You will perhaps wonder that an obscure person, should presume to address you in this manner. But that I, a person who has written and created this with a design to produce something which is of an entirely different perspective. As a patron of the dark network, will not be thought strange by any one that is not altogether unacquainted with the present learning state of the site, and consequently how much potential there is in being a part of such a venture. Yet, nothing could have induced me to make you this present of my poor endeavours, were I not encouraged by that candour and native goodness which is so bright. I might add, that the extraordinary favour and bounty you have been pleased to show towards our community gives me hope in the countenance of the studies which it has to offer.
The time of new beginnings is approaching. I am walking into a mysterious world surrounded by millions of faces with a multitude of ideals, beliefs, perceptions and inspirations - but for me there will be only one constant. That constant is the face and presence of my only loved one. They are my ONLY constant that I shall keep in this forever changing world and we shall face everything together. We face a future of unknowing proportions and we ask ourselves what will the days and months bring us. How will we repond? How will it affect us and our family? Let love carry us forth on our journey as we welcome all who come our way. Deepen our faith within each other to see all life through others eyes. Let us fill our spirits with hope and an abiding trust that dwell deep in us admist all joys and all sorrows. Appreciate the smaller things which are bestowed upon us along the wayside. We are walking through each day with friends and we praise for whatever the future may bring. Today is the beginning of a new day for both of us. My husband, I love you eternally.
As the new times are beginning for all, there will be shifts of focus slightly to balance the discussions of theory and practice, and the writing style is oriented to advanced. This time addresses the contemporary problems of knowledge to develop the basis for a more publicly accountable reaction for an ever-evolving world. The resources we have to behold are of social epistemology which are deployed to provide a positive agenda of research, teaching, and social action designed to bring out the best in both the ancient discipline of rhetoric and the emerging field of understanding, knowledge and compassion.
In so doing, the differences among disciplines must be not always be questioned nor analysised overly for it will deplete the integration of a more sophisticated theoretical approach in the boundaries which we must all cross. Hypothetical bridges must be renegotiated, reassessed and rebuilt in order for every being to be an interdisciplinarian, managing each of the processesional transformation which we must all experience, formulating our theoretical insights, creating new communicative means and actively engaging an intentional gear towards a greater and more democratic participation in the knowledge-making process.
The cause of this is thought to be the obscurity of things, or the natural weakness and imperfection of our understandings. It is said, the faculties we have are few, and those designed by nature for the support and comfort of life, and not to penetrate into the inward essence and constitution of things. Besides, the mind of man being finite, when it treats of things which partake of infinity, it is not to be wondered at if it run into absurdities and contradictions, out of which it is impossible it should ever extricate itself, it being of the nature of infinite not to be comprehended by that which is finite.
But, perhaps, we may be too partial to ourselves in placing the fault originally in our faculties, and not rather in the wrong use we make of them. It is a hard thing to suppose that right deductions from true principles should ever end in consequences which cannot be maintained or made consistent. We should believe that what has been dealt with is more bountifully with the sons of men than to give them a strong desire for that knowledge which he had placed quite out of their reach.
This were not agreeable to the wonted indulgent methods, which, whatever appetites it may have implanted in the creatures, doth usually furnish them with such means as, if rightly made use of, will not fail to satisfy them. Upon the whole, I am inclined to think that the far greater part, if not all, of those difficulties which have hitherto amused philosophers, and blocked up the way to knowledge, are entirely owing to ourselves- that we have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.
My purpose therefore is, to try if I can discover what those principles are which have introduced all that doubtfulness and uncertainty, those absurdities and contradictions, into the several sects of philosophy; insomuch that the wisest men have thought our ignorance incurable, conceiving it to arise from the natural dulness and limitation of our faculties. And surely it is a work well deserving our pains to make a strict inquiry concerning the first principles of human knowledge, to sift and examine them on all sides, especially since there may be some grounds to suspect that those lets and difficulties, which stay and embarrass the mind in its search after truth, do not spring from any darkness and intricacy in the objects, or natural defect in the understanding, so much as from false principles which have been insisted on, and might have been avoided.
But, these being known to be mistakes, a man may with greater ease prevent his being imposed on by words. He that knows he has no other than particular ideas, will not puzzle himself in vain to find out and conceive the abstract idea annexed to any name. And he that knows names do not always stand for ideas will spare himself the labour of looking for ideas where there are none to be had. It were, therefore, to be wished that everyone would use his utmost endeavours to obtain a clear view of the ideas he would consider, separating from them all that dress and incumbrance of words which so much contribute to blind the judgment and divide the attention. In vain do we extend our view into the heavens and pry into the entrails of the earth, in vain do we consult the writings of learned men and trace the dark footsteps of antiquity- we need only draw the curtain of words, to hold the fairest tree of knowledge, whose fruit is excellent, and within the reach of our hand.
Here endeth my words.
