Giles Martin

Manifesto for a Reboot of Philosophy

Sat, 24 May 2025 11:57:44 -0700

What is wanted is a new articulation of spirituality, a new philosophy.

It should not involve belief.

• Belief fails to satisfy millions in our scientific, rational age.

• Belief has no basis in (your) experience.

• Belief sets you apart from those who don’t share your belief. It lays the groundwork for conflict.

To shield it from belief, it should be free from any existing religious or spiritual notions.

It should refer to life, not to individuals, especially historical ones, about which we cannot be certain.

It should address the human condition and provide a sense of life's purpose.

It should put us more in touch with what is beautiful & meaningful in life. It should point a practical way to more peace and love in ourselves and in the world. It should lead us towards more inspiration, more fulfilment, more joy. It should make us feel (more and more) good.

It should apply to every human being equally.

It should be stated plainly and simply and easily understood. It should not require intellectual ideas or a certain level of education.

Love, but not as we know it

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:58:38 -0800

When you’re young and you fall in love, it may feel like a giddy roller coaster of glee, ice-cream, and giggles. Or if you don't like this characterization, refer to the song lyrics of your choice to get the vibe. Young and in love, or even old and in love, you might experience an intense rush of feelings, perhaps delight, joy, aliveness, bliss, ecstasy even. And it’s all drug-free! Love comes highly recommended.

But these feelings don’t last. They can’t. A month later, a year later, or a decade later those emotions won’t be there, at least not consistently. Unfortunately for the humans among us, there’s a decent chance the love will have turned to heartbreak, or hate, or fizzled out lamely.

The couple may (say they) still love each other. What does that mean? They may enjoy each other’s company. They may have interests in common. Perhaps they just feel reassured having someone beside them. But it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot of 'real' love – whatever that is - in these
situations.

Real love is not a feeling. Feelings are transitory. Perhaps that initial rush of love is a feeling, but ongoing sustained love comes from your ‘being’, for want of a better word, not from your feelings. The problem is, most of the time the love that comes from our being is obscured by our accumulated emotional pain, the thoughts that take up so, so (SO!) much of our precious energy and attention, and our ideas and beliefs and opinions. (You may have noticed the proliferation of ideas, information and opinions I referred to the other day has not correlated with more love in the world.) So the Love that is natural to us, the 'True', 'Real' Love, the love that doesn't fade away or turn to hate...Read More

I'm Not Right

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 03:35:21 -0800

I just want to say, for the record, I don’t want you to believe me. As a general rule of thumb, it’s not a good idea to (blindly) trust people who want you to believe them.

Why would anyone want you to believe them? Is it about religion, a theory of God? Is it a great investment opportunity? Is it a political party that needs a donation? Is it a second-hand car salesman?! People who want you to believe them, want something from you. They want money, or a vote, or or some kind of support, etc. They want to get you on side.

But the deeper truth we're increasingly desparate for is not found in the world of taking sides (the world of information and opinions.) If I say, for example, ‘Life can be hard,’ I'm not taking a side. It's not a point of view. It’s personal experience and knowledge. If you disagree, perhaps I'll engage in bemused conversation with you over a nice cup of tea, but ultimately I'll disengage. I'm not going to try to get you to believe me that life can be hard. We don't argue or persuade about what we know. We only argue about opinions.

I don't have an opinion here. I'm just sharing what's true, as I see it. I will not argue for it. I...Read More

Knowledge vs Information

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 14:04:01 -0800

Knowledge today is confused with information. We have mountains of information and scarcely any knowledge. What we desperately need is knowledge.

The printing press and the internet allow us to store what we have learned and pass information down to future generations easily. Information has built the world as it is today. Information allows us to create things in form (information). Information allows us to build things: roads, bridges, buildings, cars, computers. It gives us know-how: knowing how to build or create something (in form.)

Much information comes from science. There is no certainty in science, only (probable) theories. These can be argued about, and they can be disproved, and in time many of them are disproved. The history of science, after all, is the story of us learning new things that eventually make previous humans and theories look dumb. (Yet we foolishly cling to our current theories like preachers clinging to the Bible. I know – the irony!)

A different aspect of information is the information that comes from reporting, say news, or from the internet more generally, or from a friend(-of-a-friend), or your brother-in-law's ex-wife's hairdresser's sister: from people reporting what they saw or think or heard, or sharing what they (think they) know. This too can be argued about, rejected, disputed and disproved.

Making Truth Fashionable

Sun, 03 Nov 2024 09:03:57 -0800

In a way, I’m an outsider. I’m really only interested in Truth. That’s really all I want to talk about, write about. And that could cut me off from a lot of people, because most people don’t really want truth. I mean, truth relates to other things, like sports and music and art, and parenting and love and relationships and communication and important stuff like that too, so it’s not a myopic topic. (Boom! I’m a rapper.) Actually, if I have a foundation of honesty with someone, we can talk about anything. But talking about the usual meaningless day-to-day stuff with someone where we don’t have some kind of foundation in truth is difficult for me.

That foundation can be simple honesty. The usual approach for humans (Western humans, at least) is to promote the part or parts of yourself that you want other people to see, so you can feel better about yourself, and to hide the parts you don’t want people to see. The more you do this, though, the more effort it takes and the more you obscure the real you. So the more hiding you do, the more worn out you are and the less connected you will be to other people (in any kind of meaningful way. And what we’re after here is something meaningful.)

Being authentically connected to others is important. After all, relationships are the most important thing in your life. (Oh yep, other than truth.) So you’re draining yourself of energy, authentic connection, and hence happiness when you do the usual thing of hiding and lying and faking. This one simple switch to being (more) honest opens new possibilities for you in your relationships and hence in your life.

There’s also something interesting about honesty. It has a certain energy, a certain power to it. When you were a child, telling a lie may have felt a bit uncomfortable, and there’s a reason for that: Life loves truth. And a...Read More