPTUAL WORLD OF THOUGHT.
IT IS THE MEANS BY WHICH WE LABEL AND ADDRESS OUR CONCEPTUAL PARADIGMS, NAMES
OUR CATEGORIES, CONSTRUCT OUR SCHEMATIC NETWORKS AND OUTLINE, AND KEEP TRACK
OF OUR OWN EXPERIENCE AND RECORDS THE EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS.
THE MEANS BY WHICH HE COMES TO UNDERSTAND, TALK ABOUT, MANIPULATE THE WORLD AND GAIN DOMINION OVER THE EARTH.
3. THERE ARE MANY LANGUAGES:
When we begin to speak, we must first select a language. It is essentially assumed that here in the USA one will begin to address another in the English language. And, in every day life, it is assumed that one will usually and habitually select "ordinary language" or "common language" and speak in "everyday vernacular." But it must always be kept in mind that there are many, many languages which can be selected BY MEANS OF WHICH WILL UNDERSTAND, TALK ABOUT OR COMMUNICATE ABOUT THE WORLD.
And within the Symbolic language system called English, there have developed many sublanguages. For example, we have developed the English sublanguages of Mathemataics, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Medicine, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, Minerology, Astronomy, Virology, Bacteriology, Computer Science, Anthropology, Entomology, Etymology, etc., etc..
We are not used to thinking about the SUBJECTS or the SUBJECT CATEGORIES "as" languages. But recall the term WORDS which leads to WORLDS. Chemistry is a language system and leads to THE WORLD OF CHEMISTRY. Physics is a language system and leads us into the WORLD OF PHYSICS. Economics is a language system which leads us into the world of Economics with its attendant concepts, metaphors, allegories, common words and phrases all of which comprise the world of Economics. And within the world of economics, for example, the concepts, ideas, metaphors and allegories must be consistent. That means they cannot be logically incompatible or conflicting. Some would also insist that the ideas, concepts and metaphors have some corresponding Actuality which serves as the basis of the Reality. In other words, it must have some EMPIRICAL basis in ACTUAL EXPERIENCE, preferrably experiences which can have interpersonal confirmation and agreement.
What has all this to do with "Applied Philosophy?"
As the eye yearns to see, and the ear yearns to hear, so Logos, the intellect, the entity called your PERSON, yearns to UNDERSTAND. And Logos, with its created person, understands through the process of REALIZATION. It understands through realization and the creation of verbal and pictorial concepts. These all have their attendant metaphors, allegories, images and symbolic language.
Theology is philosophy focused on Cosmology, the nature of The Creator and our relationship to It. Religion is the common man's philosophy. Theology is concerned about God and Religion. And Logos or intellect wants to understand the nature of the Greater Power and the nature and specifics of our relationship to It. How and why did we come to be, to be here and now? How are we supposed to behave? What should be our relationship to God, to the Earth, to other living creatures, and to one another, stranger, family or friend? And Logos will have to create its understanding using ITS LANGUAGE, the language of concepts and symbolic languages.
CHRISTIANITY IS A LANGUAGE SYSTEM! Christianity is a world. It is a story with its attendant concepts, metaphors, ideas, and allegories. It is a nice story. It is a powerful story. Some call it the greatest story ever told. Nevertheless, since language is a living, dynamic entity, it is an old story growing older. It is losing its effect. It is having less and less impact on the actual everyday behavior of people who claim even to be Christians and to believe in and adhere to Christian doctrine.
Christianity as a language system is nostalgic. I grew up in a small Italian neighborhood where the ethnic, the cultural, the historical and the religious were so comingled that one without the others cannot be contemplated without destroying the whole. But as we look at the world around us, silently letting our eyes "see" as well as "look," letting our hearts "feel" as well as beat, letting our ears "hear" as well as listen, we would have trouble denying the decreasing impact of these religious teachings on the citizenry and the youth of America, especially in the cities. And Christianity, as a religious language system, no longer conveys truth with the same power and influence it once had.
Once people were burned at the stake for even whispering "certain ideas" or thoughts. Today, we can insult neighbor, God, and country with impunity. Today, what would have gotten you a death sentence and burning at the stake, hardly gets you attention of the person sitting next to you, so weak has the language system of Christianity become. It was a truly great story, but it will not much longer serve mankind as the story by which he models his life and his behavior. The simple truth is that Christianity, as a language system, is dying. This language system of Logos is dying.
Logos is the instrument which LIES behind WORDS and is hidden at the bottom of all wars. Logos is the >nothing= written about by John Paul Sartre in his great book BEING AND NOTHINGNESS. And with words, Logos creates worlds. And with Logos, it creates not the Actual World, but the false world of Reality which lies behind Actuality.
In conclusion, Gentlemen, what we are witnessing are the death throes of an old and in many ways, loved, language system called Christianity. In Christmas dramas it is portrayed nostalgically, as we portray elements of our remembered and cherished past. But its diminishing power as a philosophy and a theology is clear in its failure to conform, mold and alter the behavior of people of today.
This is the painful period, when the old is dying and the new is not yet fully born. Yet it is expected. We are waiting for THE MAN. We are awaiting the coming of the MAN who will use WORDS in a new an unique way. And these new uses of words will create A NEW WORLD, one in and with which we can live. One in and with which we can grow, relate, communicate about. One, by virtue of its concepts, metaphors, allegories, poetry, meaning and story, will carry and convey the truths we seek. It will satisfy our need for an story consistent with our scientific understanding of the world, coherent with other acceptable ideas and beliefs, and correspond to the Actual World we know through EMPIRICAL EXPERIENCE.
We are waiting for the coming of the new messiah, with a new message. And it will be the old message cloaked in new language which is understood by the people of today, a story with the power to convince, convey, give hope, enlightenment and salvation, as the old story did for 2000 years. Jesus has carried us long enough. The next coming is at hand.
Gentlemen, there is nothing new under the sun, except that WE ARE NEW. You and I are new. All this has happened before. All this will happen, like winter follows summer, again, and again, and again, 'till MANKIND no longer resides on the Earth.
A. Iosue
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